Children's Environmental Health: A Priority for the World Health Organization

A growing number of diseases in children from rural and urban areas are linked to unsafe, degraded environments. The World Health Organization has estimated that more than one fourth of the global disease burden is due to modifiable environmental factors, and among children, this proportion rises to one third of the global paediatrics disease burden. Many public health workers and health care providers are not skilled in recognizing, assessing and managing environmentally-related pediatric diseases. It is essential to enable those “on the front lines” - the professionals dealing with children's and adolescent’s health- to recognize and assess diseases linked to, or triggered by environmental stressors. WHO has developed a Training Package for the Health Sector on Children's Health and the Environment. The training package includes 28 modules, each of which contains a library of PowerPoint slides accompanied by extensive notes, references, and case studies. A working group of experienced professionals from over 15 countries and non-governmental organizations participated in the preparation of these peer-reviewed materials. New modules are now available and include: children and chemicals; heavy metals; endocrine disorders; immune disorders; mycotoxins; second-hand tobacco smoke; neurodevelopmental and behavioural disorders; and the developmental and environmental origins of adult disease.  Public health workers are encouraged to adapt these modules by incorporating examples and other information about local environmental conditions.