This month’s article “Exposure to Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Risk in Young Children – a Pilot Project” reports novel findings that young children exposed to low levels of air pollution have early indicators of vascular damage. These results add to our understanding of the wide-ranging health effects of air pollution exposure and serve as a reminder that children are highly vulnerable to environmental exposures. All children deserve healthy environments that promote their physical and mental development, but the consequences of climate change threaten this right. Extreme weather, heat, wildfires, flooding, infectious disease, and other climate change effects have wide-ranging impact on human health with children likely to bear the highest burden of disease due to climate change. The pediatric research community should meet the urgent need for solutions to this crisis by engaging in research that identifies effective strategies to address the health effects caused by current and future climate change to protect the health of children and future generations.
- Patrick H. Ryan
- Nicholas Newman
- Ashwini Lakshmanan
