This policy brief (part of PRB’s Emerging Policy Issues in Population, Health, and Environment series) explores children’s special vulnerability to environmental hazards such as smoke from traditional fuels and from emerging risks such as exposure to an increasing number of hazardous chemicals.

Globalisation has often had negative effects on health, for example, an increase in trade in cigarettes and unhealthy food have led to a deterioration of people's health particularly in middle income countries. Damage to the physical environment in developing countries caused largely by unsustainable rates of consumption in rich countries is a further process of globalisation that poses long term threats to the health of people in developing countries.

Do women and men benefit equally from water and sanitation activities' Do they have adequate control over design and management of services' The move towards the community provision of services and greater involvement of women in water supply and sanitation (WSS) policy has done little to address gender relations and inequalities. Programmes have often resulted in heavier workloads for women, with their work often taken for granted. Meanwhile, men continue to fill managerial, decision-making and technical positions.

Refrigeration of food and other perishable goods, such as vaccines and medicines, is a big challenge in off-grid areas of southern countries. Today, most off-grid refrigerators run on kerosene or diesel, causing GHG emissions and local air pollution. At the same, solar radiation tends to be high in climates that have great needs for cooling, thus, providing an ideal environment for solar powered cooling appliances.

The top two killer diseases in the low-income countries is due to exposed risks of Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Strengthening Water Sanitation and Hygiene Treasuring Health (SWASHTHA) adopted an integrated approach to reduce the health risks due to IAP and WASH. A combination of three approaches - Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), Household Centred Environmental Sanitation (HCES) and School Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) was applied for sustainable promotion of IAP and WASH interventions.

Community led total sanitation (CLTS) is an innovative methodology for mobilising communities to eliminate open defecation. Practical Action and Umande Trust implemented the project 'Realising the Right to Total Sanitation' in Nakuru, Kenya adapting this methodology to an urban context. This document documents the experience of this project.