Sunday, June 13, 2010

DIE DIE DIE

Report Cites Declining Environment as Major Killer

AAP Newsfeed
May 2, 1998
Nationwide General News
Overseas News
by Vicki Allen

According to a report by the United Nations, World Resources Institute, and World Bank, diseases caused by environmental degradation kill one in five children before age five in sub-Sahara Africa and parts of Asia. Many of the pollutants weaken the immune system and make people more vulnerable to bacteria and viruses.

According to Director for Environment, Robert Watson, of the World Bank, the report shows that human health effects of global warming were already occurring with increases in death from vector and water-borne diseases,

Worldwide, almost one-fourth of all diseases are linked to environmental factors of poor water and sanitation, indoor air pollution and outdoor air pollution, as well as deaths from severe storms, flooding, heat waves, and other weather problems.

and vector and water-borne diseases, 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.

"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 worldwide 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 might 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. Birth defects have been linked to pollutants. In the USA, even the most basic toxicity testing results cannot be found in the public record for nearly 75% of the top-volume chemicals in commercial use. See "Toxic Ignorance".

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.

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