About 5,500 children die each day around the world from diseases caused by polluted air, water and food, concludes a new study released Thursday by three United Nations agencies. The report details the deadly threat that environmental degradation poses to the Earth's most vulnerable citizens.

   Environmental contamination gives rise to a number of diseases, including diarrhea and acute respiratory infections - two of the leading causes of child mortality - charges the report, "Children in the New Millennium: Environmental Impact on Health."

   The study notes that thousands of children continue to die every day from pollution related diseases, despite improvements made over the past 10 years in both children's well being and the environment.

   "We have made great strides over the last decade," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). "Children are healthier today. There is more access to clean water."

   "But these disturbing figures show we have barely started to address some of the main problems," Bellamy added. "Far too many children are dying from diseases that can be prevented through access to clean water and sanitation."

   The 140 page report was produced by UNICEF, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It was released in conjunction with the three day United Nations (UN) General Assembly special session on children, which opened in New York on Wednesday.

   The conference, attended by more than 60 heads of state or government and 170 national delegations, aims to place children at the top of the world's agenda and foster more investment in essential social services for them. One of its main goals is to increase household access to hygienic sanitation facilities and affordable and safe drinking water.

   The UN report identifies a number of environmental problems that directly affect children, such as high levels of toxic chemicals and the degradation and depletion of natural resources. For example, lead contamination in the environment - much of it from leaded gasoline - causes permanent neurological and developmental disorders in children.

   Millions of children work in agriculture, putting them at high risk of pesticide poisoning. Children are also disproportionately vulnerable to global environmental problems, such as the impact of climate change, the depletion of the ozone layer, and the loss of the planet's biological diversity, the report warns.

   According to WHO, almost one third of the global disease burden can be attributed to environmental risk factors. More than 40 percent of this burden falls on children under five years of age, even though they account for just 10 percent of the world's population.

   A major contributing factor to these diseases is malnutrition, which affects around 150 million children and undermines their immune systems.

   Malnutrition and diarrhea form a vicious cycle. The organisms that cause diarrhea harm the walls of children's digestive tracts, which prevents them absorbing their food, causing even greater malnutrition - and vulnerability to disease.

   "People are most vulnerable in their youngest years," said WHO director general Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland. "This means that children must be at the center of our response to unhealthy environments."

   The report warns that the public has little awareness of children's special vulnerability to environmental health risks. Klaus Töpfer, UNEP's executive director, called for international action to raise awareness of the problem.

   "I am convinced that we need to elevate children's environmental health issues on the international agenda, both through the General Assembly's special session on children and then the World Summit on Sustainable Development," said Töpfer. "We should recognize that realizing children's rights and managing environmental challenges are mutually reinforcing goals."

   The report calls for increased national investment in early child care, including focusing on the immediate environments of children, like homes, schools, and communities. One notable success in many countries is the transition to unleaded fuel, which helps eliminate lead from the environment.

   Töpfer added that he hoped the new study "will inspire everyone who cares about children to take decisive action that will improve both their health and the environment." In the United States, a new bill was introduced Thursday that would increase federal research on hormone disrupting chemicals, among the most persistent and insidious environmental pollutants. Hormone disruptors are synthetic chemicals that block, mimic or otherwise interfere with naturally produced hormones that control how an organism develops and functions.

   Since the 1970s, the incidence of childhood cancers, learning disabilities, autism, diabetes, early puberty, and abnormal penile development has skyrocketed. Evidence linking these disorders with exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals has continued to mount.

   "What is especially troubling is that children are exposed to these chemicals in the womb and shortly after birth - periods of rapid development," said Dr. Theo Colborn, director of the World Wildlife Fund's wildlife and contaminants program.

   Representative Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat, has sponsored the Hormone Disruption Research Act of 2002, which would authorize up to $500 million for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to conduct a five year research program on hormone disruption.

   NIEHS would also be required to provide public reports on the extent to which hormone disrupting chemicals pose a threat to human health and the environment.

   "This legislation is long overdue. Not one chemical in use today has been adequately tested for its ability to undermine the construction of children's bodies and brains," said Dr. Colborn. "There is an urgent need to support innovative research designed to identify hazards that traditional toxicology has missed."