BREAKOUT SESSIONS & WORKSHOPS 

Draft Recommendations

Children’s Health and the Environment

Purpose and Goals:

Children’s environmental health issues span the globe and know no political boundaries.  The priorities of developed countries may not be exactly the same as those in developing countries, but they are similar enough to warrant international cooperation and collaboration, for technical, scientific, economic, and moral reasons. In the US, policymakers grapple with ensuring that drinking water is safe from microbiological contamination; in many communities of the world, there is no clean water. There is an urgent need to bring experts, policymakers and NGOs together to share experiences, research and lessons learned on how to identify and address the most acute environmental risks to children.  At present, there is no international mechanism to facilitate a global dialogue or the exchange of resources and technology. The NSCE Workshop on Children’s Health and the Environment seeks to provide a forum for discussion of these issues and to develop a set of recommendations for action by policy makers and environmental advocates here in the United States and abroad, particularly those expected to participate in the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002.

Overview of Issues:

Each year, millions of children around the world die and hundreds of thousands more endure chronic suffering from preventable health problems that are caused or exacerbated by environmental conditions. Children worldwide, in both industrialized and less-industrialized countries, are exposed to contaminants in the home and outside in the air, water and soils with which they come in contact. The approximately two hundred and fifty million children in the workplace risk exposure to noxious substances and hazardous conditions that can impair their physical development and mental health. Malnutrition and other conditions caused by poverty lower children’s ability to fight off disease or eliminate environmental toxins from their bodies, thus exacerbating the effects of chronic illnesses and increasing the risk of child death due to environmental health factors. 

Experts believe that the largest global killer of children is acute respiratory disease. Approximately 5 million children die every year from respiratory diseases that many believe are frequently associated with exposure to indoor and outdoor air polluted by airborne particulates, sulfur dioxide and ozone. The World Health Organization and World Bank have found that indoor air pollution caused by cook stoves using traditional biomass fuels pose one of the largest risks to the health of children and women in developing countries. In addition, more than 3 million children die each year from waterborne diseases caused by ingesting contaminated water.

Children are also faced with newly emerging threats to their health due to toxins in the environment. Today, infants born with synthetic chemical substances already in their bodies feed on breast milk, which may be polluted with heavy metals and other toxic substances. The human health effects of some of these substances are known. For instance, synthetic chemical substances such as pesticides along with solvents and heavy metals such as mercury and lead can impair a child’s nervous system. We know that PCBs and dioxins disrupt the body's hormonal balance, while radiation, asbestos and arsenic contribute to the onset of cancer. The human health effects of many more chemicals that go into our environment every day are completely unknown.

Session Format:

The Workshop is proposed to consist of a panel discussion and then a wider participants forum for interchange with the experts on the panel.  The Panel would consist of 3 to 5 experts and a Moderator that would discuss broad thematic issues as well as present case studies.  This would cover the first hour of the proceedings.  The Moderator would then facilitate a discussion by all participants, with the goal of garnering consensus on the most acute priorities for the U.S. and its participation in the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The discussion and recommendations would be published in a proceedings report for wide distribution among policymakers, NGOs, academics and government representatives.  The Natural Heritage Institute and Global Children’s Health and Environment Fund propose to take the lead in organizing this Workshop and in distributing its findings, including using these findings to raise awareness among delegates at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and its Preparatory Committee meetings during 2002.

Proposed Topics:

• Overview of Key Issues for Children's Environmental Health          
• Childrens Environmental Health Factors/Global Burden of Disease          
• Data and Indicators/New Methodologies (International/National Projects)          
• Sustainable Community Case Studies/Lessons Learned 

Potential Presenters:

• E. Ramona Trovato - Director, Office of Children's Health Protection, US Environmental Protection Agency    
• Dr. Tee Guidotti - Chair, Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, George Washington University    
• Vanessa Tobin - Chief of Water, Environment and Sanitation, UNICEF    
• Dr. Terri Damstra - World Health Organization/International Programme for Chemical Safety    
• Dr.  Luis Alberto Mercado - Deputy Director, Environmental Health Ministry, Government of Mexico    
• Daniel Swartz - Executive Director, Children's Environmental Health Network   
• Dr. Bamgboye Afolabi, Roll Back Malaria Program, WHO, Lagos, Nigeria

Resources:

• Non-Governmental Organization's Position Paper on Children's Environmental Health - as submitted to the Preparatory Committee Meeting of the United Nations Special Session on Children, 2001-2002      
• Preliminary Proceedings of the Conference on "Children's Environmental Health II: A Global Forum for Action", held at the Georgetown University Conference Center, Washington, DC, on September 8 - 11, 2001     
• Remarks for Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to be delivered at the Children's Environmental Health Global Forum, Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001

Workshop Organizers:

Michelle T. Leighton           
Director of International Programs
Natural Heritage Institute                                    

A. Karim Ahmed, Ph.D.
President
Global Children’s Health & Environment Fund                                                                                                                                                                

Questions? conference@NCSEonline.org