In 2002, UNEP, UNICEF and WHO published ‘Children in the New Millennium: Environmental Impact on Health’, which aims to inject new urgency in our efforts to address the interlinkages between environmental factors and the survival, protection and development of children. By providing information on specific environmental health threats facing children in their immediate surroundings, as well as on the impact of global environmental problems, it is intended to stimulate discussion, lead to intensified action, and help to elevate the issue on the international agenda. Providing an informed basis for action and practical recommendations at different levels, the three United Nations agencies involved hope to inspire everyone who cares about children to take decisive action that will improve both their health and that of the environment.

The UNEP-UNICEF-WHO book was conceived as an updated version of the well-received 1990 report ‘Children and the Environment’, which was produced by UNEP and UNICEF for the World Summit on Children and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio “Earth Summit”) in 1992.  ‘Children in New Millennium’ was developed as a means of developing a linkage between two intergovernmental reviews dealing with related aspects of the sustainable development agenda held in 2002 – the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children (at which the book was launched) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).

One of the key issues addressed by WSSD was the nexus between health, environment and poverty. Within this theme there was acknowledgement of the special vulnerabilities of children to environmental health threats. At WSSD a number of events were held and initiatives launched that will help to take the children’s environmental health issue forward, which UNEP has and will continue to play a role in, particularly the WHO-led Healthy Environments for Children Alliance, and the US/EPA-led partnership on children’s environmental health indicators. As background to the latter, UNEP was involved in the development of a brochure launched at WSSD entitled, “A Call to Action: Using Indicators to Measure Progress on Children’s Environmental Health”.

UNEP is a core partner in the WHO-led ‘Healthy Environments for Children Alliance’ (HECA).  The Director of the New York Office is UNEP’s focal point for HECA and UNEP is playing an active role on HECA’s interim Alliance-Building Task Force and three of its working groups (on structure and governance, priority areas of work, and advocacy and information).  HECA, as outlined in the draft mission statement (under considerations by its interim Alliance-Building Task Force), is a “world-wide alliance to intensify global action on environmental risks to children’s health that arise from the settings where they live, learn, play and earn, by providing knowledge, increasing political will, mobilizing resources, and catalyzing action”. The UNEP NYO is also regularly supplying the WHO HECA Secretariat with information and advice.

Other work that UNEP’s New York Office has undertaken on children’s environmental health issues includes a booklet produced with UNICEF in 1997 on ‘Childhood Lead Poisoning: Information for Advocacy and Action’. UNEP’s Headquarters also worked on a book entitled ‘Domestic Environment and Health of Women and Children’ with the Tata Energy Research Institute, and UNEP’s Regional Office for Europe produced an issue of its youth magazine ‘Teen Planet’ on the issue.