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Children's environmental health
3rd International WHO Conference on Environmental Threats to the Health of Children.
Busan, Republic of Korea, 7-10 June 2009
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Meeting Report [pdf 7.04Mb]
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Busan Pledge for Action [pdf 122kb]
on Children's Health and the Environment
This conference, hosted by the Ministry of Environment in Korea in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Family Planning, and organized by the WHO jointly with national and international partners, was supported by many organizations involved on actions about preventing childhood diseases through healthy environments.
The event aimed at extending the recognition of children's environmental health needs and providing a platform for the exchange of scientific experiences, for learning about research efforts, and promoting protectives policies.
It will also enable us to work out why existing global efforts have not progressed more rapidly and what needs to be done, both in developing and industrialized countries.
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Children are our future, numbering over 2.3 billion worldwide (aged 0-19) and representing boundless potential. Child survival and development hinge on basic needs to support life; among these, a safe, healthy and clean environment is fundamental.
Children are exposed to serious health risks from environmental hazards. Over 40% of the global burden of disease attributed to environmental factors falls on children below five years of age, who account for only about 10% of the world's population. Environmental risk factors often act in concert, and their effects are exacerbated by adverse social and economic conditions, particularly conflict, poverty and malnutrition. There is new knowledge about the special susceptibility of children to environmental risks: action needs to be taken to allow them to grow up and develop in good health, and to contribute to economic and social development.
- Each year, at least three million children under the age of five die due to environment-related diseases.
- Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated two million children under the age of five. As much as 60 percent of acute respiratory infections worldwide are related to environmental conditions.
- Diarrhoeal diseases claim the lives of nearly two million children every year. Eighty to 90 percent of these diarrhoea cases are related to environmental conditions, in particular, contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.
- Nearly one million children under the age of five died of malaria in 1998. Up to 90 percent of malaria cases are attributed to environmental factors
Our work on children's environmental health is carried out in the following activity areas:
In addition, this web site provides access to a large number of publications, statistics, indicators, fact sheets on children's environmental health, as well as links to other related WHO and non-WHO sites.
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