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More than 90 percent of the world's children — 1.8 billion — are breathing toxic air daily, a report from the World Health Organization says.

The report, "Air Pollution and Child Health: Prescribing Clean Air," was released Monday in advance of the WHO's first ever Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, where part of the discussion will focus on how countries can cut air pollution.

In 2016, the WHO report said, 600,000 children under the age of 15 died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air. Air pollution accounts for almost one in 10 deaths in children under 5.

The WHO report was released the same day as a study from the European Environment Agency found that air pollution caused more than half a million premature deaths across Europe in 2015 — mostly from tiny airborne particles known as PM2.5, the Associated Press reported. Still, the report said, that number is about half the level it was in 1990 thanks to improvements in air quality.

(VIDEO: Air Pollution Sends 33 Million to ER Every Year, Study Says)

The WHO report, which examined the role of air pollution outside — ambient pollution — and household pollution inside, found polluted air is putting children's health and development at serious risk.

“Polluted air is poisoning millions of children and ruining their lives,” Tedros Adhanom, director general of the health organization, said in a news release. “This is inexcusable. Every child should be able to breathe clean air so they can grow and fulfill their full potential.”

While air pollution affects everyone, the report says, children are especially vulnerable — and those in what are considered middle- and lower-income countries are most at risk. Here are some of the reasons:

• Before a child is born, her mother's exposure to pollutants can affect the fetus in ways that could lead to problems later in life.
• Newborns and infants in lower-income countries are exposed to household pollution from cooking and heating fires that often use wood or coal.
• Children breathe faster than adults, spend more time outside and live closer to the ground where pollutants congregate.
• Their developing lungs and other organs are vulnerable to damage now and into adulthood when latent diseases could emerge.

(MORE: Abandoned Canadian Island, Graves Being Consumed by Impacts of Climate Change)

Tedros wrote in an opinion column for the Guardian: "Air pollution is a silent public health emergency. This is a defining moment and we must scale up action to urgently respond to this challenge."

Overall, Tedros said, air pollution accounts for 7 million deaths a year. That's more than tobacco kills annually. Tedros said the world has turned the corner on tobacco and called air pollution the "new tobacco."

The report detailed the effects of air pollution on children's health. Among them: low birth weight, cognitive and behavioral problems, greater risk of pneumonia and other respiratory infections, asthma, ear infections and a greater risk of leukemia.

Maria Neira, WHO director of public health and the environment, said, “Air pollution is stunting our children’s brains, (and) affecting their health in more ways than we suspected. But there are many straightforward ways to reduce emissions of dangerous pollutants.”

She went on to say WHO is supporting measures such as "accelerating the switch to clean cooking and heating fuels and technologies, promoting the use of cleaner transport, energy-efficient housing and urban planning.

"We are preparing the ground for low-emission power generation, cleaner, safer industrial technologies, and better municipal waste management,” she added.