Whenever air pollution is discussed, the talk is almost always about the adults who suffer. But children are involved as well. If anything, children, starting from infancy, are hit harder than their parents. They are more susceptible to the harmful effects of air pollution because children breathe more air per pound of body weight, so their exposure to air pollution is much greater than adults. Children’s organs, including their lungs, develop until they reach their late teens, usually around the age of 18. Developing organs are sensitive to the toxic effects of air pollutants and environmental toxins, and children absorb pollutants more readily than adults and retain them in the body for longer periods of time.

A recent UNICEF report has only verified what scientists have known for a long time. Today, the report concludes, almost 17 million infants worldwide are breathing toxic air, potentially affecting their brain development. Two-thirds of the affected infants - over 12 million - live in South Asia and are exposed to pollution six times higher than recommended limits.

Despite the numbers in South Asia, air pollution is a worldwide problem. Pollution occurs in the air, so it travels and spreads, and because we breathe in air, it cannot be avoided. The results: a quarter of all deaths in children younger than five are caused by exposure to an unhealthy environment. Nearly a third of years lost due to ill health, disability, or early death as a result of pollution-related disease occur in children under 10 years old.

And since air pollution can seep into every young lung, it knows no boundaries. Children rich and poor are in the same boat. The difference is that wealthy countries have the economic influence to demand that their cities and corporations operate in an environmentally accountable manner, in response to accurate monitoring of their emissions.

Unfortunately, some are choosing to do the opposite. As more and more of the world urbanizes, and without adequate protection and pollution reduction measures, UNICEF said, more children will be at risk in the years to come. Rather than fueling global pollution, rich countries should be pioneering the struggle against it.

Still, though children in high-income settings are at risk from air pollution, lead poisoning, or toxic chemical exposure from poor urban planning, the burden weighs most heavily on a country’s poorest children. Schools, for example, that are situated in economically deprived areas are considered most at risk of air pollution.

In all cases, governments must be willing to monitor their country’s damaging emissions and be held accountable for their effect on citizens.

Every person big and small has a right to health, and leaders must engage with civil society to strive for environmental equality across the socioeconomic spectrum. Particular protection must be afforded to children because air pollution is one of the biggest threats to child health globally. Violence, extreme neglect and lack of nutritious food in the earliest years of life are the factors that come to mind when naming what inhibits children’s brain development. But to the list should be added the air children breathe. It is not a stretch to say there is no greater threat to the wellbeing of children and future generations than that from environmental change. When a child’s cognitive development is impaired, it affects not only individual lives but whole families, communities and economies.

Children are destined to lead their early lives according to the decisions made by adults. The lucky ones live under governments who prioritize their needs and strive to protect them from harm, but even they are vulnerable to the effects of decisions made by those in positions of power.

Since exposure to air pollutants is largely beyond the control of individuals, it requires action by public authorities at the national, regional and international levels.