Parents, take note! Pram covers necessary for babies

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New Delhi: Using pram covers is must for babies as a new research suggest that they can more susceptible to air pollution in the morning and afternoon.

Researchers from the University of Surrey in London found the high levels exposure of babies in prams to fine and ultrafine particulate matter during the morning drop-in hours of school children compared with the afternoon drop-off hours as worst places for infants to be exposed was at bus stops and traffic lights when they are waiting to cross roads.

The new appeared in the journal Environmental Pollution. "These findings provide an insight for families who walk to and from nursery/primary schools with young children.

Essentially, children could be at risk of breathing in some nasty and harmful chemical species such as iron, aluminium and silica that form together the particles of various size ranges," said lead researcher Dr Prashant Kumar.

They carried out a series of experiments using high specification air monitoring equipment located inside a pram to gauge the kind of pollutants and toxic chemicals toddlers are exposed to when accompanying older siblings during the school drop off/pick up peak times.

Primarily, the work of the research group identified that traffic intersections and bus stops emerged as pollution hotspots, with high levels of both coarse (PM2.5-10) and fine (PM2.5) particles.

(With Agency inputs)