Objective To study the adverse effects of air pollution on children's health. Methods Based on statistical data on monthly outpatient visits of Shanxi Provincial Children Hospital, the monitoring data on air pollution and meteorological factors during 1995～1997 in Taiyuan, a correlation analysis on the levels of air pollutants and monthly children outpatient visits was carried out. Results The monthly means of both TSP and SO2 were over the National Air Quality Standard of grade Ⅱ. The level of TSP in air was 1.77 times as high as the national standard. The children outpatient visits to department of internal medicine made up the largest proportion in the hospital (60.72%). Canonical correlation analysis revealed that the levels of SO2 in air gave a greatest contribution (?=0.9901), air temperature did less than air humidity, and the levels of air pollutants did more than meteorological factors to children health damage. Compared with different departments in hospital, the outpatients of department of internal medicine provided the largest share in the total outpatients visits (?=2.2793), then did the emergence department of internal medicine (?=1.9201). Conclusion The more close correlation of air pollution and the children outpatient visits was mainly observed between the levels of SO2 and the outpatient visits to the departments of emergency and internal medicine. The air pollution in Taiyuan had caused adverse effects on children's health to a certain extent.