Lagos — Issues affecting Africa are expected to top the August work programme for the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which begins tomorrow (Thursday) in Arusha, Tanzania.

Also a UN report has highlighted children's vulnerability to pollution at different ages, with over 30 per cent of the global burden of disease in children attributable to environmental factors.

In a statement by the global group, the Council's President for the month of August, Ambassador Pascal Gayama of the Republic of the Congo (ROC) told newsmen at the UN Headquarters in New York that the 15-member body will discuss the political aspect of the Darfur crisis.

The meeting is taking place after the Council earlier adopted a landmark resolution authorising the creation of a hybrid African Union (AU)-UN operation to quell the violence in the Sudanese region.

The UN and AU Special Envoys for Darfur, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, are also expected to host three days of talks in Arusha, Tanzania, with those rebel groups and militias that have not signed the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The President also announced the convening of an open debate in the Council on the prevention and settlement of conflict in Africa to come up with new ideas on what is to be done given that there are many factors and elements involved in prevention.

"The solution to the Darfur situation is not a military one. It is political", Gayama said.

Additionally, the Council is expected to take up Somalia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and, while not on the formal work programme, Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Also on the body's agenda are the impending expiration of the mandates of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The Council also plans to hold an open debate on the Middle East later this month to assess the situation which is greatly changing there this month, Gayama said.

Overall, he said "this is a month that should be lighter for everyone given the fact that there's the General Assembly, the major political event, in September".

In a related development, the United Nations health agency has released the first ever report highlighting youngsters' special susceptibility to harmful chemical exposures at different periods of their growth, and the potential effects later in life.

According to the UN World Health Organisation's (WHO) Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals, the most comprehensive work yet undertaken on the scientific principles to be considered in assessing such health risks, the stage in a child's development when exposure occurs may be just as important as the magnitude of the exposure.

Emerging evidence suggests that an increased risk of certain diseases in adults such as cancer and heart disease can result in part from exposures to certain environmental chemicals during childhood.

"Children are not just small adults. Children are especially vulnerable and respond differently from adults when exposed to environmental factors, and this response may differ according to the different periods of development they are going through, said Terri Damstra, WHO's team leader for the Inter-regional Research Unit.

"For example, their lungs are not fully developed at birth, or even at the age of eight, and lung maturation may be altered by air pollutants that induce acute respiratory effects in childhood and may be the origin of chronic respiratory disease later in life".

Air and water contaminants, pesticides in food, lead in soil, as well many other environmental threats which alter the delicate organism of a growing child may cause or worsen disease and induce developmental problems. Children have different susceptibilities during different life stages, due to their dynamic growth and developmental processes.

Some examples of health effects resulting from developmental exposures prenatally and at birth include miscarriage, still birth, low birth weight and birth defects; in young children, infant mortality, asthma, neuron-behavioural and immune impairment; and in adolescents, precocious or delayed puberty.

The vulnerability of children is increased in degraded environments. Neglected and malnourished children suffer the most. For example, lead is known to be more toxic to children whose diets are deficient in calories, iron and calcium. One in five children in the poorest parts of the world will die before the age of five mainly because of environment-related diseases.