Report Cites Declining Environment as Major Killer
5/1/98
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Title: Report Cites Declining Environment as Major Killer
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 5/1/98
Byline: Vicki Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.