WHICH POPULATIONS SUFFER THE MOST FROM ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS TO HEALTH?

Children suffer a disproportionate share of the environmental health burden.

Globally, the per capita number of healthy life years lost to environmental risk factors was about 5-times greater in children under five years of age than in the total population. Diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections all have very large fractions of disease attributable to environment, and also are among the biggest killers of children under five years old. In developing countries, the environmental fraction of these three diseases accounted for an average of 26% of all deaths in children under five years old. Perinatal conditions (e.g. prematurity and low birth weight); protein-energy malnutrition and unintentional injuries – other major childhood killers – also have a significant environmental component, particularly in developing countries.
On average, children in developing countries lose 8-times more healthy life years, per capita, than their counterparts in developed countries from environmentally-caused diseases. In certain very poor regions of the world, however, the disparity is far greater; the number of healthy life years lost as a result of childhood lower respiratory infections is 800-times greater, per capita; 25-times greater for road traffic injuries; and 140-times greater for diarrhoeal diseases. Even these statistics fail to capture the longer term effects of exposures that occur at a young age, but do not manifest themselves as disease until years later.