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Children's Health

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Children are often at greater risk from inhaled pollutants than adults. They have unique activity patterns and behavior. For example, they crawl and play on the ground, amidst dirt and dust and often put their hands, toys and other items into their mouths, ingesting harmful substances. Compared to adults, children typically spend more time outdoors and are more physically active. Time outdoors coupled with faster breathing during exercise increases children’s relative exposure to air pollution. Relative to body size, children eat, breathe, and drink more than adults, and their natural biological defenses are less developed. The protective barrier surrounding the brain is not fully developed, and children’s nasal passages aren’t as effective at filtering out pollutants. Developing lungs, immune, and metabolic systems are also at risk. Environmental exposures during fetal development, the first few years of life, and puberty have the greatest potential to influence later growth and development.
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Air pollution affects children's health

CARB has funded a number of studies investigating children's health and air pollution exposure.

Research
Photograph of a boy using an asthma inhaler
Asthma & Air Pollution
children getting into school bus
Health in Schools
family biking
Building Healthy Communties

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 How Can We Reduce Children's Exposures?

Schools:

  • Install exhaust particle filters on existing buses.
  • Replace the oldest buses with new buses, either clean alternative-fuel buses such as natural gas or diesel buses with particle filters.
  • Use newer buses on the longer routes.
  • Bus maintenance should include attempts to eliminate visible exhaust.
  • Enforce bus idling restrictions at schools.

Bus Drivers:

  • Keep windows of older buses open, when comfort allows.
  • Encourage children to sit in the front of the bus if the bus is not full.
  • Avoid congested roads, where possible.
  • Avoid directly following other diesel vehicles, where possible.
  • Minimize bus caravanning, or put the newest buses in front.

Indoor

  • Use indoor high efficiency filtration that removes pollution from the air.
  • Schools that participate in the flags program with the color corresponding to the day’s projected AQI follow guidance about the duration and intensity of outdoor activity suitable for students.

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