Preventing disease through healthy environments: towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease

Overview

This report confirms that approximately one-quarter of the global disease burden, and more than one-third of the burden among children, is due to modifiable environmental factors. The analysis here also goes a step further, and systematically analyses how different diseases are impacted by environmental risks… and by 'how much.' Heading that list are diarrhoea, lower respiratory infections, various forms of unintentional injuries, and malaria.

This 'environmentally-mediated' disease burden is much higher in the developing world than in developed countries - although in the case of certain non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, the per capita disease burden is larger in developed countries. Children bear the highest death toll with more than 4 million environmentally-caused deaths yearly, mostly in developing countries. The infant death rate from environmental causes is 12 times higher in developing than in developed countries, reflecting the human health gain that could be achieved by supporting healthy environments.