Globally, more than half of the population, including 1.5 billion children, live in urban areas. An alarming 91% of urban residents breathe polluted air. In 2019, air pollution in Europe was linked to 472 deaths among children and adolescents, with infants under one year old being most affected.
The first 1,000 days of life, from conception to a child’s second birthday, represent a critical window of opportunity to positively influence a child’s future health and neurodevelopment. These challenges and opportunities set the scene for the recent LongITools Science4Policy forum “Bright Beginnings: Understanding the Impact of the Exposome on Early Life”. The policy forum highlighted synergies between the research evidence and the interventions run by local, national and international charities and policymakers.
Initiatives presented include:
⭐ UNICEF UK‘s Child-Friendly Cities and Communities where children have a meaningful say in, and truly benefit from, the local decisions, services and spaces that shape their lives.
⭐ The UK-wide School Streets initiative which Doncaster Council has implemented in their area to improve air pollution near schools.
LongITools presentations were provided by Barbara Heude, Research Director at Inserm, Sylvain Sebert, Professor at the University of Oulu and the LongITools Project Coordinator, and Tessa Roseboom, Professor of Early Development and Health at the University of Amsterdam and Future Generations Commissioner at Amsterdam University Medical Center (AUMC). All outlined the impact social disadvantages can have on health outcomes. The Inserm team’s research has shown that lower maternal education levels are associated with earlier adiposity rebound in the child, a risk factor for obesity and other cardiometabolic disorders in adulthood. Sylvain highlighted that evidence shows that genetic predisposition to obesity tends to increase from one generation to the next and is associated with social adversity.
