Children are not just small adults

From today's Rachel Democracy and Health News

Childhood Growth Stages Determine What Harm Pollution Does

Geneva, Switzerland -- An increased risk of cancer, heart and lung
disease in adults can result from exposures to certain environmental
chemicals during childhood, the World Health Organization said today.
This finding is part of the first report ever issued by the agency
focusing on children's special susceptibility to harmful chemical
exposures at different stages of their growth.

Air and water contaminants, pesticides in food, lead in soil, as well
many other environmental threats which alter the delicate organism of
a growing child may cause or worsen disease and induce developmental
problems, said the World Health Organization, WHO, releasing the
report at its Geneva headquarters.

The peer-reviewed report highlights the fact that in children, the
stage in their development when exposure to a threat occurs may be
just as important as the magnitude of the exposure.

"Children are not just small adults," said Dr. Terri Damstra, team
leader for WHO's Interregional Research Unit. "Children are especially
vulnerable and respond differently from adults when exposed to
environmental factors -- and this response may differ according to the
different periods of development they are going through."

"For example, their lungs are not fully developed at birth, or even at
the age of eight, and lung maturation may be altered by air pollutants
that induce acute respiratory effects in childhood and may be the
origin of chronic respiratory disease later in life," Dr. Damstra
said.

Over 30 percent of the global burden of disease in children can be
attributed to environmental factors, the WHO study found. (more)