One of the most vivid memories is the day I stared at my baby sleeping in the hospital bassinet next to me. She was so tiny and fragile and completely relied on me on everything, nursing, keeping warm and clean. Seems like the only thing she could do on her own was breathing and sleeping. However, even just breathing, one of the only a few essential things that a fragile baby can do, killed nearly HALF A MILLION infants in Africa! Simply because the air was not clean! Considering that the number of infants die each year from war is just 100,000 worldwide according to a report by Save the Children in 2019. Unclean air is enormously more dangerous than guns, weapons and armed violence!
This research conducted household survey to nearly 1 million families on the location and timing of infant births across sub-Saharan Africa and combined it with satellite-based estimate of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. They found 449,000 infant died of air pollution in 30 countries in Africa, equivalent to 22% of total infant deaths in Africa.
Another important implication of this study is that, if their estimates are true, our existing estimates on infant deaths associated with air pollution worldwide could be considerably low. They pointed out that our existing estimates had been derived mostly from wealthy developed countries with the assumption of the same mortality rate worldwide. However, their real survey in Africa reveals 3 times larger mortality than existing estimates for the same countries.
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