Unhealthy Environments

11/27/2012

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.
Henry David Thoreau

"Today, millions of children around the world live in environments that are likely to impair their development and threaten their health," observes Selim Iltus in his introduction to the Bernard van Leer Early Childhood Matters publication, "Living Conditions: The Influence on Young Children's Health" (June, 2012).

"Inadequate physical environments are responsible for a very large number of deaths among children under the age of five. Pneumonia causes 19% of under-5 mortality and is largely associated with indoor air quality. The second largest cause of death, diarrheal diseases, is associated with unclean water and sanitation. To these we can add malaria and injuries, both of which are environmentally triggered....

"Based on these estimates, it is very clear how huge positive health effects can be achieved by improving the physical environments that children grow up in. Yet politicians, the general public, foundations, and even most academics fail to realise the strong link between the physical conditions that children grow up in and their health and development."

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