Benefits and Co-benefits to Children’s Health of Mitigating Climate Change

Abstract

S19: Climate Change and Child Health: Current Research, Future Opportunities, and Gaps in Knowledge, Room 417, Floor 4, August 28, 2019, 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Fossil fuel combustion by-products are affecting children’s health and future and contributing to growing inequality. The emissions include toxic air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) -- as well as carbon dioxide (CO2), the major human-produced greenhouse gas. The developing fetus and young child are disproportionately affected because of their immature defense mechanisms and rapid development, especially those in low income populations where poverty and lack of resources compound the effects. Impacts include impairment of cognitive and behavioral development, respiratory illness, and other chronic diseases—all of which may be “seeded” in utero and affect health and functioning immediately and over the life course. Synergies between air pollution and climate change magnify the harm to children. Policies to mitigate climate change by reducing fossil fuel emissions have had sizeable estimated health and economic co-benefits. However, in most such assessments only a few adverse outcomes in children have been considered, resulting in an undercounting of the benefits to this vulnerable population. Expansion of programs to assess health and economic impacts of mitigation policies, such as the US Environmental Protection Agency BenMAP, to include preterm birth (PTB), low birthweight (LBW), autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), IQ reduction, and the development of childhood asthma, will provide a fuller picture of the co-benefits of climate change mitigation. Endpoints having a “causal or likely” relationship (PTB, LBW, autism, asthma development) with the pollutants can be incorporated into primary analyses; endpoints having a “suggestive” causal relationship with the pollutants (IQ reduction, ADHD) can be included in secondary analyses. A case study of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the Northeastern US will illustrate the potential of such expanded assessments of the benefits of climate mitigation policies to inform and incentivize further policies to address climate change.