Air Quality and Children’s Health: The Role of Increasing Transport-Related and Thermal Air Pollution

Abstract

We performed a literature review on the associations between quality with special emphasis on increasing transport and thermal air pollution. Motor vehicles and coal boilers are the main anthropogenic sources of emissions of pollutants into the air. Attempts to reduce their content in the air currently do not bring the desired result, the exhaust of internal combustion engines and combustion products of solid fuel remain the main polluting factors. Air quality in residential areas is influenced by climatic and natural peculiarities of the regions (weather, terrain, etc.). Respiratory diseases, including acute respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer are significantly associated with air pollution in adults. A child's body is highly sensitive to the environmental factors which allows us to consider children's health as an indicator of the state of the environmental pooluiton. The deterioration of the ecological state of the air environment in Gorno-Altaisk (Altay region of Russia) is associated with increasing transport load, solid fuel stationary sources, and transport of pollutants from neighboring regions. Air pollution in the region needs to be monitored and addressed. This requires zoning of residential areas according to the degree of air pollution and analysis of the health of children as the most vulnerable part of the population, taking into account the environmental situation.

Health-related quality of life assessment when implementing ecology programs

“…For the formation of integral indicators of life quality significance criteria of quantitative and qualitative characteristics (on a 100-point scale) were defined, allowing to distribute urban residents, taking into account the severity, duration and frequency of exposure to adverse factors of living conditions and habitat [15,17]. On the basis of clinical-statistical and medical-sociological analysis the prevalence of chronic diseases and specific clinical symptoms was studied among the surveyed urban residents with their classification by health groups [2]. The revealed information importance criteria were used to evaluate the severity of the impact of risk factors on the integral indicator of health-related quality of life [5,19].…”

Ecological Aspects of Children Health in Astrakhan Region: Review

“…В последние годы техногенное воздействие достигло таких масштабов, что, по мнению ряда авторов, может представлять реальную угрозу здоровью людей, а возможно, и самому существованию человека. Разрушительное влияние человека на природу породило экопатогенный риск для здоровья самих людей, так как измененная внешняя среда оказывает негативное воздействие на организм человека [5,6,7,8]. Особенно чувствительными к неблагоприятным факторам окружающей среды являются дети, которые являются своего рода «лакмусовой бумагой» такого влияния.…”