Environmental Health: Impact on Children

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Environmental Health Impact on Children

• By Aditi Tiwari
• Jan Ding
• Jennie Maria Verdecia

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Climate change and children

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2e75_sYvOOU

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Children are more at risk
Why?

• They are more susceptible to toxins due to
• 1) Take in more food, water, and air
• 2) Carcinogens relative to body weight
• 3) Infants higher exposure of substances
• i.e. through breast milk
• 4) Higher dose of toxins, greater gene
• damage

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• 5) Less efficient detoxification and repair
• systems
• 6) Higher rate of cell proliferation in
• developmental stages
• 7) Increased absorption and retention

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Office of Childrens Health Protection (OCHP)

• Established May 1997 in U.S.
• Goal Protect childrens health from
  environmental threats
• Since fall of 1996, the EPA has followed a
  seven-step National Agency to Protect Childrens
  Health from Environmental Threats

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National Agenda Instructs Agency to

• 1) Ensure all standards set by EPA are protective
  of heightened risks faced by children
• 2) Develop scientific research strategies to
  focus on gaps in knowledge for child-specific
  susceptibility and exposure
• 3) Develop new, comprehensive policies to address
  cumulative and simultaneous exposures faced

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Seven-step agenda continued

• 4) Expand community rights-to-know, allowing
  families to make informed choices
• 5) Encourage parental responsibility for
  protecting children from threats by providing
  with basic info
• 6) Encourage and expand educational efforts with
  health care providers and environmental
  professionals
• 7)Provide necessary funding to address childrens
  health as top priority among relative health risks

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Diagram showing how children are exposed
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Global Facts

• About 18 of worlds people do not have access to
  safe drinking water
• In large cities of developing countries, the
  percentage of un-accounted for water is 40
• Diarrheal diseases claim nearly 2 million
  childrens lives each year
• Air pollution is at a crisis point in many major
  cities with over one billion urban residents who
  breathe unhealthy air
• Climate change is altering weather patterns and
  disturbing life-supporting natural systems and
  processes
• Unsustainable management of chemicals and
  hazardous wastes is exacting a heavy toll on
  human health

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Traditional environmental threats to
health

• Contaminated water
• Poor sanitation
• Indoor smoke pollution
• Disease vectors via mosquitoes
• Deficient food hygiene
• Unsafe waste disposal
• These are usually associated with poverty and
  social exclusion

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More modern environmental
health hazards

• Air, water, soil pollution
• Unsafe use of chemicals-or chemical dumping
• Inadequate solid and hazardous waste management
• Climate change
• Ozone layer depletion and acid rain due to fossil
  fuels

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Top killers for children under 5
Source United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF),
Progress since the World Summit for Children A
Statistical Review, page 3, UNICEF, New York,
September 2001.
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Asthma

• Is an inflammation of the air passages.
• Is a major public health concern.Health
  officials estimate that over six million children
  suffer from asthma.
• Asthma continues to impact children, from 1980 to
  1996 its prevalence has increased by an average
  of 4.3 per year, from 3.6 to 6.2.
• Usually affecting inner city children.
• Though there is no cure there are preventive
  measures.

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Environmental Factors

• Outdoor air pollution can worsen existing asthma.
  
• Outdoor pollutants known to trigger asthma
  attacks include ozone, particulate matter,
  nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.
• Roaches and Rodents.
• Damp indoor spaces.

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Neurodevelopment Disorders

• Such as ADHD, (attention deficit disorders.)
• Chemicals such as lead, mercury, and pesticides
  can lead to neurodevelopment disorders, such as
  ADHD.
• Lead and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure as
  precursors of ADHD in children.

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ADHD

• There isnt any preventive treatment as of yet
  for ADHD.
• During pregnancy women can avoid alcohol, drugs,
  and smoking and that alone can help prevent a
  child from developing behavior similar to ADHD as
  well as many other health problems.

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Again, who are effected?
Source http//www.mailonsunday.co.uk/home/mosliv
e/article-1033832/The-Dirty-Secret-Your-NHS.html
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e-wasteland in Lagos
Source http//www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere
nder.fcgi?artid1440802
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Things to remember..

• Worldwide, 13 million deaths could be prevented
  every year by making our environments healthier.
• In children under the age of five, one third of
  all disease is caused by the environmental
  factors such as unsafe water and air pollution.
• A childs well-being is highly dependent on both
  the quality and the availability of water.
• Children are among the most vulnerable to the
  health aspects of crises.

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Things to remember

• Better environmental management could prevent 40
  of deaths from malaria, 41 of deaths from lower
  respiratory infections, and 94 of deaths from
  diarrhoeal disease three of the world's biggest
  childhood killers.
• In developed countries, healthier environments
  could significantly reduce the incidence of
  cancers, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, lower
  respiratory infections and musculoskeletal
  diseases.

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Things we can do..

• Help children breathe easier
• Protect children from lead poisoning
• Keep pesticides and other toxic chemicals away
  from children
• Protect children from carbon monoxide (CO)
  poisoning
• Protect children from contaminated fish and
  polluted water

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Things we can do..

• Safeguard children from high levels of radon
• Protect children from too much sun
• Keep children and mercury apart
• Promote healthier communities

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References

• WHO - Childs Health http//www.who.it/childheal
  thenv
• http//who.int/features/factfiles/environmental_he
  alth/environmental_health_facts/en/index9.html
• Children in the New Millennium
• http//www.unep.org/ceh/main01.html
• http//yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/t
  ips.htm

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Any questions? Thank you!!