The Effects of Fine Particulate Air Pollution on Child Growth and Health in India

Abstract

Ambient air pollution is known to have negative effects on children, and fine particulate levels are very high in India. By linking satellite-derived pollution data with demographic survey data on children under 5, I estimate the marginal effect of lifetime PM2.5 exposure on weight, height, and recent coughing. An additional 1 μg/m^3 of pollution in the local area is associated with a 0.0011 standard deviation decrease in height-for-age. This estimate implies measurable effects, on the scale of millimeters, on child height for a modest (on the order of 10 μg/m^3 per year) reduction in pollution exposure. There is also tentative evidence that children exposed to very high levels of pollution are affected even more severely by a marginal increase in pollution than those who live in areas with less ambient air pollution. These effects only take place at very high levels of pollution—it is observed for children in the top 10% of average pollution exposure in India.