Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
ONE YEAR after two international agencies highlighted the health and development dangers facing Jamaican children from exposure to raw sewage in gutters, canals and waterways, or improperly disposed domestic waste, the situation remains unchanged.
In fact, the situations which persist in several inner-city communities and rural towns with poor environmental practices could be placing some children at higher risk for deadly health conditions, health experts say.
According to a UNICEF report (April 2003), the main health risks to children come from "poor sanitation, unclean water, inadequate hygiene, and pollution, resulting in fatal diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection.
"The same conditions affect the environments where children play. Open sewage, unsafe disposal of domestic and industrial waste, and pollution of sources of water supply expose children to a host of dangers that may have immediate and long-term effects on their health and development," it stated.
HARMFUL EFFECTS
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report from April 2003, went further to emphasise the harmful effects.
"Children are at risk of exposure to more than 15,000 synthetic chemicals, almost all developed in the last 50 years, and to 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. The spread of disorders possibly associated with environmental factors (asthma, injuries, neuro-developmental disorders, cancer, food and waterborne diseases) is reaching unacceptably high levels in many cases," the report said.
"As developing organisms, children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of environmental pollution. This is so for a variety of reasons, which include the following: early exposure has long-term consequences; children have a unique susceptibility to specific chemicals, and are exposed to substances in their immediate environment (such as soil and toys), particularly through their practice of picking things up and putting them into their mouths; and in proportion to their body weight, children breathe, drink and eat more than adults, with a consequently higher uptake of potentially toxic substances," the release said.
Findings contained in previous research by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) 'Situational Analysis' of the status of children (1991) point to several factors which were flagged as child health hazards.
"... Poor air quality is a problem in densely populated areas such as Kingston and Spanish Town. The primary causes of air pollution are industrial effluents from oil refineries and power stations in the rural areas.
The problem in urban areas is further aggravated by the burning of garbage at municipal dumps and vehicle exhaust fumes.
Ground water in the Kingston Metropolitan Area is subject to infiltration from thousands of individual household sewage units," the report said.
When The Sunday Gleaner checked with the PIOJ office for an update, it was again referred to the early "Situational Ana-lysis..." report.
NO FORMAL MONITORING PLAN
But while officials at the Environmental Health (EH) division of the Ministry of Health (MoH) admitted that there was concern, they say there was as yet no formalised plan for monitoring the impact of harmful environments on child health.
"We are aware that we need to be active in areas leading to research on child health. It's something on the agenda... but it (development of proposals) has not yet been done," head of the EH division, Peter Knight, said.
Recently surges in the number of cases of gastro-enteritis and dangerously high lead levels among children also sparked concern among local health officials to Jamaica's potentially dangerous environment for children.
Statistics from the MoH are that from January 1 to January 24 this year, 2,619 children under five years old came down with gastro-enteritis. Those over five years old with the problem numbered 2,256 bringing the total number of cases to 4,875.In January 2003, the total number of reported cases was 2,348.
In addition, MoH reports (2002) indicate that diseases of the respiratory system, infectious and parasitic diseases were the leading causes of death among children aged one to nine years old.
Meanwhile, visits by The Sunday Gleaner team to several inner-city communities in Kingston and North St. Andrew last week showed pockets of stagnant water on several roadways while in one area students are forced to walk across broken sewage mains to get to and from school.
SORTING THROUGH DUMP
Earlier this year The Gleaner reported that children were among unauthorised persons sorting through refuse at the island's Riverton city dump.
Since then officials at the National Solid Waste Manage-ment Authority (NSWMA) say vigorous efforts have been made to stem the practice.
According to a statement from the NSWMA, it "has successfully removed informal sorters from the Riverton Disposal Site in St. Andrew in order to improve safety and operational efficiencies on the site. As a result, new measures to maintain these efficiencies have been instituted. They include: in-creased levels of security to prevent unauthorised access and to regulate movement, thorough checks of collection units and of persons entering and leaving the disposal site, erecting of a sign outlining access, operational and safety procedures, and the education and involvement of the Riverton Community in the change process.
"Still, several projects to
deal with particular issues are under way.Marlene Lewis, programme manager for the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, says the Foundation now works with several groups to address areas including a project looking at creating an inventory for hazardous waste in the island, a national solid waste programme to monitor domestic garbage disposal, and efforts to offer remediation, treatment and alternative lifestyle options to communities affected by lead pollution.
