ENVIRONMENT: Environmental Degradation Poses Health Threat

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Danielle Knight

WASHINGTON, May 3 1998 (IPS) - Environmental factors are causing unprecedented numbers of preventable illnesses and premature deaths worldwideparticularly in developing countriesdespite vast improvements in medical science, according to a new report.

“Millions of preventable deaths, and millions more cases of illness, appear to be either directly caused or worsened by environmental contamination and degradation,” says the report – prepared jointly by the Washington-based World Resources Institute, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank.

Environmental factors – including chemical pollutants in the air and water and environmental conditions linked to infectious diseases, such as diarrhea, malaria or cholera – cause about 25 percent of death and disease worldwide, the report reveals. The burden of most of these preventable, environmentally-related illnesses are borne disproportionately by the poor living in both developing and developing countries.

One-fifth of the world’s populations considered the “poorest poor” who live on less than one dollar a day are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases and degrade local environments. Many environmental health problems are associated with poverty and lack of clean water, food, shelter, fuel and air. Inadequate access to clean water and sanitation and inadequate garbage collection and disposal causes millions of infectious diseases and deaths in developing countries each year – mostly in Africa and Asia.

Children are especially vulnerable to environmentally related disease and illness, says the report. In the poorest regions of the world, one in five children (or 11 million children) will not live to see their fifth birthday – mostly because of environmentally related illness.

Almost four million children die each year of acute respiratory infections – linked with indoor air pollution from smoky cooking fuel – and outdoor industrial air pollution. And about three million children die each year from diarrhea, related to inadequate water and sanitation. Children also suffer from brain and kidney damage from exposure to leaded paint and to lead emitted into the air by gasoline.

In rapidly developing countries, such as China and Brazil, people face both inadequate water and sanitation and the emerging health threats from industrial pollution. In China, for example, much of the limited ground water is contaminated by both human wastes and industrial pollutants, according to government reports.

Although risks may be most severe in developing countries, they have by no means disappeared in industrialised countries, such as those in North America and Europe. Industrial pollutants released into the air and water play a role in causing chronic diseases, like cancer and heart disease, which are major killers in the developed countries, says the report.

Within developed countries – the poor suffer far worse health than do the wealthy. Although the United States ranks as one of the healthiest countries in the world, infants born in parts of the Mississippi Delta region or the inner cities of Washington D.C., where the poverty rate is high, have life expectancies similar to those in such developing countries as Namibia, Lesotho, or India.

Besides lacking adequate food, clothing and health care, the poor also suffer more health problems due to the likelihood of living in degraded and polluted environments. Asthma and tuberculosis, for instance, are increasing among lower-income and minority populations. Similarly, poor minority children bear much higher burdens of lead toxicity than children from wealthier communities.

The report looks at several trends that are changing the physical environment – the intensification of agriculture, industrialisation, and rising energy use – that have the potential to influence human health.

An estimated five million pesticide poisonings occur each year in developing countries because of efforts to intensify agricultural production. Forest clearance for agricultural purposes has led to increases in infectious diseases and air pollution. During the forest fires in Southeast Asia in 1997, air pollution sometimes exceed the levels believed to have occurred during the London smog, which killed some 4,000 people during the the winter of 1952-53.

Clearing forest for agriculture in Southeast Asia and Africa has also lead to increases of certain infectious diseases, including malaria and leishmaniasis, says the report. When trees are cut, new habitats and depressions where water can collect lead to breeding grounds for mosquitoes, ticks and other insects that carry disease.

Industrialisation, besides increasing exposure to toxic pollutants emitted into the air and water, is also responsible for ozone layer depletion, which increases the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and immune system damage.

Similarly, rising use of fossil fuels contribute to both air pollution and global climate change. Greenhouse emissions – created by the burning of coal, gas, and oil – are believed by most atmospheric scientists to result in the warming of the Earth’s surface and changes in the global climate.

Increases in heatwaves, floods, and storms could dramatically affect peoples health world wide, says the report. Climate change will also likely raise the already considerable toll of infectious diseases worldwide. The increase in rainfall and temperature in regions normally untouched by such diseases could provide breeding havens for mosquitoes, flies and other insects carrying malaria, dengue fever, and schistosomiasis.

Because many of these environmental conditions are avoidable, health problems can be prevented through environmental management, the report stresses. “Even though we have made major medical breakthroughs in new drugs and vaccines, we have been overlooking preventive strategies that can improve health,” says Leslie Roberts, editor of the report.

“Rapid industrial and commercial growth has resulted in environmental degradation and increased threats to human health, yet many actions can be taken that are practical, sensible and cost-effective – but are not being done.”

The report suggests that non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments, corporations, communities and international agencies work to expand access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education and encourage the switch to cleaner more efficient technologies. Governments also need to improve monitoring and tightening of air and water quality standards.

Reducing the use of harmful chemicals in agriculture and industry, stopping the trade in banned chemicals, and removing lead from gasoline are other suggestions. When the United States, for example, phased out lead from gasoline, blood lead levels dropped dramatically and are now below the safety standard.

The report also stresses that governments need to stop subsidising the use of fossil fuels so that cleaner energy sources, including wind and solar have a better chance of competing in the market place.