Study: 24 percent of all diseases caused by environmental factors

From foodconsumer.org
By John Soltes
Jun 19, 2006

The belief that disease is solely caused by genetics has just been put to the test by the World Health Organization. WHO officials reported today that 24 percent of all diseases and over 33 percent of all childhood diseases and are actually tied to environmental factors.

The results of the expansive study mean that four million children per year can prevent diseases by watching their exposure to various elements. When one takes in the entire world population, WHO officials report that nearly 13 million people die every year from diseases caused by environmental factors.

The study involved the input of nearly 100 experts in the field as well as in-depth study of statistics and articles written on the subject.

WHO officials found some of the main problems caused by environmental factors are lower respiratory infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diarrhea, malaria, and injuries due to road traffic.

"The report issued today is a major contribution to ongoing efforts to better define the links between environment and health," said Dr. Anders Nordstrom, acting WHO director-general, according to Organic Consumers.

"We have always known that the environment influences health very profoundly, but these estimates are the best to date," he said.

Nordstrom also pointed to the fact that many of the diseases caused by environmental factors, such as diarrhea and malaria, can be prevented by improving environmental and health standards. For example, many of these environmentally affected diseases are caused by poor drinking water, exposure to fossil fuels and toxic substances, and poor hygiene.

In order to create the extensive report, WHO officials ranked the diseases of the world by not only environmental burden, but also death rate, illness rate, and disability rate.

From these rankings, WHO officials assigned each disease a DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years). DALYs give an estimate to how much time is lost in a person's life suffering from the environmentally affected disease.

Diarrhea (58 million DALYs), lower respiratory infections (37 million DALYs), and road traffic (21 million DALYs) had the highest incidence.

"For the first time, this new report shows how specific diseases and injuries are influenced by environmental risks and by how much," said Dr. Maria Neira, director of WHO's Department for Public Health and Environment, according to Organic Consumers.

The WHO's report is titled, "Preventing disease through healthy environments - towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease."

Source:
http://tinyurl.com/f36xp

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