Children's health and environment : a review of evidence : a joint report from the European Environment Agency and the WHO Regional Office for Europe : experts' corner

The environment in which children live and play is an important determinant of their health and well being even if the extent of its importance is difficult to assess. Damage to children’s health is an important driver for the improvements to those parts of the environment that are associated with such ill health. It is therefore vital that there is close cooperation between environmental and health organisations, not least so as to minimise duplication of efforts.

Building on a collection of background papers prepared for the Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health in London in 1999, this paper provides an overview of the available evidence of the relationship between the physical environment and children’s health, identifying both research needs and policy priorities to protect children’s health from environmental hazards. The report aims to assist policy-makers and public health officials to develop plans and strategies addressing the most serious environmental health threats to children. It promotes a better understanding of children’s environmental health issues within the scientific and professional communities involved in both child health and environmental protection.

This publication adopts a children-centred rather than a toxicant-centred approach. It provides readers with important perspectives on children’s environmental health issues: 1) the developmental perspective, considering the risks in the different developmental stages, from preconception to adolescence; 2) the environmental setting perspective, considering the various risks that children may face in their different environments; and 3) the disease perspective, considering the various health effects and the role played by various environmental hazards.