UPDATE no. 53 Dear member of INCHES, Wishing all a very good, healthy, lively, children-friendly New Year! In this update: News: Tsunami news Articles: PESTICIDES have been found in food at up to three-and-a-half times the safe level for Air Pollution Impairs Lung Development in children Asian nations agree to team up against arsenic-tainted water INCHES website moved to www.inchesnetwork.net Call for factsheets INCHES is calling all its members to send factsheets about any item on children’s environmental health. They could be in any language, ranging from lead poisoning, asthma, allergies, chemical, ventilation at school, etc. We are trying to build a very complete overview which we also share with the HECA network. So please send you electronic version or hard copy to the INCHES address: INCHES, pobox 163, 6950 AD Dieren, the Netherlands, or use this email of the update for your reply. Thanks very much in advance. Please try not to postpone your assistance as we would like to have a very substantial database of factsheets available ina couple of months for everyone. News on the Tsunami disaster: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/10511521.htm News on climate change activities: “Is climate change dangerous to human health?” ISDE /WHO/ CAN EU event at COP 10 On December 15th ISDE, World Health Organization Europe and Climate Action Network Europe (CAN EU) organized a panel on "Is climate change dangerous to human health?” at the Tenth Session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 10). The organizations outlined the importance of developing urgent and preventive actions to protect population, specially children and elders from the impacts caused by climate change. PESTICIDES have been found in food at up to three-and-a-half times the safe level for "Last week's pre-budget report gave the government an opportunity to introduce a tax on Air Pollution Impairs Lung Development in Children Asian nations agree to team up against arsenic-tainted water Health officials from 15 Asian nations agreed Friday to share information and step up research on a Conferences: Children's World Summit UNEP is organizing the first Children's World Summit for the Environment in Japan from 26 to 29 July 2005 in conjunction with Expo 2005. It will be If you have any question contact Joyce.Sang@unep.org World Information Transfer's 14th International Conference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions Theme: "Millennium Development Goals: Bridging Health and Environmental Policies for Action" At United Nations Headquarters, New York; April 28th and 29th, 2005 FOR INFORMATION PLEASE EMAIL wit1986@aol.com OR VISIT WEBSITE www.worldinfo.org 5th General assembly of German Network on Children’s Health and Environment (5. Jahrestagung Netzwerk Kindergesundheit und Umwel)t 21.-22. January 2005 in Bonn
Call for factsheets
children. Conferences
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ISDE will soon publish a report of the event on it´s website www.aamma.org
Presentations available at: http://unfccc.intArticles
children.
Government-backed tests uncovered illegal amounts of the chemicals in different fruit and
vegetables. A small amount of produce exceeded a higher threshold above which there could be
risk to health. Experts who co-ordinated the research insisted the amounts found did not pose any immediate danger and were more than offset by the benefits of eating fruit and vegetables.
However, campaigners said the findings were a concern and called on the government to
introduce a tax on pesticides to help reduce their usage.
The pesticide residues committee (PRC) is tasked with overseeing a rolling programme of tests
on commonly eaten food.
Its latest report found leftover traces of pesticides in 34.1 per cent of the 1,089 food
samples tested between April and June this year.
Chemicals are used to control pests, such as insects, which can affect the quantity and
quality of crops. But opponents claim some pesticides are potentially cancer-causing, could damage the nervous system, and disrupt the body's hormone system. The PRC found traces of pesticides in a large number of pears, potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, peas and lettuce.
The amount was even higher in nine samples that exceeded the "maximum residue level" - a legal
limit designed to ensure good agricultural practices are being followed.
More worrying were three samples that exceeded a safety level, known as the "acute reference
dose", set even higher. They included apples from Argentina containing the fungicide "captan" which the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth claims is a potential carcinogen. A risk assessment found it was 3.5 times the safe level for infants, 2.6 times for toddlers, double the limit for four to six-year-olds and 1.5 times for seven to ten-year-olds. One batch of grapes from Egypt contained up to 1.3 times the safe level of the insecticide dimethoate for toddlers and four to six-year-olds. Another batch of grapes, from Chile, contained the insecticide methomyl at 1.2 times the safe level for toddlers.
The acute reference dose is based on how much a person could eat in a single day without
suffering any toxic effects, although a large margin of safety is built in.
Dr Ian Brown, the chairman of the PRC, said: "None of the results in this quarter gave me concern for consumer health.
"These results should reassure consumers that the food they eat continues to be safe.
"It is important to stress that the positive effects of eating fresh fruit and vegetables as part of a balanced healthy diet far outweigh any concern about possible pesticide residues."
However, Sandra Bell, the pesticides campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "It's incredible that the pesticides residues committee can say that there is no concern for human health in response to this cocktail of pesticides found in our fruit and vegetables, some of which exceeded official safety levels set to protect infants and children. "Imported fruit in particular contained residues of substances that are known hormone disrupters and suspected carcinogens at relatively high levels.
pesticides to fund research and advice to farmers on reducing pesticide use, but instead it
has chosen to continue to rely on the ineffective voluntary initiative which is dominated by
the pesticides industry."
Adopted from:
Gauderman WJ, Avol E, Gilliland F, Vora H, Thomas D, Berhane K, McConnell R, Kuenzli N,
Lurmann F, Rappaport E, Margolis H, Bates D, Peters J. 2004. The effect of air pollution
on lung development from 10 to 18 years of age. N Engl J Med 351(11):1057-1067.
Mounting evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution has long-term effects on lung
development in children; reductions in lung function have been observed in studies in
Europe and the United States. To further investigate these effects, this NIEHS-supported
research team performed a prospective epidemiologic study on 1,759 children from 12
communities in Southern California.
The communities had a wide range of exposures to air pollutants including particulate
matter, acid aerosols, ozone, and nitrogen dioxide. The team recruited fourth-graders and
performed lung function tests annually for eight years.
Over the eight-year period, decreases in a measurement of lung function known as forced
expiratory volume (FEV1) were associated with exposure to nitrogen dioxide, acid
aerosols, particulate matter, and elemental carbon. The decreases noted were
statistically and clinically significant. For example, the risk of diminished FEV1 was
almost five times higher at the highest level of particulate matter exposure than at the
lowest level. The magnitude of the effects on development of lung function was comparable
to that reported for exposure to maternal smoking.
The authors conclude that these results can be generalized to children living in other
parts of the United States that have high air pollution levels. The results indicate that
current ambient air pollution levels can have chronic and adverse effects on lung
development in children, leading to clinically significant lung function deficits in
adulthood. Given the severity of the effects and the importance of lung development as a
determinant of morbidity and mortality during adulthood, it is important to continue
identifying strategies for reducing air pollution.
hard-to-detect source of water contamination that puts 50 million people at risk of potentially fatal diseases.
At the end of a four-day regional conference here, the officials signed a unanimous declaration calling for centralizing scattered and incomplete data on eliminating groundwater arsenic, an element that occurs naturally for unknown geological reasons.
Arsenic can cause skin disease, disabilities and cancer in those who drink it routinely over 10 to 20 years. It also stunts children's brain development.
The ''Taiyuan Declaration,'' signed by 71 participants at the Conference on Water Quality-Arsenic Mitigation held in this central China city, says the affected countries will set up a regional task force that meets regularly with the aim of sharing arsenic information.
''Countries are unaware of one another's work, and communities are unaware of the threat,'' said Vanessa Tobin, chief of the U.N. Children's Fund's Water, Environment and Sanitation Program. Affected nations should ''spend less time making the mistakes that other countries have made,'' she said.
''It's very important that awareness starts early,'' said Tobin, whose agency initiated the conference. ''There's only one way to prevent this, and that's safe water,'' she advised.
A government agency in every affected country should take responsibility for arsenic monitoring and educating people about the dangers, the declaration says. The declaration adds that international agencies such as the World Health Organization and the UNICEF should give the region funding
and technical support.
The countries concerned include Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea and most of Southeast Asia. The WHO says rural residents in these countries drink contaminated water every day. Arsenic is invisible and flavorless.
Because arsenic-related symptoms can come from other sources and because experts know of no single set of geologic conditions causing arsenic, researchers have no authoritative distribution map or hard statistics of people sickened by the element.
Affected nations are at various stages of busting arsenic. In China, authorities have found arsenic in 12 provinces and regions but have taken no comprehensive measures to ensure safe drinking water.
Chinese officials showed the conference photos of farmers with lesions on their chests and hardened or blackened hands.
In Nepal, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Red Cross have installed 1,050 rock-and-sand filters in two villages.
Vietnam has sidelined 12,000 contaminated wells and switched farmers to other water sources. Thailand says its arsenic problem has been solved.
Bangladesh, which has the region's highest-profile arsenic problem, is using deep-tube wells, pumps and household filters to shut out arsenic. About 38,000 people there have gotten sick, according to UNICEF figures.
Filters are convenient but require money and expertise to maintain, conference participants said, but to make farmers switch to safer water may cost them more money they can afford. Farmers who see no immediate effect of arsenic poisoning may keep drinking contaminated water to save money,
they said.
''The technical knowledge is all about the same -- we're scientists,'' said conference participant Rong Guang, an expert with China's Water Resources Ministry. ''The difference is that each country has different policies.''
Nations also agreed Friday to conduct more research on arsenic's effects on reproductive health. Infants and young children have shown symptoms of arsenic exposure despite relatively drinking water for just a few years, prompting suspicions that mothers can pass it on during pregnancy.
Participants further agreed that local authorities and private businesses should be able to test well water for arsenic and send results to their respective national governments.
hosted by the Aichi Prefectural Government, the City of Toyota and the City of Toyohashi.