Christian Ethics Project #3

Christian_Ethics_3_Articles/WHO_Report_Urges_Cut_in_Birth_Rate_The_Guardian.doc

The Guardian (London)

March 5, 1992

WHO REPORT URGES CUT IN BIRTH RATE

BYLINE: PAUL BROWN, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT

SECTION: FOREIGN; Pg. 11

LENGTH: 410 words

DESTRUCTION of the world environment through over-population and water, soil and air pollution is killing millions of people annually and threatening worse catastrophes to come, a World Health Organisation commission said yesterday in Geneva.

The commission on health and the environment, in a report titled Our Planet, Our Health paints a dire picture of the future for the Earth's growing population unless urgent steps are taken.

The independent report was commissioned by WHO as its contribution to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June.

Population growth must be slowed and halted, the report says, otherwise the environmental resources needed to support the human race could be overwhelmed. Tied with the need to cut the birth rate is the maintenance and improvement of health.

The most immediate problems are ill health and premature death caused by biological agents in water, food, air and soil. They contribute to the premature death of millions of people, mostly women and children.

The report says that in developing countries 3.2 million infants or children die each year from diarrhoeal diseases, largely as a result of contaminated food and water. Two million die from malaria each year and 267 million are infected. Hundreds of millions suffer from intestinal parasites.

Both developed and developing countries have hundreds of millions suffering respiratory and other diseases caused by biological and chemical agents and pollution. Unnecessary physical and chemical hazards kill millions more, including half a million people who die each year in road accidents.

The immediate concern of developing countries is the need to reduce population size, the report says. The economic necessity for poorer groups to have large families must be removed. "Pressure on resources from growing population and growing consumption levels is so severe that to wait for economic expansion to reduce family size would be disastrous," the report says.

Only large-scale, sustained efforts to improve the education and health of the people, especially mothers and children, along with simultaneous provision of family planning services, will significantly reduce fertility rates and thus population size, it says.

World population is estimated to have been 2,500 million in 1950 and 5,300 million in 1990. It is expected to exceed 7,000 million by 2010.

STATE:  EARTH (94%); 

CITY:  RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (56%); 

COMPANY:  ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENT (59%);   WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION  (92%); WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (92%);  UNITED NATIONS  (57%);  UNITED NATIONS (57%); 

ORGANIZATION:  WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION  (92%); WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (92%);  UNITED NATIONS  (57%);  UNITED NATIONS (57%); 

GEOGRAPHIC:  SWITZERLAND (88%);  BRAZIL (79%);   EARTH (94%);   RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (56%); 

COUNTRY:  SWITZERLAND (88%);  BRAZIL (79%); 

SUBJECT:  HEALTH DEPARTMENTS (90%); BIRTHS & BIRTH RATES (90%); CHILDREN (90%); AIR POLLUTION (90%); PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (90%); DISEASES & DISORDERS (90%); POPULATION GROWTH (89%); FAMILY (89%); DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (89%); POPULATION SIZE (89%); POPULATION & DEMOGRAPHICS (89%); ECONOMIC GROWTH (78%); TROPICAL DISEASES (77%);  UNITED NATIONS INSTITUTIONS (77%); MALARIA (76%); FAMILY PLANNING (76%); POPULATION ESTIMATES & PROJECTIONS (75%);  FERTILITY & INFERTILITY (73%); CONSUMPTION (70%); REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CLINICS (61%); 

LOAD-DATE: May 6, 1993

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Copyright 1992 Guardian Newspapers Limited