Clearing the Air – Can Pollution Affect Kid's Grades?

Air pollution is a big killer. Air pollution of all kinds helped kill 4.2 million people globally in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.

It can damage nearly every organ in the body, worsening asthma and leading to cancer and heart disease. It especially affects pregnant women and can damage a growing fetus.

Air pollution also has more insidious effects.

Dr. Álvaro Hofflinger of Arizona State University and colleagues studied school children in a part of Chile where many people still rely on wood-burning stoves. They found the more air pollution children were exposed to, the lower their grades. It’s another piece of evidence that can help parents, policymakers, officials, and health experts make decisions about where to focus their efforts in reducing pollution. 

In this episode of One World, One Health, host Maggie Fox chats with Dr. Hofflinger about what his team found, about the factors that cause this type of pollution, and what people might be able to do about it.

They found it’s not going to be such an easy problem to solve. Wood is cheap or free for many in parts of Chile, and electricity isn’t. Old habits are hard to break. And clean energy is not always an uncomplicated choice for governments.  

Give it a listen and check out some of our other episodes on air pollution and health.

Learn from Dr. Sarah Chambliss about how people of color and in low resource neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by poor health due to pollution.

Find out about the association between air pollution, depression, and pregnancy in our episode with Dr. Jun Wu.