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CHALLENGES FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE

Organized by World Information Transfer (WIT)
CO-sponsored by the GOVERNMENT OF UKRAINE
Supported by the Mission of Belarus to the United Nations

THURSDAY 10-1PM

CHEMICALS and CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Welcome and Opening Remarks: Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Conference Chair and Founder, WIT
H.E. Yuriy Sergeyev, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to UN
Andrei Abramov, Chief, DESA, NGO Division

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

Emily K. Shuman, MD, Dept. of Internal Medicine, Div. of Infectious Diseases, U of Michigan

Moderator: Ms. Tania Valerie Raguz, UNCSD 18 Vice-Chair, Eastern European States, Mission of Croatia to UN

theme:
CHALLENGES FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE

April 22, 2020
at the United Nations, New York

Lack of education, poor sanitation and poor hygiene create the greatest threat to children’s health in the African village setting. In Malawi, Africa, research demonstrates that chemical contamination of water from municipal, industrial, nuclear, and toxic waste is not the prevalent threat to human health. In the rural communities, fecal waste forms the basis for water contamination from E. coli and numerous deadly pathogens that stand in the way of social and economic development. This contamination issue can be reduced to 2 problem categories: (1) the biological contamination of surface water and (2) the biological contamination of water transferred from pure water resources such as deep boreholes.

This presentation will discuss the wide range of water contamination sources and propose some practical strategies for educating and equipping rural communities to be proactive in obtaining the health benefits of proper sanitation and hygiene for children.

PRESENTERS:

Kurt Dahlin, founder and President of Water Wells for Africa has been actively working to relieve suffering in Africa for 20 years. He is responsible for mobilizing the installation of over 120 new and rehabilitated boreholes that help bring clean water to 200,000 Africans each day. His love of Malawi is evident in his continual service to the physical and spiritual development of rural Africans.

Kristina Dahlin, 28 years old, made her first trip to Africa 13 years ago. She has a special interest in health education in the rural areas. She is currently working toward a Master’s Degree in Science as a Physician Assistant to better serve the world’s poor.

Danika Dahlin, 24 years old, has been making annual trips to Malawi for the past 7 years serving in villages. She trains team members and leadership for village visitation. In 2009, Danika was President of the Student Missions Union at Biola University.

World Ecology Report,В Spring 2010 Vol. XXII, No.В 1 (PDF:В 2.6 Mb)

World Ecology Report (WER) published since 1989 is a quarterly digest produced in Chinese, English, Russian and Ukrainian and distributed throughout the developed and developing world.

2010 Spring Vol XXII No 1

World Ecology Report,В WinterВ 2009В Vol. XXI, No.В 4 (PDF:В 2 Mb)

World Ecology Report (WER) published since 1989 is a quarterly digest produced in Chinese, English, Russian and Ukrainian and distributed throughout the developed and developing world.

This CD-ROM is an international World Information Transfer Project for all schools with English language programs and computers. The goal is to expand the knowledge base on Education, Teaching, Working, Society, Sustainable Development and English of all appropriate students.
The CD-ROM contains 1218 publications, totalling about 120000 pages.

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The Problem:
Chornobyl’s sarcophagus, also known as “the Shelter”, covering unit 4 of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant poses an environmental threat which grows as the global climate warms.В  The remains of the power plant continue to degrade from structural instability and the entry of water. The uncertain nature of the wreckage within the Shelter combined with high radiation fields immediately surrounding it, make the remediation a very challenging task. A decision-based approach known as the Shelter Implementation Plan (SIP) has been adopted as a way of resolving the many difficulties. Inside the Shelter, there remains about 96% of the irradiated nuclear fuel inventory of the reactor before the accident.

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Notwithstanding the recent questions as to the degree of potential health damage from Chernobyl’s legacy, WIT’S discussions with the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (Ukrainian spelling) indicate that the impact on children’s health has been severe. In some areas, thyroid cancer increases 80-fold, birth defects have doubled and many children have been stricken with immune deficiencies known as “nuclear AIDS”. The two nations most effected by Chernobyl, Belarus and Ukraine, report tens of thousands of premature deaths and a significant decline in tlie population growth.

The current speculations regarding the lack of genetic defects or deformities in the local human and animal populations bring into focus the need for further study of this phenomenon. Following the Chernobyl explosion, the greater contamination covered several regions of Ukraine and Belarus where the population received many times the recommended lifetime dose of radiation. Everyone who lived 160 km south and downwind of the explosion received 7 rems of exposure in the first three days, whereas 5 rems per year is allowed by US nuclear power workers. The findings that the most radioactively contaminated living organisms are thriving – cattish, carp, and other fish species examined near chernobyl show levels of radioactive contamination three to five times higher, and rodents show levels that are 10 times higher than in the US. – indicate the importance of further extensive research for the benefit of humanity.

SOURCE: Science Spectra. “In Hot Pursuit”, Issue 15, 1999