First Report on North American Children Finds High Asthma Rates

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, January 26, 2006 (ENS) - The first report on children's health and environment indicators in North America by a NAFTA Commission shows a rising number of childhood asthma cases across the region, but improvements in children's blood lead levels, and a decrease in deaths from waterborne diseases. It finds that North America's 123 million children remain at risk from environmental exposures.

The report, issued today by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), in partnership with public health organizations and the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, presents 13 indicators under three thematic areas - asthma and respiratory disease, effects of exposure to lead and other toxic substances, and waterborne diseases.

"This first set of children's environmental health indicators will help improve public policy and promote the cause of improved air and water quality, pollution prevention and better management of toxic chemicals," says CEC Executive Director William Kennedy.

Girls at Caroline Robins Community School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. (Photo courtesy NASA)

The CEC, the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States (IJC), the Pan American Health Organization, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States collaborated in the development and selection of the children's environmental health indicators and the release of this report.

In compiling the report, the CEC struggled with data gaps. Only one of the indicators, addressing asthma in children, was fully reported by all three countries, and the CEC said children's health reporting must be improved to address the data gaps identified in the report.

"While this report finds improvement in some indicators and challenges in others," Kennedy said, "it's clear that measurable progress will require a uniform data set for policymakers to adequately address the risks to children's health."

"We now have an initial report card of 13 basic children's environmental health indicators showing the extent of childhood exposures to air pollution, unsafe water, as well as to toxic substances, including lead," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of the World Health Organization's Department for the Protection of the Human Environment.

"Indicators such as those identified in this report provide us with a tool that can help us identify the most important environmental health risks to children, and then target preventive actions which will save many lives," she said.

Children in Iztapalapa, Mexico (Photo courtesy St. Teresa of Avila Parish)

In Mexico, exposure to smoke from indoor burning of wood or charcoal is also a problem, as 18 percent of the country's population burned biomass for cooking and heating in 2000. And while Canadian and American children are increasingly less likely to be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, data from the United States shows that certain minority groups remain disproportionately affected.

For lead exposure, case studies from all three countries demonstrate improvements in children's blood lead levels due to interventions such as the removal of lead from gasoline.

But the CEC said there is little biomonitoring data available in Canada since there has been no national blood level survey in the country since 1978. Other exposure pathways for lead remain a concern, such as older homes with lead paint.

Recently collected data in the United States showed that 25 percent of homes had a "significant lead based paint hazard, which could be from deteriorating paint, contaminated dust or contaminated soil outside the house."

"This is a seminal report that will help us understand the interrelationships between environmental quality and children's health," says Dennis Schornack, U.S. Chair of the International Joint Commission of Canada and the United States (IJC). "It provides a foundation for all of us - governments, health and environmental professionals, parents - to make informed decisions that will protect the long term health of our children."

Students at Providence Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia (Photo courtesy Fairfax School Board)

Still, the CEC reports, advances in water and sanitation in Mexico have contributed to a decline in diarrheic diseases from a rate of 125.6 deaths per 100,000 children in 1990 to 20 deaths per 100,000 children in 2002.

In the United States, the percentage of children living in an area served by a public water system having at least one major monitoring and reporting violation decreased from 22 percent in 1993 to 10 percent in 1999.

"The IJC is very interested in the environment's impact on human health," says Herb Gray, the IJC Canadian chair. "Children are uniquely susceptible and vulnerable to environmental risks -and those risks don't respect boundaries."

Indicators are important to tracking and communicating the health and well-being of children because environmental contaminants can affect the young differently than adults, the CEC points out.

Most children eat more food, drink more water and breathe more air relative to their size than adults do, and children's normal activities such as putting their hands in their mouths or playing outdoors can result in higher exposures to certain contaminants.

In addition, environmental contaminants may affect children disproportionately because their immune defenses are not fully developed and their organs are more easily harmed.

"This report is an important step towards improving children's environmental health and will be valuable in reaching our next challenge to appraise and quantify inequalities in exposure and health effects in marginalized and poor groups and the design and implementation of specific interventions," says Luiz Galvao, PAHO area manager for sustainable development and environmental health.

As the first regional report under the Global Initiative on Children's Environmental Health Indicators - led by WHO, spearheaded by the U.S. EPA and launched at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg - it is anticipated that this report will contribute to worldwide efforts to improve children's health.

Children's Environmental Health regional indicator pilot projects are currently underway in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Eastern Mediterranean. WHO plans on rolling out similar projects in its Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions in the coming years.

A copy of the report, along with the national reports compiled by each of the three governments as source material for the CEC's North American report, can be downloaded from www.cec.org.