Mongolia's children badly choke in toxic pollution

The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for more than a decade that successive governments have failed to dispel

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As she watched her five-month-old son lying in intensive care, wires and tubes crisscrossing his tiny body, Uyanga cursed her hometown Ulaanbaatar and its chronic pollution.The toxic smog that settles over the Mongolian capital every winter has been a suffocating problem for more than a decade that successive governments have failed to dispel. There are wisps of hope in a resurgent grassroots movement and a promised official push to action. But the statistics are grim. Respiratory illness cases have risen steadily, with pneumonia the second leading cause of death for children under five. Uyanga's son was admitted to hospital with pneumonia, then developed a secondary infection in a ward crowded with children suffering the effects of some of the world's worst air.

"I was so scared when he was admitted to intensive care," said Uyanga, who, like many Mongolians, goes by one name. "I love my city and I want to continue to live here. But considering the health of my children, on that night, I cursed being born in Ulaanbaatar." In the depths of winter, the city's daily average of PM 2.5 — small particulate that can enter the lungs and bloodstream — can be 27 times higher than the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. Young children are particularly vulnerable, breathing faster than adults and taking in more air relative to their size. All three of Uyanga's children were hospitalised with respiratory illnesses before they were a year old, with her youngest admitted two winters in a row. Most of her friends have had similar experiences. It "has become part of our daily lives, or like social norms”, she said.