Climate change, environmental pollution, plastic pollution. All three of these phenomena can be solved by reducing “to the point of suspending the use of fossil fuels, because these are the cause of all” these problems. “What we ask politicians, realizing that it is a demanding request, is to guide all policies, putting the health of the most vulnerable at the centre, who are above all children and pregnant women. Children in particular because they are exposed from from conception, throughout the course of pregnancy and then throughout their life. Due to particulate matter and the climate crisis, the risk of preterm births and low-weight children with a greater risk of lung and brain problems increases.” This was said by Laura Reali, family pediatrician from Rome, of the Italian Association of Doctors for the Environment (Isde) and president of the European Society of Paediatricians and Primary Care, participating in the event promoted today by Isde Italia, on the occasion of the 23 .th edition of the Italian Environmental Medical Days, at the Office of the European Parliament in Italy in Rome.
“Putting policies to resolve” this situation “would be a solution that would create much fewer problems for women and children who will then have their entire lives conditioned by this type of exposure – explains Reali – Putting their health at the center means promoting green mobility, improve the efficiency of all buildings, schools and hospitals, so that it is done carefully, with renewable energy and not with fossil fuels. Reduce vehicular traffic and encourage traffic with bicycles and on foot and have public transport with electricity”. We also need “policies, this is an important point – underlines the expert – which favor a green diet and mobility for everyone, because these are co-benefits that are cheap but highly effective. Having urban green areas that are accessible low temperature, where children and families can go, makes them healthier, happier and, if they eat more vegetables and less proteins at home, this is good for them and good for the planet”. This applies in particular to “the most disadvantaged, the poorest, migrants or economically disadvantaged, because they are the ones who also have the least chance of knowing how to protect themselves from the effects of the climate”.
Heat waves, in addition to being the cause of millions of deaths, Reali illustrates, favor “cases of diseases transmitted by vectors such as mosquitoes of the Aedes series” which have moved to Italy ‘transporting’ “diseases such as Chikungunya, Dengue, Lyme disease, of which cases are increasing and of which we now have a stable surveillance system due to the heat”, there is “the prolongation of the flowering pollen seasons, therefore the possibility of breathing them more long and, for allergy sufferers, to have asthma and allergies for longer. The heat, then – lists the expert Isde – exacerbates not only the flowering, but also the spread of pollen in the air, because winds and dust increase. , and the particulate matter adds to all this, favoring distribution.”
Globally, asthma has increased by 400% in childhood in the last 10 years. “In Italy, pediatric data are much more difficult to collect – observes the pediatrician – because they are collected in separate ‘boxes’: adolescents, newborns, children, so doing the sum is not simple, but hospital admissions for this problem have absolutely increased exponentially and the current bites have also become truly disastrous for children.” And again, “the waters, due to the increase in temperatures – he adds – are richer both in algae, which in part can be toxic, irritating, stinging and which favor sneezes” and asthma, and in bacteria sewage origin, which grow faster with higher temperatures and increase both skin, eye and ear infections”.
Added to this are “problems with access to food” due to “poverty which, in Italy, is growing. The poorest and least well-off families – continues Reali – have less access to safe food because climate change increases periods of drought and they focus on food that costs less, which unfortunately is also the least healthy food. I’m talking about preserved or ultra-processed or otherwise industrial foods. This favors poor nutrition in children and is not good for their growth , too much heat – he concludes – favors the opportunity to stay at home, therefore a sedentary lifestyle, but the sedentary lifestyle is not good for the future of children because it increases the risk of degenerative diseases such as obesity, diabetes”.
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