A quarter of all global deaths of children under five are due to unhealthy or polluted environments including dirty water and air, second-hand smoke and a lack or adequate hygiene, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. Such unsanitary and polluted environments can lead to fatal cases of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia, the WHO said in a report, and kill 1.7 million children a year. “A polluted environment is a deadly one – particularly for young children,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in a statement. This increases their childhood risk of pneumonia as well as their lifelong risk of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma. Children are also exposed to harmful chemicals through food, water, air and products around them, it said.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 06, 2017 03:30 UTC