Inches

UPDATE no. 33 December 2002 INCHES

2002-The International Network on Children's Health, Environment and Safety

Dear member of INCHES,

In this update :
New member
News items
Environmental hazards kill 3 million children every year
EPA Plans More Asthma Research
Denmark to Control Phthalates in Older Kids' Toys
Upcoming Conferences
INCHES funding (special request!)

New member:

Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN)

SEHN advocates the wise application of science to protecting the environment and public health. Founded in 1994, SEHN serves as both network and think tank for the environmental movement. SEHN focuses on key issues - including agriculture biotechnology, reproductive and developmental toxins, and the practice of science in the public interest - that represent the interface of science, ethics, and the environment.

· to help environmental organizations use science wisely in their work to protect public health and the environment;
· to provide outlets and support for scientists to engage in public interest research and public service;
· to insure that public policy is informed by science that is grounded in ethics and logic.

Contact person: Carolyn Raffensperger RAFFENSPERGERC@cs.com ;
Website: www.sehn.org/index.html

Sun and Sandals are registered members of the tourism governing bodies in South Africa.
They specialise in pro poor tourism. Their profile is sustainable tourism into South Africa by political groups, students, researchers, and those who wish to experience democracy in action in South Africa.

Contact person: MARLENE MARTIN sunsand@pixie.co.za ;
Website: www.sunandsandals.com

Section Youth of the European Public Health Association

The aim of the Section, therefore, is to bring together the actors in influencing health in its broadest sense, especially those that work with the younger age groups - (youth) welfare workers, psychologists, educational scientists, (youth) health care professionals, but also paediatricians, psychiatrists and the like. Together they should increase the knowledge base on effective ways to positively influence health using collective approaches and irrespective of 'finding place', thus expressly including those youngsters that dropped out, skipped education, already have jobs or are otherwise not to be reached via institutions for primary, secondary or tertiary education. Furthermore, an effort will be made to standardise survey techniques throughout Europe in order to be able to compare and monitor the health status of the young in the various countries and measure possible health improvement due to preventive interventions embedded in the international comparative studies to be started.

Contact person: P.A. Wiegersma, president Section Youth EUPHA p.a.wiegersma@med.rug.nl
Website: http://www.eupha.org/

Association of healthy cities of Slovakia

Association of the Healthy Cities of Slovakia is voluntary, interest and non-profit organisation of selfgovernments in Slovakia whose aim is the support of the citizen's health.

Contact person: Dr. Gejza LEGEN azms@changenet.sk
Website : www.changenet.sk/azms

NEWS

Environmental hazards kill 3 million children every year

By Ajit Patowary in ASSAM TRIBUNE

Though the overall rate of child mortality declined significantly in the world in the 1990s, environmental hazards still kill at least three million children under five years of age every year, said the Population Reference Bureau's (PRB) policy brief on children's environmental health, authored by Liz Creel, referring to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)? Children in the New Millennium. Children worldwide require special protection from long standing risks such as smoke from traditional fuels and from emerging risks such as exposure to an increasing number of hazardous chemicals, the policy brief said. The policy brief, part of PRB's Emerging Policy Issues in Population, Health an Environment series, has explored children's special vulnerability, outlined the risks and the conditions that increase such risks and also highlighted what has been done to address the problem.

It observed that though new regulatory standards and greater awareness of children's vulnerability to such hazards had improved, children's situation in a number of more developed countries, and specially in less developed countries, continued to be exposed to toxins. Their vulnerability is aggravated by the lack of protective policies and medical and public health interventions. Short-term curative response can save some lives, but addressing underlying risk factors is needed for a long-term change. For the purpose, efforts to measure children's environmental health risks, develop policies and programmes to mitigate such exposures worldwide and strong efforts to address the problem at all levels are needed, it said.

On the vulnerability of children, it said that perinatal conditions, which could be influenced by environmental conditions, caused 20 per cent of deaths worldwide in children under age five. Further, fetal exposure to chemicals such as lead increases a child's chances of having brain damage or developmental problems, it maintained. Children under age five breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food per unit of body weight than adults do, so they may experience higher rates of exposure to pathogens and pollutants, it reasoned. Children between five and eighteen years of age may face higher risks of injuries, including exposure to hazardous chemicals, due to their growing participation in the household chores and work outside their homes, the policy brief stated. Many schoolchildren attend schools, which do not have sanitation facilities, making them vulnerable to various diseases.

According to UNICEF, about 10 per cent of school-age African girls either do not attend school during menstruation or drop out at attaining puberty because of the lack of sanitary facilities, the policy brief said. It has listed indoor air pollution, outdoor air pollution, unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, infectious disease vectors and exposure to hazardous chemicals as the major perils for children. Elaborating, it said that half of world's households use biomass fuels, including wood, animal dung or crop residues that produce particulates, carbon monoxide and other indoor pollutants. Young children, who spend more time indoors, are more exposed to the noxious byproducts of cooking and heating.

In India, where 80 per cent of households use biomass fuel, estimates show that nearly 5,00,000 women and children under age five die every year from indoor pollution, largely from acute respiratory infections (ARIs), it said, quoting World Bank's Indoor Air Pollution Newsletter: Energy and Health for the Poor, No 2 (December 2000). Studies in less developed countries have linked indoor air pollution to lung cancer, still births, low birth weight, heart ailments and chronic respiratory diseases, including asthma, the policy brief said.

However, it said that data suggested that over 60 per cent of the diseases associated with respiratory infections are linked to exposure to air pollution. Outdoor pollutants such as sulfurdioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds come mainly from motor vehicle exhaust, power plant emissions, open burning of solid waste and construction and related activities. Contaminated water and inadequate satiation cause a range of diseases, many of which are life threatening. The most deadly are diarrhoeal diseases, 80 per cent to 90 per cent of which result from environmental factors. About 18 per cent of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water and nearly 40 per cent have no access to sanitation, the policy brief said.

The prevalence of malaria is closely associated with environmental factors such as irrigation and other agricultural practices, land clearing and changing demographic patterns. Higher temperatures, heavier rainfall and other changes in climate, as well as deforestation, increase the risk of malaria and related epidemics. In many countries, it says, children are exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 352 million children between 5 years to 17 years of age engage in 'economic activity'. Of them, about 50 per cent work in hazardous occupations or situations, which likely to have adverse effects on the health, safety or moral development of the children.

The ILO has classified mining, construction, manufacturing, retail, personal service, transportation, agriculture and any work where a child works more than 43 hours per week, as being hazardous, it said. The policy brief laid much emphasis on focusing on the new threats emanating from increased industrialisation, urbanisation and commercialisation of agriculture, besides making more endeavours to prevent the illness related to environment. http://www.assamtribune.com/oct3002/at06.html

EPA Plans More Asthma Research

Environmental pollutants that contribute to asthma are the targets of a new research plan issued Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Administrator Whitman said the number of asthma problems in the United States, particularly among children, is alarming, requiring better research into factors like genetic susceptibility, health and socio-economic status, lifestyle and activity patterns. "This is the important next step that I think will get us to the point where we can begin to control the number of children that have asthma," Whitman said of EPA's new asthma research strategy. "Reducing the number of children who suffer from asthma is one of our top health priorities."

Asthma has become the most common long-term childhood disease, affecting 4.8 million children each year; nearly one in 13 school-age children now has it, according to EPA. "That truly does start to reach epidemic proportions," Whitman said, though she added that "it's hard to call something that's not contagious an epidemic." Nationally, some 26 million adults and children annually suffer from asthma, she said. EPA's new strategy also calls for more immediate research into how asthma is induced and worsens, what makes some more susceptible to it than others and what are the biggest risks for people who might get it. John Kirkwood, president of the American Lung Association, said his group supports EPA's approach. "I have long believed that environment plays a very major part in triggering asthma attacks," he said.

On the Net: Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asthma

Denmark to Control Phthalates in Older Kids' Toys

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, November 5, 2002 (ENS)

Danish retailers and toy importers have been given one year to suggest how phthalate plasticizers could be removed from toys for children aged three to six. Announced Monday by Environment Minister Hans Christian Schmidt, the initiative is thought to be the first in Europe aimed at items for children over three.

Schmidt's action keeps Denmark at the forefront of European moves to restrict the use of phthalates, which can leach into children's saliva if toys are sucked. Phthalates are a family of chemical compounds that have been developed in the last century. About 80 percent of all the phthalates manufactured today are used to make plastics flexible without sacrificing strength or durability, says the Phthalate Information Center, an industry group. Animal studies have shown that phthalates can damage the liver, the kidneys, the lungs and the reproductive system, especially the developing testes.

In Western Europe about one million metric tons of phthalates are produced each year, of which some 900,000 metric tons are used to plasticize polyvinyl chloride, according to the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates which represents 12 companies involved in the production of plasticizers.

An emergency EU-wide ban in force since 1999 covers only PVC toys designed to be mouthed by under-threes. Some governments have unilaterally imposed tougher controls, but only extending to toys for under-threes but not designed to be mouthed.

Denmark introduced wide ranging controls on phthalates in children's toys in 1999, including a general ban on their use in all articles aimed at under-threes. At the time the Danish environmental protection agency (EPA) promised to keep a "watching brief" on possible risks to older children.

Monday's announcement also includes a one year delay for one element of the 1999 prohibition of phthalates in baby toys. A ban on bathing equipment for under-threes due to take effect on January 1, 2003 is being postponed until January 1, 2004 due to lack of immediate alternatives.

Industry has been slow to develop alternatives because few countries have introduced bans going wider than items designed to be sucked or chewed, an EPA official told reporters. But Danish importers and retailers have promised solutions within one year, she added. For inflatable equipment alternatives could involve substituting phthalates with other plasticizers or substituting the equipment itself with non-inflatable foam materials.

CONFERENCES

The Eighth Annual Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Conference

11-13 December

Clearwater Beach, Florida Information: Children's Environmental Health Network, 110 Maryland Ave NE #511, Washington, DC 20002 USA, 202-543-4033, fax: 202-543-8797, e-mail: cehn@cehn.org,
Internet: http://www.cehn.org

INCHES funding
Did you locate a possible sponsor? Do you know a private sponsor? Can we mail some information on INCHES to one of your friends? Any donations (or suggestions of possible donors) are welcome at bank account nr.: 526292490 ABN AMRO (swiftcode ABNANL 2A), Dieren, Netherlands.

We are trying to raise a couple of thousand Euros/Dollars to produce a CD-ROM with a lot of relevant data. On such a CD-ROM we would like to copy relevant background material like official declarations, books like the WHO reference book, educational material, etc. If your organisation can spare some money for this project we could acknowledge your contribution.

Last updated January 20, 2003

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