- The profound and damaging impact of Europe's environment
on children has been quantified for the first time by experts who have
found that a third of their ill-health and 100,000 deaths a year are caused
by air pollution, unsafe water, lead and injuries.
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- The UK and the rest of western Europe score better than
the EU accession countries such as Ukraine and Belarus on indoor and outdoor
air pollution, water and sanitation, but traffic accidents still take a
big toll of our children, while lead in our water pipes, our housepaint
and our soil is causing mild mental retardation in some, the World Health
Organisation says.
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- The WHO study on the environmental burden of disease,
published in today's Lancet medical journal, reveals that more than 13,000
children die of injuries in western Europe - predominantly in road traffic
accidents - which is a third of all deaths under 19.
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- Lead, the experts say, "is still the single most
important chemical toxicant for children and is probably the best-known
example of a neurotoxicant to which children are particularly vulnerable".
Exposure in the first few years of life can cause lasting neurological
problems, such as learning disabilities, attention difficulties, language
disorders and anaemia.
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- In a recent study of children in the UK with learning
disabilities, 10-15% had higher lead levels in their blood than the recommended
maximum, said Giorgio Tamburlini of the Institute of Child Health in Trieste,
one of the authors, at a briefing yesterday.
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- The experts looked at non-accidental as well as accidental
injury and found that among the under 14s across the whole of Europe, 9.2%
of deaths from injury were self-inflicted, rising to 22.4% of the 15-19
age group. But there is a stark difference between regions.
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- Suicide rates among teenagers were three to four times
higher in the Nordic countries said Dr Tamburlini, and were also three
times greater among boys than girls.
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- Across Europe outdoor pollution causes nearly 14,000
deaths of children under four each year through chest infections, asthma,
low birth weight and impaired lung function.
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- Indoor air pollution from coal and wood fires is a problem
in poorer countries like Turkey and the central Asian republics, where
children are kept indoors during cold winters, with wood or coal fires.
The report estimates that 10,000 under-fours die every year of pneumonia
as a result.
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- Two million Europeans do not have access to clean water,
exposing their children to a high risk of diarrhoeal diseases, which kill
more than 13,000 under 14s each year in the region.
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- "Although the report carries some ominous warnings,
it also opens the door to a healthier future for Europe's children,"
said Marc Danzon, WHO regional director for Europe. The data will be tabled
at the ministerial conference on environment and health taking place in
Budapest at the end of June, allowing policy makers to take action to protect
children's health.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/waste/story/0,12188,1241651,00.html
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