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UPDATE no 37 February 2003 INCHES
2003 - The International Network on Children's Health,
Environment and Safety
Dear member of INCHES,
In this update:
Dear member of INCHES:
In this update:
New member
News:
Articles:
Kids need extra protection from pollution, says pediatric environmentalist
Lead's dubious history
Switch to Unleaded Petrol 'In Sight' for Africa
Conferences
Short list of upcoming events
New member
Canadian Public Health Association's (CPHA) Board of Directors met in November 2002; I am writing to you on behalf of the CPHA's Board of Directors to inform you that CPHA endorses the general direction and policies of the International Network on Children's Health, Environment and Safety (INCHES) as outlined in your January 25, 1999 summary paper.
Contact person: Janet MacLachlan
Associate CEO
Canadian Public Health Association
PH: (613) 725-3769 Ext. 138 FAX: (613) 725-9826
Email: jmaclachlan@cpha.ca
With great pleasure we announce the release of the book “ In harm’s way: Preventing Toxic Threats to Child Development” in Spanish. After a hard work of translation and review, AAMMA presented this edition during October 2002. The presentation of the book has had a great impact in USA in the year 2000 equally as the 2001 reedit ion. It shows the special vulnerability of the developmental organs and the complex interaction of toxic chemicals producing disabilities in children. Toxic exposures deserve special scrutiny because they are preventable causes of harm.
It provides clinicians with essential information on key toxicants and their effects. Parents and parents to be can be help to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals and basic information on how to avoid these chemicals. Health care providers can help prevent unnecessary risks to child development by offering simple guidelines to reduce exposure to known and suspected developmental toxicants. We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration and incentive of Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility (GBPSR) and the AVINA Foundation y la Foundation AVINA. If you are interest in this material you can get in touch with us in our e-mail address: aamma@ciudad.com.arweb site:www.aamma.org
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Each year on April 7th, the world celebrates World Health Day. On this day around the globe, thousands of events mark the importance of health for productive and happy lives. This year, the theme for World Health Day is "Healthy Environments for Children". The millions of children that die annually from environmentally related illnesses could be saved through the creation of healthy settings, whether it be the home, the school, or the community at large. Join us in promoting healthy environments for children on World Healthy Day, and make a difference for the future! For more details please visit:
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/press/announcement1/en/index.html (English)
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/press/announcement1/fr/index.html (French)
Articles
Kids need extra protection from pollution, says pediatric environmentalist
BREATHE, DRINK, PLAY - BY PATRICIA ANSTETT FREE PRESS MEDICAL WRITER
The nation's water and air are much cleaner than a few decades ago, but thousands of products and pollution problems continue to pose health risks, particularly to children, says Dr. Ruth Etzel, one of the nation's leading pediatric environmental health experts. Moldy home and school basements. Ice rink resurfacing machines. Felt-tip markers and craft material. Poorly ventilated gas stoves and fireplaces. The list goes on, she says. Many chemicals are heavier than air and saturate the space closest to the ground -- a child's breathing zone.
Children are also more vulnerable because their bodies are still developing, says Etzel, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and editor of "Handbook of Pediatric Environmental Health" (American Academy of Pediatrics, $44.95). She is also one of the country's top experts on sick schools. Etzel's particular expertise includes mold and other indoor air pollutants; environmental causes of asthma; and the effects of passive smoking on children. She worked for 12 years at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she founded and directed the air pollution and respiratory health branch.
In 2000, she was appointed to then-Gov. John Engler's Michigan Environmental Science Board and was one of two pediatricians to dissent from that panel's finding that there was "no compelling scientific rationale" to tighten environmental standards on behalf of children in Michigan. Etzel now splits her time between Anchorage, Alaska, where she has spent two decades working on Native American health research, and Washington, D.C., where she is a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The Free Press talked to Etzel recently about some of the topics she will address Monday at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. Her talk is the next in a lecture series on children's environmental health issues sponsored by LocalMotion, a nonprofit environmental health group.
LEAD'S DUBIOUS HISTORY
DETROIT FREE-PRESS -BY EMILIA ASKARI AND HUGH MCDIARMID JR. FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Lead's toxic effects have been noted for centuries. It even may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, which used lead liberally in plumbing, cookware and as an additive in foods and wine. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency history of lead, it likely was the cause of a "conspicuous pattern of mental incompetence that came to be synonymous with the Roman elite." In more recent times, lead poisoning has been caused by leaded gasoline and lead-based paint.
In December 1921, scientists at a General Motors lab developed tetraethyl lead, an additive that reduced engine knock and was patentable. GM teamed with DuPont and Standard Oil to market Ethyl, their brand name for the first leaded gasoline on the market.
Until leaded gasoline wasphased out in the late 1970s, auto exhaust was considered one of the major contributors to childhood lead poisoning.Today, soil near freeways and other major roads remains contaminated from decades of leaded auto exhaust. In other parts of the world, leaded gas is still sold. As far back as 1884, lead was added to paint because it improved durability and adhesive qualities. As late as the 1950s, a can of house paint was half lead, according to Columbia University professor David Rosner, coauthor of "Deceit and Denial," a recent book on the history of the lead industry. He estimates there were 12 to 15 pounds of lead in every can sold. There were two or three coats of lead paint on every wall of every house. And every house was repainted several times. Many of these homes still exist, especially in older cities where peeling paint poisons children.
"You're talking about hundreds and hundreds of pounds of lead on each home," he said. From the 1920s through the 1950s, the lead industry touted lead paint and leaded gasoline as necessary and safe: "Lead is contributing to the health, comfort, and convenience of people today as it did when Rome was a center of civilization," boasted an industry ad in 1923. The banning of lead from house paint in 1978 and gasoline in 1986 marked the beginning of a dramatic improvement in the health of U.S. children. In the late 1970s, an estimated 14.9 million children had unsafe lead levels. By 1991 that number had been reduced to 1.7 million; by 1994 it was at 870,000. New federal estimates place that number at 300,000.
UNEP News Release
SWITCH TO UNLEADED PETROL 'IN SIGHT' FOR AFRICA
UNEP's Governing Council, 3 to 7 February: Environment for Development
NAIROBI, 22 January 2003 - An international effort to phase out lead, the health-hazardous heavy metal, from petrol is accelerating as increasing numbers of African countries switch to unleaded fuel.
Research, to be presented to environment ministers attending a key conference organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), indicates that within five years most African countries will have phased out, or be close to phasing out, lead from petrol.
A survey carried out by UNEP, which is a leading member of the global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, shows that four countries- Egypt, Libya, Mauritius and the Sudan- are already fully lead-free. This year four other nations or dependent territories, Morocco, Reunion, Tunisia and Western Sahara will join them.
Meanwhile, a further 22, including Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Togo and Uganda, have or are in the process of drawing up action plans to phase out leaded fuel by 2005-2006, the research indicates.
Plans are under way to bring the remaining countries on board, many of which are in Central Africa, in order to deliver the goal of a lead-free continent and a lead free world.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, said: "It has been known for many years that lead in petrol or gasoline is a serious health risk particularly to children. Studies have demonstrated that children living near roads and in urban areas where leaded petrol is used can suffer brain damage with symptoms including lower intelligence scores. This is why it has been phased out and banned in countries in Western Europe, North America, parts of the Far East and elsewhere and why it is being rapidly phased out in many other parts of the world."
"But much of Africa, mainly for technological reasons, a lack of awareness of the health risks and misconceptions about the impact of unleaded fuels on engines, has lagged behind. However, partly because of work already under way and the new impetus from the global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, the situation is rapidly changing and a lead free Africa is in sight. Lead is not the only pollutant they are targeting. Others include sulphur, which is linked with effects including smog and the acidification of waterways", he said.
"This is one of, if not the, first concrete outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held six months ago in Johannesburg, South Africa. The voluntary initiative, a so-called Type II project, was born there with funding and support from Governments, the private sector including the oil and automobile industries, civil society and international organizations like UNEP. Let us hope that the success being achieved, bodes well for the other Type II voluntary partnerships in areas ranging from coral reefs to environmental law", said Mr. Toepfer.
He announced today that, as a small but symbolic push toward the lead-free goal, the on-site filling station at the United Nations headquarters in Kenya, which currently sells both leaded and unleaded petrol, will in future only sell unleaded fuel.
Rob De Jong, UNEP's programme officer for urban environment, said there were a lot of motoring myths about leaded versus unleaded fuels which was making some vehicle owners reluctant to use the cleaner fuel.
"Many people who drive older cars are convinced that they will suffer engine damage if they fill up with unleaded fuel. But this really is not the case. Only under the extreme conditions of a laboratory test can effects be seen. In the real world, under normal motoring conditions prevailing in Africa, unleaded petrol works well if not better in most if not all vehicles. Unleaded petrol also allows motorists to drive vehicles with catalytic converters. This is another key health and environmental reason for using the cleaner fuels as they can reduce emissions by 90 per cent", he said. The WSSD and its Plan of Implementation has targets and timetables for a wide range of sustainable development issues. In respect of leaded petrol, it calls for the rapid, global phase out, of this key pollutant. The work is also being guided by the Dakar Declaration of March 2002 in which countries backed a phase out of lead in petrol by 2005.
Partners have pledged nearly $500,000 for this. UNEP is acting as a "clearing house", through which the various partners will be gathering and exchanging information on key issues including the status of phase-outs in developing countries. UNEP will also be assisting in developing and implementing action plans, organizing workshops to help countries phase out lead in petrol as well as promote cleaner fuels and vehicles in general, bring in new partners and develop and distribute fact packs and other information materials to assist countries in informing consumers on the argument in favour of unleaded fuels.
Notes to Editors: Around 90 per cent of the world's petrol supplies are now unleaded. However, the 10 per cent that is still leaded is concentrated in developing countries, especially Africa.
A report on the phase-out of leaded petrol (document UNEP/GC.22/INF/23) will be given to an estimated 100 environment ministers attending UNEP's 22nd Governing Council in Nairobi, 3 to 7 February 2003 (for more information on the Council session, see http://www.unep.org/governingbodies/gc22/.
Please also see www.unep.org/dpdl/urbanenvironment/workshop, as well as http://www.uneptie.org/energy/env/index.htm
for more information on this subject and UNEP's work in the transport sector.
For more information, please contact: Eric Falt, Spokesperson/Director of UNEP's Division of Communications and Public Information, on tel: +254-2-623292, mobile: +254-733-682656, e-mail: eric.falt@unep.org, Nick Nuttall, UNEP Head of Media, on tel: +254-2-623084, mobile: +254-733-632755, e-mail: nick.nuttall@unep.org, or Jim Sniffen, Information Officer, New York, on tel: +1-212-963-8094, e-mail: info@nyo.unep.org
27th International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH 2003) Iguassu Falls, Brasil 23-27 February 2003
We are pleased to inform you, that we have succeeded in including in the Scientific Program of the 27th International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH 2003) - which was already completed and totally booked -, a Special Session on "Child Working Conditions: A Pictorial World Vision" - David Parker (NIOSH - USA).
This Special Session has been scheduled for Monday, February 24th, 19:00 - 20:00 (Room K Bourbon Hotel). This special session allows the attendance of all interested people, since there is no other concurrent scientific activity at that time. Information: http://www.icoh2003.com.br/index.html
The organizing committee would like to remind you that the 3rd World Congress & Exposition: Child and Youth Health 2003 is fast-approaching. The Congress will take place May 11th to 14th, 2003, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The early registration deadline is February 28th, 2003. A pre-Congress youth day will take place on May 10th.
There are also still spaces available at Katilvik, the community meeting place for the Congress. Katilvik will provide an informal setting in which organizations that are dedicated to the health and well-being of children and youth will be able to share their vision, activities and resources with a community of like-minded individuals. There are special rates for not-for-profit organizations. Please see attachment for more information.
To learn more about this exciting international congress or to register online, go to our recently updated website: http://venuewest.com/childhealth2003/
6/7 February
PINCHE members meeting, Amsterdam, Netherlands
19-21 February
CEC North American Workshop on Risk Assessment and Children’s Environmental Health, Oaxaca, Mexico
http://www.cec.org/pubs_docs/documents/index.cfm?varlan=english&ID=1004
24-26 February
Children’s Environmental Health: identifying and Preventing Environmental Threats to Children, NIEHS, Bethesda, USA
http://es.epa.gov/ncer/events/index.html#children
16-25 March
World Water Forum Kyoto
http://regi.water-forum3.com/
7 April
World Health Day on Healthy Environments for Children
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/press/announcement1/en/index.html
28/29 April
European Environment and Health Committee EEHC, Copenhagen
http://www.who.int/en/
8-10 May
EH scientific conference in Aarhus
11-14 May
Child & Youth Health 2003 conference, Vancouver Canada
http://www.venuewest.com/childhealth2003/
18-23 May
Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health, Montreal, Canada
www.idrc.ca/forum2003)
21-23 May
Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference, Kijv, Ukraine
www.unece.org
27-30 May 2003
Our Future on Common Ground, Health and the Environment. 30th Annual Conference presented by the Global Health Council, Washington DC (USA)
Further information.
26/27 June (tbc)
1st Intergovernmental meeting on European Children Environment and Health Action Plan CEHAP, Sweden
14-16. September,
(date to be confirmed) - NGO strategy meeting for Budapest conference, Bonn, Germany
1-4 October
Mar del Plata, Argentina, First Children Environment and Health conference of the southern American Cone countries as part of the 33 Argentinean Pediatric congress.
25-29 October
(to be confirmed) Third global and first African conference on Healthy Environments for Children, Nairobi, Kenya
1-7 November
International Forum for Chemical Safety, Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.who.int/ifcs/
23-25 June 2004
4th ministerial conference on Environment and Health, Budapest, Hungary
Further information.
Last updated February 5, 2003
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