The murder in Honduras of Berta Caceres, an indigenous woman and one of the leading environmental activists in Latin America, adds a new dimension to environmental problems: the risk to their lives of those trying to improve it. Berta Caceres murder occurred despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) in 2009 had forced the Honduras government to grant her police protection.
In 1975, at the Mexico City First World Conference on Women, Vandana Shiva, the Indian scholar and environmental activist, introduced the issue of women’s relationship to the environment. At the time, concern was raised about the depletion of forestry resources and women’s role in agriculture, and a connection was made between the impact environmental development had on women.
Over the past several decades, demand for resources and industrial processes have been responsible for increasing levels of pollution and for the degradation of air, water and land. In addition to unrestricted exploitation of natural resources, unsound agricultural practices have had devastating effects on the environment and on people’s health and quality of life. Women and children have been primarily affected.
Women, especially those who are pregnant and/or living in rural or marginal suburban areas in developing countries, are particularly susceptible to environmental threats. Until recently, women had few choices regarding their lifestyle and fewer opportunities to change unsatisfactory domestic or work conditions and improve their families’ and their own health.
Women are susceptible to health problems and hazards because of their roles as home-managers, economic providers, and their role in reproduction. The reproductive system of pregnant women is especially vulnerable to environmental contaminants. Every step in the reproductive process can be altered by toxic substances in the environment.
The developing foetus is susceptible to environmental factors when the mother is exposed to toxic substances in the workplace. Furthermore, because foetal nutrition is entirely dependent on the mother, the factors that affect maternal nutrition and maternal health also affect the foetus.
The exposure of pregnant women to physical and chemical contaminants can affect intrauterine development. Although the placenta is an effective barrier against many substances, some toxic chemicals can pass through the placenta and enter the blood of the foetus, sometimes reaching higher concentrations than in the mother. Some of these substances can even affect the foetus but not the mother.
Foetal sensitivity to different substances varies with the gestational age. In the first two weeks after conception the embryo can be fatally damaged by toxic substances such as benzene, lead or methyl mercury. Exposure to toxic substances between the third and ninth week of pregnancy can lead to severe malformations of the foetal organs, which at this stage have begun to develop. At least 3% of babies are born with birth defects, 10 to 15% of which are caused by exposure to environmental factors such as chemicals, radiation, viruses and drugs.
High doses of radiation can also have serious consequences for the foetus, particularly when the exposure occurs between the eighth and fifteenth week of pregnancy.
Children are even more susceptible than adults to environmental contamination because they are in the process of development, and their immune systems and detoxification mechanisms have not reached their full potential. As a result, toxic agents in food, air, and water have a more serious effect.
The quality of the environment will determine to a great extent whether a child will survive its first year of life and how well he will develop. It has been shown that in populations that live in a clean environment, free of toxic environmental influences, only one in 100 children dies before its first birthday. However, in poor communities lacking basic health services and where the community is easily exposed to harmful environmental factors, as many as one in every two children may die before the age of one.
Women in local organisations have first-hand knowledge of the effect of environmental degradation in their communities. Through their work in their communities and with the media, women can provide practical examples of environmental abuse, and help raise awareness that can lead to more effective political action.
- Cesar Chelala, MD, PhD, an international public health consultant, is the author of Maternal Health and Environmental Impact on Child Health, both publications of the Pan American Health Organisation.
