联合国儿童基金会最新报告指出，世界上每七个孩子中就有一个暴露于世界卫生组织标准6倍以上的空气污染中。这项报告是联合国在马拉喀什举行气候变化大会一周前公布的。
联合国儿童基金会执行长安东尼·雷克说：“空气污染是造成全世界约60万五岁以下儿童死亡的主要原因之一。它每天都在威胁着数百人的生命和未来。”
全球约20亿儿童生活在室外空气污染超过世卫组织最低空气质量标准的环境中，其中6亿生活在南亚，5亿两千万在非洲，4亿5千万在东亚和太平洋地区。
联合国儿童基金会说，孩子们更容易受到室内或室外空气污染的侵害因为他们的肺部，大脑和免疫系统还在发育。
联合国儿童基金会说，参加气候变化会议的国家要采取“四个紧急步骤”，保护儿童不受空气污染损害。这些步骤是：
1 采取措施减少空气污染；
2 增加儿童就医机会；
3 减少儿童对污染的接触；
4 建立更好的空气污染监测。
联合国儿童基金会执行长安东尼·雷克说：“我们保护空气质量也就是保护儿童。这两者对我们的未来都非常重要。”
One in seven of the world's children is exposed to pollution levels six or more times higher than international standards set by the World Health Organization, according to a new report by UNICEF. The report was released a week ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Marrakech.
"Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000 children under five every year," says UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, "and it threatens the lives and futures of millions more every day."
Some two billion children live in regions where outdoor air pollution exceeds WHO's minimum air quality guidelines, with 620 million of those children living in South Asia, followed by 520 million children in Africa, and 450 million children in the East Asia and Pacific region.
UNICEF says young children are particularly susceptible to indoor and outdoor air pollution because their lungs, brains and immune systems are still developing and their respiratory tracts are more permeable.
UNICEF says it will ask the countries attending the climate change conference to take "four urgent steps" to protect children from air pollution. Those steps are:
1. adopt measures to reduce pollution;
2. increase children's access to healthcare;
3. minimize children's exposure to pollution; and
4. establish better monitoring of air pollution.
Lake said "We protect our children when we protect the quality of our air. Both are central to our future."
