CONTENTS:

1 - GLOBAL: Good for health and reducing global warming
2 - LIBERIA: Breaking breastfeeding myths


1 - GLOBAL: Good for health and reducing global warming

JOHANNESBURG, 27 November (IRIN) - Eat less meat, have smaller herds of animals,
switch to more efficient stoves that pollute less, and develop more sustainable
public transport systems are some of the lifestyle changes and technical fixes
that could save millions of lives and reduce global warming.

This is the message in a series of studies published by a group of scientists
in the respected British medical journal, The Lancet, to make a case for health
at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen (COP15), starting
on 12 December 2009.

Each study focuses on one sector where greenhouse gas emissions need to be
reduced, including household energy use, urban land transport, electricity
generation, and food and agriculture. The effect on health of short-lived
greenhouse pollutants, produced by several sectors, is also reviewed.

Reducing preventable deaths is the aim: two million people die from indoor air
pollution every year; 1.2 from outdoor air pollution; 1.3 million from road
traffic injuries.

Each study examines the health implications of actions to reduce carbon dioxide
(CO2) and other greenhouse gases in high- and low-income countries. Supplying
cleaner household energy to the poor and raising the fitness levels of the 3.2
million who die every year from physical inactivity would be simple solutions,
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, a scientist with the World Health Organization and a
contributor to the studies, told IRIN.

"We [health professionals] cannot become spectators," said Mike Gill, of the
University of Surrey, a co-author of a study that urged doctors to discuss
climate change with patients.

"We have the evidence, a good story to tell that dramatically shifts the lens
through which climate change is perceived, and we have public trust," He wrote
with co-author Robin Stott.

Paul Wilkinson, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is the
lead author of a study suggesting that one the most cost-effective
climate-health linkages - implementing national programmes that offer
low-emission stove technology for burning local biomass fuels in poor countries
- could avert millions of premature deaths.

"The cleaner cook-stove technology means that the same fuel can be burnt with
greater efficiency but much lower exposure to particle pollution in the indoor
air. It does not add to the cost of fuel, but does entail cost for the stove
itself. This is only about US$50, however, and could be subsidized, of course,"
he told IRIN.

"There could be additional benefits from access to electricity or other 'clean'
[by comparison to the incomplete burning of biomass fuel] sources, but the costs
and effects are more complex to quantify."

Gill and Stott recommended setting up a low-carbon development fund of at least
US$150 billion to help developing countries implement some of the clean energy
strategies.

The money could be raised by imposing a $5 tax on each of the 20 billion
barrels of oil used every year by the 30 member countries of the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development, and a tax on airline tickets.

Eat less meat

The food and agriculture sector contributes 10 percent to 12 percent of total
greenhouse gas emissions worldwide said Sharon Friel, of the Australian National
University, and Alan Dangour, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, in a study calling for a 30-percent reduction in livestock production.
This would lower emissions, while less intake of animal saturated fat would
improve health.

"By 2030, rising demand for meat, especially in countries with transition
economies, is expected to drive up livestock production by 85 percent from that
in 2000, which will lead to further substantial increases in emissions," Friel
and Dangour noted.

However, the advantages of reduced animal-source food production may apply only
in countries with high production levels; livestock production and the
consumption of animal-source products, and the associated emissions, are still
relatively low in many low-income countries. The "pending challenge in public
health is to ensure access to a diet of sufficient quantity and quality for all
populations", they commented.

Globally, production per head of energy, fats, proteins, and micronutrients had
increased, and was enough to meet everyone's needs, yet almost a billion people
have protein-energy undernutrition, most of whom are also undernourished in
micronutrients and minerals, such as iron and zinc, said Friel and Dangour.

Andrew Haines, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
suggested that "In view of the trillions of dollars likely to be spent on
greenhouse gas mitigation in the coming decades, the relatively small resources
needed to guide investments along paths bringing the world closer to its health
and climate goals would be money well spent."

jk/he[ENDS]


2 - LIBERIA: Breaking breastfeeding myths

MONROVIA, 27 November (IRIN) - "My first kid died because I breastfed him after
my husband had had an affair," Tina Kollie, mother of a seven-month-old in the
Liberian capital, Monrovia, told IRIN. She has not breastfed any children since.
"[If I breastfeed], whenever my husband has an affair my child gets sick."

Rebecca Carter in the Buzzi Quarter neighbourhood said she stopped breastfeeding
after a few months because she could not have sexual intercourse while
breastfeeding - the semen will mix with breast milk, she said, making it toxic
for the child.

"I didn't want my husband to go with other women so I could not breastfeed," she
told IRIN. "I had to be available for him."

UNICEF estimates that just 35 percent of Liberian mothers practice exclusive
breastfeeding; a survey by NGO Action contre la Faim (ACF) in Monrovia estimated
44 percent in 2008.

ACF staff regularly hear widespread beliefs about breastfeeding perils: It is
dangerous to breastfeed while pregnant as it could weaken the unborn infant;
women should not breastfeed if a previous child has died while breastfeeding;
and breastfeeding over time is dangerous as breast milk can mix with blood.

Instead Kollie, Carter and dozens of other women IRIN spoke to, feed their
babies mainly rice and water.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend feeding newborns only breast
milk for the first six months to reduce vulnerability life-threatening diseases
or malnutrition. Aid agencies in Liberia are trying to re-frame breastfeeding
and infant nutrition issues as a health issue.

"Working with communities on breastfeeding is a long, drawn-out job, because
malnutrition is often not seen as a sickness, but is associated with
witchcraft-like beliefs," ACF Liberia head, Massimo Stella, told IRIN.

UNICEF nutrition specialist Kinday Samba agreed, saying aid agencies have to
support the Health Ministry over the long term to bolster exclusive
breastfeeding. "We won't see huge changes immediately."

Men, grandmothers key

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), ACF and others
are encouraging women to exclusively breastfeed their babies up to at least six
months.

Dispelling breastfeeding myths is not the key to changing women's behavior,
ACF's Stella said; all staff can do is inform communities of the benefits of
breastfeeding and trigger discussion, he said.

Women who have already changed their feeding practices can show that it is not
dangerous, encouraging others to attempt change, ACF's care practices manager,
Audrey Gibeaux, told IRIN.

ACF must also target men and grandmothers in the discussion, she said.

"I always try to encourage men to come, as they have so much decision-making
power in Liberian households.and grandmothers must be present as the knowledge
they pass down is considered very valuable."

Liberia has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in West Africa and
grandmothers often care for babies.

All fronts

Breastfeeding messages must be spread through every channel to be effective,
UNICEF's Samba said, citing radio, posters, community groups and clinic visits
as examples.

UNICEF is developing messages to be disseminated on all of these fronts, she
said.

Stella agreed: "We found the prevention activities are more effective if they
take place simultaneously at country level, community level and school level."

Monitoring the impact of these efforts is not easy, Stella said. "Immediate
evidence of the links among increased knowledge, behavior change and improved
health cannot all be measured in medical or statistical terms."

A UNICEF-supported infant feeding practices survey is due out in late 2009,
while ACF will carry out a study of its activities' impact in February 2010.

More red peppers, more breastfeeding

One village where knowledge has translated to behavior change among some
families is Gbarnga-ta, 15km outside of Gbarnga in Bong County, where according
to NGO Caritas a third of under-five children are undernourished.

Caritas, supported by CRS, has been working with residents to improve
agricultural productivity and infant feeding practices.

Before, women and men thought having sex while still breastfeeding was
dangerous, resident Helena Sharif told IRIN.

It was partly the success of the agricultural activities that made villagers
more receptive to the NGO's breastfeeding messages, giving them traction, say
villagers.

Residents are now producing surplus aubergines and red hot peppers which they
sell to nearby villages, giving them money to pay school fees, said Sharif.

Helena's husband Tony Sharif is relieved. "We don't worry so much about [having
sex while breastfeeding] now. We do it. Things are much better than they were,"
he said, prompting laughter and nods from fellow villagers.

While intensive efforts may work, some aid experts are skeptical that behavior
change can be effective on a mass scale.

"It's very difficult to change people's behavior," said European Commission
humanitarian aid department (ECHO) representative in Liberia Koen Henckaerts.

"I'm skeptical that you can [do so] in the short term or on a mass scale. It
takes a long time, and it is related to wider, entrenched issues such as
poverty."

aj/pc/np
[ENDS]


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