POLLUTION: Million Of Babies At Risk Of Brain Damage

17 million infants worldwide are living in extremely polluted air and are at risk of serious brain damage, according to a UNICEF report published Wednesday.

These children are breathing air that is 6 times more polluted than the World Health Organisation limit - 60μg/m3.

Air pollution has potential to damage a child's brain tissue and impair cognitive development with potential lifelong consequences and can even result in death. Pneumonia alone claims 920,000 children under the age of 5 every year.

"The brains of babies and young children are constructed by a complex interplay of rapid neural connections that begin before birth," said Pia Rebello Britto, the UNICEF chief of early childhood development.

"These neural connections shape a child's optimal thinking, learning, health, memory, linguistic and motor skills."

UNICEF used satellite imagery identify the populations at risk and found 12 million infants in South Asia at greatest risk from extreme pollution.