About 1.7 million children under five die every year from environmentally related causes. These factors, which are largely preventable, also account for about one quarter of the global burden of disease among children under five years. Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental impacts on health because of social, economic, and physiological factors. Coordinated actions are required to raise awareness and reduce risk and vulnerability.
To this end, the Children’s Environmental Health programme is working closely with 10 WHO collaborating centres (CCs) - institutions whose remits include children's environmental health - at the global, regional, and national levels, to reduce the morbidity and mortality of children by increasing awareness and action to prevent harmful exposures during early life.
Areas of work for the collaborating institutions, based on the Global Plan of Action for Children's Health and the Environment, include:
- Developing interventions aimed at reducing exposure and preventing or decreasing the burden of disease;
- Capacity building;
- Communication and awareness raising;
- Setting research agendas aimed at building evidence;
This network of CCs is being hosted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Sciences. Please visit the web sites, below, for further information: