Treatment of children for the costs of environmental ills U.S. $76 (b) a year (HealthDay)

 children's health problems caused by the pollution of air, exposure to chemicals toxics and other pollutants environmental cost United States 76.6 billion in 2008, a new study concludes.

Which was 3.5 per cent of the country's total health spending, this year, compared to 2.8% in 1997, said researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and colleagues.

They examined the cost of cancer in children and chronic diseases such as asthma, autism, attention deficit disorder and intellectual disability related at least in part to toxins and contaminants in water, air, soil and foods, as well as in homes and neighbourhoods.

Costs included medical and fresh indirect such as labour productivity lost relatives to take care of sick children.

Among the key findings:

Cancers of the child cost 95 million.Poisoning by lead cost 50.9 billion.Autism costs 7.9 billion.Intellectual disability cost 5.4 billion.Exposure to mercury (methylmercury) cost 5.1 billion.Disorder ADHD cost $ 5 billion.Asthma cost 2.2 billion.

The study, funded by the Kresge Foundation, appears in the may issue of the journal Health Affairs.

"Left unchecked, will these preventable environmental factors continue to affect the health of our children and to raise health care costs," author of the study Leonardo Trasande, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said in a press release of the newspaper.

"By updating laws to protect the public health and environmental regulations, we can reduce the number of victims taken by factors on the health of children and the economy," said Trasande.