Your health endangered.

• Author: Brown, Lester R.
• Position: HEALTH BEAT - Diseases

HHEALTH CHALLENGES are becoming more numerous as infectious diseases--such as SARS, West Nile vires, and avian flu--continue to emerge, and thrive. In addition, the accumulation of chemical pollutants in the environment is starting to take a toll. While infectious diseases are fairly well understood, the health effects of many environmental pollutants are not yet known.

Air and water pollutants are damaging the health of people everywhere. A joint study by the University of California and the Boston Medical Center shows that some 200 human diseases, tanging from cerebral palsy to testicular atrophy, are linked to pollutants. Other diseases that can be caused by pollutants include an astounding 37 forms of cancer, plus heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, dermatitis, bronchitis, hyperactivity, deafness, sperm damage, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

Nowhere is pollution hurting human health more than in China, where deaths from cancer have eclipsed those from heart ailments and cerebrovascular disease. A Ministry of Health survey of 30 cities and 78 counties reveals a rising tide of cancer. Populations of some "cancer villages" are being decimated by the disease.

Pan Yue, vice minister of China's Environmental Protection Administration, believes his country "is dangerously near a crisis point." The reason, he contends, is that Marxism has given way to "an unrestrained put suit of material gain devoid of morality. Traditional Chinese culture with its emphasis on harmony between human beings and nature was thrown aside."

The new reality is that, each year, China grows richer and sicker. Although there are frequent pronouncements urging steps to reduce pollution, these official statements largely are ignored. There is not yet a real commitment by the Chinese government to control pollution. China's Environmental Protection Administration has fewer than 300 employees, all located in Beijing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in contrast, has 17,000 employees, most of whom work in regional offices around the country where they can observe and monitor pollution at the local level.

Yet, the U.S. still is feeling the effects of pollution. The World Health Organization reports an estimated 3,000,000 deaths worldwide each year from air pollutants--times the number of traffic fatalities. In the U.S., air pollution annually claims 70,000 lives, compared with the country's 45,000 traffic deaths.

Meanwhile, a...