For Immediate Release - May 24, 2007
Contact:
Sue Lin Chong / schong@aecf.org / 410-223-283 / 202-997-1071 (mobile)
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New Child Health and Safety Report Finds That Canada, United States, and Mexico Share Critical Health Problems
Increasing Obesity, Respiratory Illness, Chemical Exposure Among the Health Issues Facing 120 Million Children in North America
BALTIMORE, MD – A new report examines the current health status and emerging health trends among children in North America – Growing Up in North America: Child Health and Safety in Canada, the United States, and Mexico – reveals that the three countries share a number of problematic health trends among children. This population of about 120 million makes up more than one-quarter of all people living in North America. Despite the enormous size of this group, there are significant gaps in knowledge and data about how well or how poorly children are actually doing.
Growing Up in North America: Child Health and Safety in Canada, the United States, and Mexico examines 58 health and safety indicators. There are surprising similarities across the continent on several measures, including:
- Obesity: All three countries report that the rates of obesity among young people are rising rapidly. More than a quarter of children in each country are obese. However, there is a significant paradox with this health problem. Despite high obesity rates, there are also a large number of children who live with hunger, malnutrition, and anemia.
- Respiratory Illness: This condition has become epidemic in large portions of North America, with some regions of the continent showing a fourfold increase in asthma prevalence in the last 20 years. In 2004, about 12 percent of children in the U.S. under the age of 18 had been diagnosed with asthma at some time in their lives and about nine percent were reported to currently have asthma. The report finds that this problem is particularly pronounced along the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Chemical Exposure: Continued exposure of children to lead in their environment is leading to developmental problems. Experts connect children’s exposure to chemicals in the environment to neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is estimated that between three percent and eight percent of the babies born in the U.S. will be affected by neuro-developmental disorders such as ADHD or mental retardation.
“Good health is critical for children to reach their fullest potential,” says Dr. William O’Hare, senior fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is sponsoring the series of reports. “There are surprising similarities in the health challenges in each of the three countries examined in this report. We are clearly seeing that increasing social and economic integration across the three countries means children are more likely to share the same issues and problems.”
The Growing Up in North America Project is designed to build an improved knowledge base for the three countries, focused particularly on measures of child well-being. The Project hopes this work will widen the scope of tri-lateral discussions at the governmental level to include our most important assets; our children.
Growing Up in North America: Child Health and Safety in Canada, the United States & Mexico has been published in three languages and is available at www.childreninnorthamerica.org. Louise Hanvey from the Canadian Council on Social Development was the principal author of the report. Information on all of the 58 health and safety indicators, population, migration, education, and economic data, as well as supplemental material, is also available on the website. The next reports from the Children in North America Project Partners will focus on economic security and civic engagement and are scheduled for release over the next two years.
The Children in North America Project strives to create a social and economic portrait of North America’s children, highlighting different dimensions of child well-being against the backdrop of the changing environments in which children and families are living. The first report – Growing Up in North America: Child Well-Being in Canada, the United States & Mexico – was issued in May 2006. The Project’s three partners are the Canadian Council on Social Development, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México.
The Canadian Council on Social Development is one of Canada’s key authoritative voices promoting better social and economic security for all Canadians. A national, self-supporting, membership-based organization, the CCSD’s main product is information and its main activity is research, focusing on issues such as child and family well-being, economic security, employment, poverty, and government social policies. For more information, visit www.ccsd.ca.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for children in the United States. The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. For more information, visit www.aecf.org.
Red por los Derechos de la Infancia en México (The Children’s Rights Network in Mexico) is the union of 58 Mexican civil organizations and networks, which develops programs to offer supports to Mexican children in vulnerable situations. To realize its mission for children and adolescents to know, exercise, and enjoy their rights, the Network promotes a social and cultural movement in favor of children’s rights, advocates for equitable legal frameworks and public policies, and strengthens the capacity of Mexican civil organizations dedicated to children. For more information, visit www.derechosinfancia.org.mx.
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