Around two million people in China are dying every year due to the air pollution.

Emission of greenhouse gases, mercury and other harmful elements are causing premature deaths in China.

Different studies highlight how air pollution in China is killing kids and babies.

Air pollution continues to increase at an alarming rate in China, thus affecting economic conditions and quality of life of people, World Health Organisation (WHO) notes.

Fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less (PM2.5) is a very harmful pollutant. China ranks fourth in the world when it comes to PM2.5 related deaths.

 Its concentration in China reached between 50- 60 micrograms per cubic metre in last decade, as against the recommended global level of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.

A motely team of researchers from China found that around 30.8 million people in China suffered premature deaths between 2000 and 2016 due to air pollution.

WHO found the concentration of PM2.5 in China was four times higher than the global health body’s recommendations in 2018.5

 Lawyer named Ms. Zhang is concerned about her son, who is sick due to air pollution.

“I hope in the future we’ll move to a foreign country.Otherwise we’ll choke to death,” she said.

Fine and micro particles in polluted air inhaled by Chinese people reach deep in the lungs and cardiovascular system.

This is leading to various diseases such as lung cancer, heart attack, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections.

After studying 200 Chinese hospitals, researchers at the Shanghai-based Fudan University concluded that Chinese people were at higher risk of arrhythmias –irregular or abnormal heartbeats.

Arrhythmias puts people at risk of heart diseases and sudden cardiac. According to a study by New Peking University, whopping 64,000 babies in China die every year due to air pollution.

Zhu Tong, a leading author of the study, said China was working hard to improve air quality.

 “However, a great  population and uneven social development mean there are still a big number of pregnant women exposed to air pollution,” he said.

The concerns about severe air pollution also urges Chinese parents to think about giving birth to children, thanks to higher expenditure to reduce adverse effects of air pollution on children’s health.

 “Increased pollution during industrialisation may negatively affect people’s incentives to reproduce,” concludes a study by think tank Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).

The rapid urbanisation, industrialisation, and higher energy consumption owing to development activities led to a surge in air pollution.

In 1970s, industrial cities in China witnessed black smoke in the skies, while in 1980s many cities in the southern China suffered from acid rains.

Post-1990s, the manufacturing-loaded development caused the intensity of air pollution to aggravate. Pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and photochemical smog dominate the atmosphere now.

China is the largest consumer of energy as well as the biggest carbon emitter in the world. It also ranks the top in the production and consumption of coal.

The use of coal for power generation has increased by 400 per cent in the past three decades as coal still dominates its energy sector—for over 60 per cent of total electricity generation.

China has expressed commitment to switch to clean sources of energy. However, it has not refused to give up coal in order to have stable supply of electricity.

Rather it has enhanced coal burning for energy production in recent years.

Emissions from coal-fired plants are proving worse than what Chinese people had expected earlier. Besides direct health problems, air pollution is causing farm productivity in China to decrease.

Air pollution has a negative impact on plant growth as the pollutants inhibit photosynthesis.

This can hurt China’s rural livelihoods and food security in the long term.

Unicef made an appeal to the Beijing government to take steps to curb hazardous air pollution to protect children from breathing toxic air.