Asia is paying a heavy price for rapid economic development: severe air pollution and children becoming the primary victims. A doctor from Thailand claims that the number of pediatric patients suffering from asthma and respiratory issues has increased by 3 to 4 times compared to previous years.
At the Makati Medical Center in Manila, Philippines, Dr. Miguel Celdran, who has 45 years of experience, reports that nearly 90% of his pediatric patients have respiratory illnesses. His youngest patient is a two-and-a-half-month-old boy. “Twenty years ago, it was rare to see bronchial asthma in children under one year old,” he emphasized.
Similar examples are not hard to find across Asian countries. Lakeside Hospital in Bangalore, India, has reported that about half of the 9,000 pediatric patients admitted there suffer from asthma or other respiratory diseases. Meanwhile, a survey in Delhi of 20,000 students found that one in eight children has asthma. Children in urban areas of China are also breathing toxic air equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes daily.
In Bandung, Indonesia, a study of 62 students revealed that nearly half had dangerously high levels of lead in their blood due to inhaling air polluted by motorcycle emissions. Notably, there are differences between the respiratory systems and body weights of children and adults; thus, while both groups inhale the same polluted air, children are at a significantly higher health risk than adults.
Currently, there are numerous government and private initiatives in Asia aimed at reducing pollution levels, one of which includes promoting non-coal cooking stoves. However, health experts believe that children will continue to breathe polluted air unless governments enforce strict regulations on industrial and vehicle emissions.
Dr. Anthony Hedley from the University of Hong Kong states that since 1990, just a few months after local authorities significantly reduced sulfur levels in vehicle fuel, the lung function of students has markedly improved. Dr. Hedley warns of an impending “dark age,” stating: “If drastic measures are not taken, children in Asia will lose about 5 years of life expectancy or even more.”
