Impact of pollution on children
Environmental pollution has a direct impact on adults' and children's health, yet most related research has generally exploited the adult model to address pollution control and develop health policies. The EU-funded project VERHI Children is taking a different approach. It is identifying pollution's effects by examining differences across age, latency and risk categories with a much stronger focus on the younger generation. Indeed, experts have been very concerned that the information used to create policies in the past has not been accurate due to the focus on adults. This has resulted in inappropriate policies that do not work in favour of children, prompting a need for an overhaul of how pollution-related policies are formulated and what they're based on. The project has provided new methodological support to assessing environment-related health impacts with respect to children and has helped develop policies, regulatory standards and risk assessments. VERHI Children also provided support to policymakers for comparing policies vis-a-vis both groups based on value of a statistical life (VSL). Beyond the study on values to help measure the impact of pollution, the project has prepared comprehensive reviews of relevant methodologies and developed surveys that will assist in this area. By providing guidance on anti-pollution policies that consider the often frailer health of children, the project will enhance well-being for this alarmingly overlooked segment of society.
