4 Million Children Die Each Year from Enviro-Hazards
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 08. 1.07
Environmental hazards are killing four million children every year. The World Health Organisation claims that problems such as polluted air and water are causing poisonings, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea diseases and malaria due to thriving mosquito populations in dirty water.
Up to 30% of disease in children can be attributed to environmental factors. "This is something that intuitively we have always recognized, but we never put a number to it," said WHO expert, Jenny Pronczuk.
Children don't even have to come into contact with harmful chemicals during their life for them to have an impact on their health. Any exposure that the mother recieves whilst pregnant can also be passed on, and the effects of that exposure may only emerge in adolescence. Pronczuk said, "For example if you look at lead exposure, the effect will be different if the child was exposed in utero because the lead of the mother goes into the bones of the child."
The fact that this article talks about the effects on children obviously makes for a more emotionally affecting story than previous figures from the WHO, and the vastness of the number affected is hard to comprehend. It’s important though, that the WHO look into these issues, because we could be walking into huge medical problems in the future. Our generation may be the first in history that becomes less healthy than the previous. The negative effects of our environment have increased faster than medical science. ::Celsias
Singapore's Biodiversity Could Provide Potential Cures
|
Clean My Ride: Celebs Pimping Ethanol & Acting Badly
|
Somebody misquoted somebody, it's "at least 3 million" under the age of five, not 4 million children (without age limits that are probably higher than 5 in most people's eyes). See
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/924157237X_eng.pdf
PDF page 36 or labeled page 14, Section 2.4 of report.
I don't mean to sound insensitive, by the way. It's still a staggering number, but in reading it for myself, I found the error. The 4 million number is found on page 34 (labeled page 12 section 2.3), and refers to global burden of disease that is not all tied to environmental factors, and talks about 4 million not surviving the first month of birth.
In effect, the numbers are "almost" additive of 4 million not surviving 1st month and 3 million first five years due to environmental factors!
who frickin cares. people die every day and the bleeding hearts don't give a shit on most days except those that are published. People die, get the frick over it and go talk to our mommy about it. whiny fricks. What about the millions of homeless here in the states? I don't cae either but I don't pretend to like the BS bleeding hearts.
The main enemy of the earth is Man.
The less Of us there are the better off the earth will be.
Quit saving the weak and fat. Less Is More!!!