'Avoidable risks' claim 100,000 young lives each year

The lives of many thousands of children could be saved by making the world they live in less dangerous, researchers said today.

A new report from the World Health Organisation says a third of child deaths in Europe are due to pollution, unsafe water, lead poisoning and injuries.

Together these environmental hazards claim the lives of an estimated 100,000 young children and teenagers each year.

Experts said there was an urgent need for action – not only in less-developed eastern and former Soviet bloc countries, but also in the richer European nations.

The findings, reported in The Lancet medical journal, form the basis of a strategy to be put before European ministers at a meeting in Budapest later this month.

Injuries were the leading cause of death identified across the WHO European Region, which covers a population of 750 million.

They accounted for 23% of deaths in people up to the age of 19 – a loss of 75,159 lives a year – and included injuries from road accidents, war, and self-inflicted wounds.

In the richest “Euro A” region, which includes Ireland other western European countries, injuries were responsible for 30% of all child deaths and claimed 13,000 lives a year. Traffic accidents were the main cause.

Dr Giorgio Tamburlini, one of the researchers from the Institute for Child Health in Trieste, Italy, said: “We have to have legislative measures in terms of traffic regulations, speeding and so on.

“You have to start conceiving urban planning in a different way.”

Up to 13,000 children across Europe were killed each year by breathing in sooty air pollutants, and 10,000 died as a result of burning solid fuel such as wood and coal at home, the report said.

More than 90% of indoor pollution deaths occurred in the “Euro B” region, which includes countries such as Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Serbia and Turkey. Two-fifths of households in this region burned solid fuel.

An estimated 9,000 lives or more could be saved each year if solid fuels were replaced by cleaner liquid or gas fuels in the home, the researchers said.

Clean water was still denied to two million people or more in Europe, said the report. More than 13,500 children up to the age of four died each year as a result of diseases caused by poor water and sanitation.

While lead was not generally a cause of death, it inflicted a severe toll in terms of brain impairment and learning difficulties.

More than 156,000 years of healthy life were lost annually as a result of lead exposure from paints or plumbing.

Dr Tamburlini said: “What are the main messages? The first is that interventions that are able to reduce the exposure of children to these risk factors… are going to produce substantial health gains in terms of disease, disability and death.”

A Children’s Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE) will be considered at the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health taking place in Budapest from June 23 to 25.

Dr Marc Danzon, WHO Regional Director Europe, said: “Although the report carries some ominous warnings, it also opens the door to a healthier future for Europe’s children.”