What happens when children live in unhealthy environments?

Healthy environments for children: facts and figures

World Health Organization Fact sheet N272 April 2003
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs272/en/print.shtmll

Over five million children per year die from illnesses and other conditions caused by the environments in which they live, learn and play.

Around two million children under five die every year from acute respiratory infections, the largest killer of young children. These infections are aggravated by environmental hazards such as indoor air pollution.

The second most common cause of child deaths is diarrhea, estimated to be responsible for 12 % of the child deaths under five years of age in developing countries - and a total of 1.3 million deaths each year. Diarrhea may result from a variety of different causes. It is frequently a result of the child consuming pathogens or toxins from dirty hands or through contaminated water or food.

Malaria kills approximately one million children per year, many of them under five and most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. [ Once again, the controversy over the use of DDT has been addressed in regional, national and global forums. TS ] Dengue hemorrhagic fever kills an estimated 10,000 children per year, while Japanese encephalitis kills an estimated 8,000 children per year (90% of whom are under five).

The most common, and most serious, vector borne diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes that breed in water close to, or within, the home.

About 50,000 children, aged 0-14 years old, die every year as a result of unintentional poisoning. In developing countries, substances associated with poisoning include pesticides, carbon monoxide (released from faulty stoves), or kerosene used as household fuel. In the USA poisoning is the fifth leading cause of accidental death in children under six years of age, principally from ingestion of drugs, antidepressants, analgesics, and household products such as drain cleaners. Within the European Union poisoning accounts for two per cent of all injury deaths in children.

The leading causes of death from unintentional injury among children are road traffic injuries (21% of such for this age group) and drowning (19%). The vast majority of unintentional injuries among children occur in low and middle-income countries: children in the African, South-East Asian and Western Pacific regions account for 80% of all children's deaths from unintentional injuries.

In 2001, an estimated 685,000 children under the age of 15 were killed by unintentional injuries including those resulting from road traffic accidents, falls, burns and cases of drownings. Worldwide approximately 20% of deaths due to such injuries occur in children under 15 years old and they are among the ten leading causes of death for this age group.