Abstract
Children in their first 1000 days of life are extraordinarily vulnerable to environmental hazards, especially in their specific settings which are predominantly the intrauterine and domestic environment. Their vulnerabilities can be thus categorised in terms of their developmental phases, environmental settings, and environmental hazards within those settings that characterise their environmental exposures. While we generally have a good understanding of environmental, chemical, physical, and infectious hazards in the different environments of a child and their parents, rapidly intensifying in recent times, global environmental and demographic drivers such as climate change, population growth, urbanisation, antimicrobial resistance, prolific production use of chemicals, emerging infectious diseases, and pollution caused by inadequate waste management, thus exacerbating complexological and anthropogenic services, can increase environmental hazard potential for a very young child if not exposures to well-known as well as emerging hazards. Parental behaviour and socio-economic status, etc. are optimally managed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Landrigan PJ et al (2019) Pollution and children’s health. Sci Total Environ 650:2389–2394
Makri A et al (2004) Children’s susceptibility to chemicals: a review by developmental stage. J Toxicol Environ Health Part B 7(6):417–435
Mattison DR (2010) Environmental exposures and development. Curr Opin Pediatr 22(2):208
Landrigan P, Etzel R (2014) Children’s environmental health. Oxford University Press, New York
Robertson RC et al (2019) The human microbiome and child growth–first 1000 days and beyond. Trends Microbiol 27(2):131–147
Soubry A et al (2014) A paternal environmental legacy: evidence for epigenetic inheritance through the male germ line. BioEssays 36(4):359–371
Zota AR et al (2017) Reducing chemical exposures at home: opportunities for action. J Epidemiol Community Health 71(9):937–940
Healy BF et al (2015) Bisphenol a exposure pathways in early childhood: reviewing the need for improved risk assessment models. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 25(6):544–556
Miyake Y et al (2007) Home environment and suspected atopic eczema in Japanese infants: the Osaka maternal and child health study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 18(5):425–432
Gitterman BA, Bearer CF (2001) A developmental approach to pediatric environmental health. Pediatr Clin N Am 48(5):1071–1083
English K et al (2015) Assessing exposure of young children to common endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the home environment: a review and commentary of the questionnaire-based approach. Rev Environ Health 30(1):25–49
Hystad P et al (2014) Residential greenness and birth outcomes: evaluating the influence of spatially correlated built-environment factors. Environ Health Perspect 122(10):1095–1102
Hotez PJ (2013) Pediatric tropical diseases and the World’s children living in extreme poverty. J Appl Res Child Inform Pol Child Risk 4(2):10
Goldizen FC, Sly PD, Knibbs LD (2016) Respiratory effects of air pollution on children. Pediatr Pulmonol 51(1):94–108
Mill J, Petronis A (2008) Pre-and peri-natal environmental risks for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): the potential role of epigenetic processes in mediating susceptibility. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 49(10):1020–1030
Jackson RJ (2011) Designing healthy communities. Wiley, San Francisco
Rovira J, Domingo JL (2019) Human health risks due to exposure to inorganic and organic chemicals from textiles: a review. Environ Res 168:62–69
Pronczuk-Garbino J (2005) Children’s health and the environment: a global perspective: a resource manual for the health sector. World Health Organization, Geneva
Kurmi OP, Lam KBH, Ayres JG (2012) Indoor air pollution and the lung in low-and medium-income countries. Eur Respir Soc 4(1):239–254
Buonanno G et al (2013) Children exposure assessment to ultrafine particles and black carbon: the role of transport and cooking activities. Atmos Environ 79:53–58
Brown J, Cairncross S, Ensink JH (2013) Water, sanitation, hygiene and enteric infections in children. Arch Dis Child 98(8):629–634
Shirinde J, Wichmann J, Voyi K (2015) Allergic rhinitis, rhinoconjunctivitis and hay fever symptoms among children are associated with frequency of truck traffic near residences: a cross sectional study. Environ Health 14(1):84
English K et al (2017) Polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardant concentrations in faeces from young children in Queensland, Australia and associations with environmental and behavioural factors. Environ Res 158:669–676
Mohr O et al (2012) Evidence for airborne infectious disease transmission in public ground transport–a literature review. Eur Secur 17(35):20255
Leventhal T, Newman S (2010) Housing and child development. Child Youth Serv Rev 32(9):1165–1174
World Health Organization (2017) Don’t pollute my future! The impact of the environment on children’s health. World Health Organization
Zartarian V et al (2017) Children’s lead exposure: a multimedia modeling analysis to guide public health decision-making. Environ Health Perspect 125(9):097009
Tamayo-Uria I et al (2019) The early-life exposome: description and patterns in six European countries. Environ Int 123:189–200
Hanson MA, Skinner MK (2016) Developmental origins of epigenetic transgenerational inheritance. Environ Epigenet 2(1)
Müller MHB et al (2019) Prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants in northern Tanzania and their distribution between breast milk, maternal blood, placenta and cord blood. Environ Res 170:433–442
Jacobson JL et al (1984) The transfer of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) across the human placenta and into maternal milk. Am J Public Health 74(4):378–379
Zhao J et al (2013) Effect of intrauterine infection on brain development and injury. Int J Dev Neurosci 31(7):543–549
Honein MA et al (2017) Birth defects among fetuses and infants of US women with evidence of possible Zika virus infection during pregnancy. JAMA 317(1):59–68
Rogerson SJ et al (2018) Burden, pathology, and costs of malaria in pregnancy: new developments for an old problem. Lancet Infect Dis 18(4):e107–e118
Yawetz S, Barss V, Weller PF (2015, April) Immunizations during pregnancy. Up to date
Gopalan HN, Saksena S (1999) Domestic environment and health of women and children. In: Domestic environment and health of women and children. PNUMA, Delhi
De Cock KM et al (2013) The new global health. Emerg Infect Dis 19(8):1192
Rasmussen SA et al (2016) Zika virus and birth defects—reviewing the evidence for causality. N Engl J Med 374(20):1981–1987
Marcho C, Oluwayiose OA, Pilsner JR (2020) The preconception environment and sperm epigenetics. Andrology
Magnus P et al (2006) Cohort profile: the Norwegian mother and child cohort study (MoBa). Int J Epidemiol 35(5):1146–1150
Arnold C (2019) Baby steps forward: recommendations for better understanding environmental chemicals in breast milk and infant formula. Environ Health Perspect 127(6):064001
Demirjian A, Levy O (2009) Safety and efficacy of neonatal vaccination. Eur J Immunol 39(1):36–46
Simon AK, Hollander GA, McMichael A (2015) Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age. Proc R Soc B Biol Sci 282(1821):20143085
World Health Organization (2005) Children’s health and the environment: a global perspective: a resource manual for the health sector
Singh K et al (2013) Congenital malignant melanoma: a case report with cytogenetic studies. Am J Dermatopathol 35(8):e135–e138
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
English, K., Lau, C., Jagals, P. (2020). The Unique Vulnerabilities of Children to Environmental Hazards. In: Xia, Y. (eds) Early-life Environmental Exposure and Disease. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3797-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3797-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3796-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-3797-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)