ENN Daily News, Monday, May 4, 1998, Email Edition
DECLINING ENVIRONMENT CITED AS MAJOR KILLER
Diseases caused by environmental degradation kill one in five
children before age five in the poorest areas of the world,
international health experts said Friday.
Worldwide, almost one-fourth of disease was linked to
environmental factors of poor water and sanitation, indoor and
outdoor air pollution, and vector-borne diseases, according to a
report by the United Nations, the World Bank and the World
Resources Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
Vector-borne diseases are spread by insects and rodents.
Malaria, diarrhea, cholera, pesticide poisoning, and respiratory
infections from air pollution contributed to 11 million childhood
deaths a year, the report said.
The report identified the world's poorest areas as much
of sub-Sahara Africa and parts of Asia.
"This report amasses credible, convincing evidence that
environmental deterioration is not a marginal, but a major cause"
of human disease and death, Gus Speth, administrator of the U.N.
Development Program, said at a news briefing.
While Speth said the report's information on the link between
the environment and human health "is not dramatically new,
it is the extent, the pervasiveness, the scope that is shocking."
The report found the following:
-- Almost 4 million children
die each year from acute respiratory infections linked to
indoor pollution from smoky cooking fires and other sources,
and from outdoor air pollution.
-- 1 million to 3 million people,
mostly children, die from malaria, a mosquito-borne disease
linked to environmental conditions.
-- 2.5 million children die
from diarrheal disease linked to bad drinking water and other
environmental conditions.
-- As many as 3.5 million to 5 million
people in developing countries each year suffer acute pesticide
poisoning from lack of protection during application, and
millions more are exposed to dangerous levels of the toxic
chemicals.
With the growing gap between the world's rich and poor,
the report found a widening "health gap" in which preventable
diseases were concentrated among society's poorest.
In rapidly industrializing countries, it said the poor may
face a dual threat from a lack of adequate sanitation, housing
and food, as well as new threats of toxic chemicals and
fumes from industries and transportation.
The poor would also suffer disproportionately from effects
of global warming, caused by the accumulation of gases in
the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, which have so
far come mostly from richer countries, the health experts
said.
The report showed that human health effects of global warming
were already occurring with increases in deaths from vector-
and water-borne diseases, as well as deaths from more severe
storms, flooding, heat waves and other weather maladies,
said Robert Watson, the World Bank's director for environment.
"This report shows the social and economic costs of not
protecting the environment are much greater than the costs of
protecting it," Watson said.
Source: Reuters
-------------------------
COMING SOON TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU!
http://dieoff.com/page1.htm
