Vulnerable kids - updates - children at risk from diseases caused by environmental contamination - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, July, 2002

Children under age 5 are most at risk from diseases caused by environmental contamination, according to a report from the World Health Organization.

"Children are threatened by a variety of physical agents such as polluted indoor and outdoor air, road traffic, contaminated food and water, unsafe buildings, contaminants in toys, radiation and environmental tobacco smoke," says Domingo Jimenez-Beltran, executive director of the European Environment Agency, which co-published the report presented on April 15, 2001, in Belgium.

Children are more susceptible to environmental toxins than adults because their lower body mass causes them to take in relatively greater amounts. "A child can absorb as much as 50 percent of the lead present in food, while an adult may absorb only 10 percent," the report says.