By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Apr 6 2003 (IPS)

The world has failed to understand some of the worst threats to children’s health: environmental factors, especially in developing countries, but this ignorance can be remedied by simple strategies says the World Health Organisation (WHO).

As children grow and develop they are uniquely vulnerable to environmental hazards, but minors worldwide must be treated like "the future guardians of our planet," says the WHO in an appeal to mobilise global action on World Health Day, celebrated Monday, Apr 7.

Health experts have shown that all children are exposed to environmental hazards that can cause irreparable harm and which are the origin of much of the disease and mortality among minors around the globe.

More than five million children under age 14 die each year "from illnesses and other conditions caused by the environments in which they live, learn and play," according to the United Nations health agency.

"These deaths can be prevented. We know what to do. Strategies have been developed to combat these threats to children’s health," says WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland, who is heading the World Health Day activities taking place Monday in New Delhi.

As much as a third of the global disease burden is caused by environmental factors. In the case of children, these are the surroundings in places that should be safest: home, school and community.

Furthermore, "Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards because they are constantly growing, and consume more food, air and water than adults do in proportion to their weight," explains the WHO.

This contributes to the fact that children under five, a group that represents just 10 percent of the global population, bear 40 percent of the environment-related disease burden.

Among the diseases linked to environmental conditions, Brundtland cited diarrhoea, malaria – "as well as other vector-borne diseases" -, acute respiratory infection and unintentional injuries or accidents.

When humanitarian reasoning alone proves insufficient, the WHO turns to more prosaic arguments to demonstrate that failure to take action against these threats has caused irreparable harm.

For example, the overall gross domestic product of Africa "would probably be about 100 billion dollars higher if malaria had been tackled successfully 30 years ago," calculates the UN agency.

And despite China’s exceptional figures related to economic growth, the enormous country likely could have expanded its production 7.7 percent more if it had confronted environmental problems that contribute to ill health.

The WHO says that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lower respiratory tract infections, two conditions linked to air pollution, can be blamed for 1.9 million deaths annually among all age groups, or more than 21 percent of all deaths in China.

But wealthy nations have also ignored the environmental question. Exposure to toxic substances can cost industrialised countries 300 billion dollars annually.

In the United States, the financial burden of childhood illness stemming from environmental factors reaches 55 billion dollars a year.

In the meantime, entire generations of children in developing countries have been exposed to "certain basic risks existing in the environment," notes the WHO.

Among these threats, says the agency, are "unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, indoor air pollution, insufficient food hygiene, poor housing and inadequate waste disposal."

And there are newer, "modern" dangers arising from the industrialisation process worldwide, such as "the unsafe use of dangerous chemicals, the inadequate disposal of toxic waste and other environmental hazards, noise and industrial pollution."

The WHO in particular points to what can be unsafe chemicals in toys and in household products that may also pose a threat to children.

The most recent generation of potential threats to human health include climate change, ozone layer depletion, contamination by "persistent organic pollutants", chemical substances and other agents, and emerging diseases.

It is in this scenario that the lives of children from poor countries are lived, frequently in unhealthy settlements amidst overcrowding, in far-flung rural areas, or in miserable urban neighbourhoods, where access to basic services like water and sanitation, electricity and health care is lacking.

In this context, "the burden of disease from environment-related causes is great and falls disproportionately on children," says WHO chief Brundtland.

But she adds a note of optimism, assuring that these diseases, and the deaths they cause, can indeed be prevented.

The WHO has launched the Healthy Environments for Children Initiative, which seeks to involve groups from around the world – local, national, inter-governmental, non-governmental, educational, and private sector – to create a global movement.

This alliance will confront environmental challenges, promote prevention and will intervene "to make sure that our children grow up safe, healthy and happy."

"They will then be best able to become the future guardians of our planet," says the WHO.

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