A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE IN OUR HANDS - To Parent Directory

Public healthDidyou know…in the extreme north to the albatross in the skies over thesouthern oceans.Threats caused by environmental contamination: TheClean Air For Europe foundthat 350,000 Europeans died canary down a coal mine dying of gas poisoning, warningthe miner to escape has its modern day equivalent.prematurely in 2000 due tooutdoor air pollution. This Wild animals can give us a clear indication of the level ofworks out at an average toxic chemicals in our environment and will start dying,loss of life expectancyof 9 months.often before we are aware of the problem. This should bea clear wake up call since whatever it is that is killing them willprobably be harmful to us. Bodies of beluga whales found in theSt Lawrence River in Canada were so highly contaminated that theyhad to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Publicising the situationin their DETOX campaign, the WWF explains that there is hardlyan animal on earth that has not been exposed to toxic man-madechemicals. They are the undeserving recipients of our poisons.And how does this affect us? According to the EU’s SCALE initiative,a child-focused analysis of pollution-induced conditions fallinto four priority groups: cancers, respiratory diseases like asthma,developmental disorders and the disruption of the natural, chemicalinteraction in our bodies (endocrine disruption). The links betweenexposure to pollution and its effects on us are determined by ourages, how long we have been exposed tothe chemicals, our genetic makeup andwhat the report calls ‘the cocktail’ effect, orexposure to multiple sources of contaminationin the air, water and food.Threats caused by lifestyle choices:Drinking too much alcohol, smoking, nottaking exercise, abusing drugs, or eatingfood that harms us are some of the threatsto our health that stem from the way wechoose to live. Tobacco is the biggest,avoidable cause of death in the EU: it isestimated that 25% of all cancer deaths and15% of deaths in the EU can be attributedto smoking.© Corbis046