Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn

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Regional Ministerial Forum on
Environment and Health
in South East Asian and East Asian Countries
Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn
Chulabhorn Research Institute, Thailand
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World Health Organization (WHO)

• 13 million deaths worldwide could be prevented
  every year by making our environments healthier.
• One of the most vulnerable to unhealthy
  environments is children.

• Children under the age of five 1/3 of all
  disease is caused by the environmental factors.

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Childhood Death

• Better environmental management could prevent
• 40 of deaths from malaria,
• 41 of deaths from lower respiratory infections,
  and
• 94 of deaths from diarrhoeal disease

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Five of the eight Millennium Development Goals
have direct relevance to environment and health.

• Less hunger, poverty, disease burden,
• Greater survival prospects for children,
• Less risks for the vulnerable groups, including
  women, children and the elderly, and
• A safer and sustaining environment that provides
  the natural resources for growth and prosperity
  for current and future generations.

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Some of the highlights of issues

• Climate change and its impacts on the environment
  and on health
• Air pollution, including indoor and outdoor air,
  as well as haze, dust storms and atmospheric
  brown clouds, and their impacts on human health
• The need for continued surveillance of and
  research pertaining to infectious diseases,
  including avian influenza
• The need for better management and coordination
  in quality control of water supply systems to
  address emerging issues

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Some of the highlights of issues

• The need for awareness education and capacity
  building to address the issue of invasive alien
  species
• The need for employment of appropriate techniques
  in the management of municipal and health-care
  wastes, in view of potential toxic and infectious
  impacts
• The importance of research into the etiology of
  disease with a view to determining effective
  preventive measures.

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• Chulabhorn Graduate Institute (CGI)
• International Graduate Programs
• Chemical Biology
• Environmental Toxicology
• Applied Biological Sciences
• Environment Health

• Inter-university program in Environmental
  Toxicology, Technology and Management (CGI /
  Mahidol University / AIT)

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Research in the Area of Environmental Health
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (2001)

• Of the 15 cities
• in the world with the
• highest levels of
• particulate matter and
• sulfur dioxide, 12 and 6,
• respectively, are situated
• in Asia.

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Deaths from Urban Air Pollution (WHO, 2005)
800,000 deaths each year worldwide
http//www.who.int/heli/risks/urban/en/
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Air Pollution - Cancer

• Carcinogenic compounds in urban air pollution
  pose a significant threat to health

• Polycyclic Aromatic Lung cancer
• Hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Benzene Leukemia
• 1,3-Butadiene Lymphoma and
• 
  hematopoietic cancer

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PAHs in ambient air in various cities
Ambient PAHs Levels (ng/m3)
City, Country
Asia
32-84
Bangkok, Thailand
13-177
Jakarta, Indonesia
8-265
Seoul, Korea
Others
83-415
Silesia, Poland
15-36
Montreal, Canada
2-22
Melbourne, Australia
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Benzene in ambient air in various cities
Benzene Levels (?g/m3)
City, Country
250
Lagos, Nigeria
108
Bangkok, Thailand
76
Cotonou, Benin
24
Grenoble, France
3
Copenhagen, Denmark
1 ppb benzene 3.19 ?g/m3 data used here is
33.71 ppb ambient roadside levels in Bangkok.
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Cancer risk associated with PAHs exposure levels
measured in Bangkok
Predicted Cancer Cases in Bangkokb
Groups
Estimated Lung Cancer Riska
PAHs Exposure (BaP Equivalent)
PAH-DNA adducts
(ng/m3)
(cases / 8 million)
(cases / 100,000)
(adducts/108 nucleotides)
Traffic Police Office Police School Children
5920 1120 1200
1.6 1.2 0.45
7.37 1.36 1.50
74 14 15
a, According to WHO Air Quality Guidelines for
Europe, excess lifetime cancer risk is 10
additional cancer cases per 100,000 exposed
individuals at 1 ng/m3 BaP cancer risk
based on 8-hour exposure b, Predicted cancer
cases in Bangkok based on the BaP exposure level
in each study group and a population of 8
million
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Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI)
as lead regional institution for coordinating
the assessment studies on Atmospheric Brown
Cloud impacts on human health
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Collaborations

• National level
• Regional level
• International level
• involve governments, the private sector,
  academic, research and non-governmental
  organizations for increased knowledge on
  environmental health problems and the response
  measures required.

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Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI)

• WHO Collaboration Center for Capacity Building
  and Research in Environmental Health Science
• UNEP Center of Excellence in Environmental and
  Industrial Toxicology

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Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI)

• CRI is committed to assisting countries in the
  region in the development of human resources and
  capacity building.

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The Opening Scientific Segment
Emerging Environmental Health Concerns
---Strengthening Science in Policies---
Initiating a Dialogue
Chairperson Professor Dr. HRH Princess
Chulabhorn President, Chulabhorn Research
Institute, Thailand Panelists Professor Sir
Gordon Conway, KCMG DL FRS Professor of
International Development, Imperial College
London, U.K. Professor Margaret Liu Foreign
Adjunct Professor, Karolinska Institute,
Stockholm, Sweden Facilitator Professor Nay Htun
IRI/Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.