A safe, healthy and protective environment is key to ensuring all children grow and develop normally and healthily. In 2015, reducing environmental risks could have prevented more than a quarter of the 5.9 million deaths of children under 5 years.
Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, hazardous chemicals, climate change, and inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene.
SOURCES
- Official Twitter account of the World Health Organization, the United Nations’ health agency. WHO PHE infographics.
- 10 facts on children’s environmental health, WHO, March 2017.
- Inheriting a sustainable world: Atlas on children’s health and the environment, WHO pdf (4Mb), March 2017.
- The cost of a polluted environment: 1.7 million child deaths a year, WHO News release, 6 MARCH 2017.
- Preventing disease through healthy environments, MARCH 2016.
- Enjoy our health infographics album on Flickr.