Recently, the Us "Time Magazine" Person of the Year award, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk brought their one-year-old son named X A-12 to the stage to receive the award.
Image source/TMZ
On the podium, the father of six children once again advised all mankind to have more children: "There are not enough people on the earth now, if we do not have more children, human civilization will collapse..."
Well, everybody understands the truth. But why not to be born or not to have more children is really forced by life. For office workers, it is difficult to find a partner, it is difficult to get married, it is difficult to have one child, it is more difficult to have a second child, it is even more difficult to have a third child...
I'm tired of working, where is the time and energy to do other things?
What's more, now the food, clothing, and housing of babies are full of learning, and it is really not simple to raise children well.
And excellent parents, but also to know how to "see the weather, recognize pollution", and take appropriate response methods in a timely manner.
Because the damage of air pollution to the human body can be said to be pervasive, especially for children with low resistance.
Every baby starts to experience air pollution tests and screenings from the mother's belly. After birth, air pollution will continue to accompany children to grow up, and if they are not careful, they will even have a negative impact on their health for life.
Let's take a look!
Before birth
Escaped second-hand smoke, can not escape the air pollution
Smoking is harmful, especially for babies in the belly: premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects, sudden infant death syndrome... These are all related to smoking. However, fortunately, under the concept of scientific pregnancy preparation, the fathers' conscious smoking cessation and the introduction of indoor smoking ban regulations in public places around the world have been introduced, and the threat of second-hand smoke to the baby is much less.
Instead, a major threat is air pollution, which has been shown to increase the risk of miscarriage in the first trimester.
Presiding over this important study is Professor Zhang Liqiang from Beijing Normal University and his team.
They found clinical records of nearly 2.56 million pregnant women in Beijing between 2007 and 2017, which recorded the level of maternal education, occupation, residence and work unit, and the time of last menstruation.
Then, based on data from the air monitoring station closest to the pregnant woman, the level of exposure to air pollutants (PM2.5 particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide) was calculated for each pregnant woman.
Eventually, it was found that there is a relationship between air pollution and miscarriage as follows:
The higher the exposure concentrations of PM2.5 particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, ozone and carbon monoxide, the greater the risk of miscarriage in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Under the same concentration of air pollution, pregnant women over the age of 39, female farmers and blue-collar workers are at greater risk of abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The air quality is a little better, and the child weighs a little more
Pollution is really harmful, but the baby's resistance should not be underestimated. Many times, pregnant mothers breathe good air for a period of time, which can bring better growth to their children.
There was an interesting study that explored the impact of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on babies born. It was found that a brief improvement in air quality during the Olympics was helpful for the baby's weight.
Image source/pixabay
Babies who experienced "Olympic Blue" in the 8th month of pregnancy gained an average weight of 23 grams compared to babies born in the same period in 2007 and 2009.
It can be seen that a short-term improvement in air quality can also bring tangible benefits to the baby.
After birth
Across China, 13% of newborns die from air pollution
After birth, the challenges of the environment continue. According to UNICEF, 17 million babies around the world breathe toxic air each year.
Compared with adults, polluted air will be more harmful to infants and young children. Because infants and young children are in the growth and development stage, air pollution causes harm to their developmental stage, thus affecting lifelong health.
Exposure to air pollution increases a newborn's risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and birth defects, and can even lead to neonatal death.
In 2020, 13% of neonatal deaths in China were directly linked to air pollution.
图源/Red Nose Grief and Loss 数据来源/State of Global Air 2020 China
It is easier to be exposed to air pollution in schools
By the time your baby is old enough to go to school, the effects of air pollution are still there. In 2018, a UNICEF report noted that children are more likely to be exposed to higher levels of air pollution in schools, especially in playgrounds and on the way to school, with peak levels of pollution exposure.
△ 24-hour pollution exposure level statistics Image source/UNICEF
On average, 60 per cent of the time children spend at home 24 hours a day, and only about 30 per cent of their time is spent in school, but pollution exposure levels in schools are disproportionately high and the level of exposure at home is the lowest.
But at present, on the mainland, although in the case of a red alert response to heavily polluted weather, most schools in most areas will be closed in accordance with regulations;
When the warning becomes orange or yellow, the school lacks a unified implementation standard for whether to reduce or stop outdoor physical education classes.
For example, in the past two months, Chengdu and Jinan have issued orange warnings of air pollution, and kindergartens, primary and secondary school students in the two places have stopped outdoor physical education classes and implemented indoor activities instead.
But in Kaifeng City, also under the orange warning, the response is to reduce students' outdoor activities.
But in fact, air pollution far harms children far more than adults because:
1. Children breathe more than adults, so they tend to inhale more air, and harmful gases also enter the child's body between breaths;
2. Children are short, and pollution tends to be more concentrated near the ground;
3. Children are too lighter than adults, so these harmful gases will account for a higher proportion of their bodies, which will cause greater harm;
4. In addition, children spend more time outdoors than adults, so if the outdoor air quality is not good, they will also inhale more harmful gases.
It is based on this that our attitude towards polluted weather allowing children to be outdoors should be cautious.
Exposure in childhood, affecting lifelong effects
Will smoking smog from an early age affect the child's physique? What are the implications for a child's lifelong health?
In February 2021, scientists from Stanford University published a new article in the journal Nature that air pollution puts children at higher risk of disease in adulthood.
From 2015 to 2016, scientists recruited eligible Hispanic children ages 6-8 in the Fresno School District, California. Fresno is one of the cities with the highest levels of air pollution in the United States due to highly industrialized agriculture, wildfires, and other reasons.
Aerial view of Fresno Image source/Vadim Manuylov/Wikimedia Commons
The scientists obtained detailed demographic and health questionnaires and blood samples about the children. Changes in air pollutant exposure levels and physical indicators in each child are regularly monitored.
When the numbers of air pollution are combined with the children's blood pressure readings and blood samples, the results are very worrying:
Exposure of children to PM2.5 particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and ozone has been linked to increased DNA methylation, monocytes, and white blood cells. These changes can make children susceptible to heart disease and other diseases as adults.
Image source/Pixabay
Mary Prunicki, lead author of the study, said in an interview: "Even brief air pollution exposure can actually alter the regulation and expression of genes in children and may alter blood pressure, which may increase the risk of developing the disease as they grow up. ”
How to protect your child
So, in ordinary life, how to protect children? The World Health Organization (WHO) has also given indoor and outdoor protection recommendations, and doing a good job of them can effectively reduce the harm of air pollution to children and families.
Indoors, minimize the manufacture and aggregation of harmful gases, such as: do not smoke, do not light candles, do not use air fresheners, and maintain good ventilation when cooking.
Usually, please use clean energy for cooking, heating and lighting, such as electricity, natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, biogas or solar energy are all good choices. In the absence of clean energy, it is best to use stoves and processed solid fuels that reduce emissions.
Outdoors, minimize your child's exposure to car exhaust, such as:
Avoid densely trafficked roads when walking with children, and try to walk quiet streets with fewer vehicles;
If you see a seriously polluted car driving, please avoid it in advance;
When traveling with infants and young children, try to hold the child as far as possible where there are many cars, so as to avoid the height of the child and the height of the car's exhaust emissions, so as to breathe more exhaust.
As for the question of how children can exercise safely on smog days, the answer is actually two points:
First, enrich the content of children's indoor activities.
Martial arts, tai chi, skipping rope, shuttlecocks, sandbags, indoor bench exercises, freehand exercises, instrumental exercises, yoga, dance, stretching, dumbbells are all well exercised in indoor venues.
Second, when the weather is bad, reduce the amount of outdoor exercise and avoid children running fast outdoors.
Parents can develop the habit of paying attention to the quality of the weather, if the weather is slightly polluted, you can minimize the child's violent running and jumping outdoors, the child's exercise speed can be maintained at 70%-80% of the usual, and the exercise distance can be reduced by half or one-third.
Children are vulnerable to air pollution, but that doesn't mean we're powerless.
For pregnant mothers and children, avoid creating more pollutants at home, and do a good job of avoidance and protection when going out, you can better protect your breathing.