Impact of air pollution on child health outcomes in urban India

Abstract

Quality of air and its consequences for health have been studied for long enough for a well-established literature to emerge. This literature investigates the air-quality-health relationship in developed and developing economies in terms of short-term and long-term health effects as well for those residing in rural and urban areas. In these studies, air quality measurement tends to vary - some studies directly measure air pollution from monitoring stations or satellites, and others use various proxies such as business activity for ambient pollution or type of cooking stoves for indoor pollution. However, there remain important gaps; for example, much of the literature in developing economies focuses on indoor air quality in rural households where air pollution is measured through proxies such as the type of cooking stove or bio-fuel used during cooking. Smith (2000) suggests that acute respiratory infections associated with indoor air pollution were the single largest cause of death among children under five. Findings from such studies, however, do not generalize to urban areas in developing countries where the nature of exposure to air pollution is different.