Lead Poisoning in South African Children: The Hazard is at Horne.

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that has been used extensively in modern society, causing widespread environmental contamination even in isolated parts of the world. Irrefutable evidence associates lead at different exposure levels with a wide spectrum of health and social effects, including mild intellectual impairment, hyperactivity, shortened concentration span, poor school performance, violent/aggressive behavior, and hearing loss. Lead has an impact on virtually all organ systems, including the heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and circulatory system, resulting in coma and death in severe cases.

Prenatal and adolescent blood lead levels in South Africa: child, maternal and household risk factors in the Birth to Twenty cohort.

Introduction: The risk factors for lead exposure in developing countries have not been fully described. This study looks at child, maternal and household factors associated with increased risk of lead exposure at birth and at 13 years of age in the Birth to Twenty cohort.

Methods: Mothers were recruited from antenatal clinics in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area in 1990 (n=3273).

Toward a global agenda for research in environmental epidemiology.

The global environment is in critical decline. Whether one's concern about environmental epidemiology stems from the perspectives of environmental health, climate change, ecological collapse, or growing inequity, clear problems exist. Natural capital resources are being depleted; disregard for the integrity of ecosystems is entrenched in current business practices.

Reductions in blood lead levels among school children following the introduction of unleaded petrol in South Africa.

Epidemiological studies have indicated that in the 1980s and early 1990s (a period in which petrol lead concentrations in South Africa ranged from 0.836 to 0.4 g/L), large proportions of urban South African children were at risk of excessive exposure to environmental lead.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development: reaffirming the centrality of health.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was held in Johannesburg in 2002 to review progress since the Rio conference in 1992, and to agree a new global deal on sustainable development. Unlike its predecessor, it was primarily concerned with implementation rather than with new treaties and targets, although a number of new targets were agreed, for example one on sanitation. Failure to agree a target on renewable energy was regarded as a major disappointment of the conference.

Lead poisoning in South African children: the hazard is at home.

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that has been used extensively in modern society, causing widespread environmental contamination even in isolated parts of the world. Irrefutable evidence associates lead at different exposure levels with a wide spectrum of health and social effects, including mild intellectual impairment, hyperactivity, shortened concentration span, poor school performance, violent/aggressive behavior, and hearing loss. Lead has an impact on virtually all organ systems, including the heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and circulatory system, resulting in coma and death in severe cases.

A study of pediatric blood lead levels in a lead mining area in South Africa.

This study aimed to determine the blood lead distributions among young children in the lead mining town of Aggeneys in South Africa's Northern Cape Province, and in the comparison community of Pella, about 40 Km away. A further objective of the study was to explore factors associated with elevated blood lead levels. Children aged between 6 and 10 years (average age, 8 years) were studied, 86 from Aggeneys and 68 from Pella.

The health impact of environmental pollutants: a special focus on lead exposure in South Africa.

Studies have shown blood lead levels of some children in South Africa at levels of health concern. New studies show even relatively low lead levels to have detrimental effects on cognitive function in young children. Large numbers of South African inner-city and other children have been shown to have unacceptably high blood lead levels.

International environmental law and global public health.

The environment continues to be a source of ill-health for many people, particularly in developing countries. International environmental law offers a viable strategy for enhancing public health through the promotion of increased awareness of the linkages between health and environment, mobilization of technical and financial resources, strengthening of research and monitoring, enforcement of health-related standards, and promotion of global cooperation. An enhanced capacity to utilize international environmental law could lead to significant worldwide gains in public health.

Health-and-environment indicators in the context of sustainable development.

This paper gives a broad overview of issues relevant to the development and use of health-and-environment indicators in the broader context of sustainable development. Criteria for the construction of indicators are given, and their key characteristics are highlighted. Selected international indicator initiatives are discussed, as well as the concept and use of core indicators in policy and planning.

Health and sustainable development: can we rise to the challenge?

The forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development is an unprecedented opportunity to place health higher on the environmental and development agenda. The world's leaders will be grappling with some of the major challenges of our times--how to eradicate poverty and meet the world's development needs in a way that does not destroy the environment. Topping the agenda are water, energy, health, agriculture, and biodiversity.