[Somatic development of seven-year-old Silesian children in view of environment pollution]

Silesia is a very variable area as far as industrialization and urban development are concerned. This involves a variation of material--living conditions of its inhabitants; and this, together with the pollution of natural environment, influences the people's health state. Children are the most vulnerable to environmental stimuli. Children's somatic development is a sensitive meter of their health state. The somatic development parameters are subject to modification under the influence of school factors. Elimination of these allows a more accurate evaluation of somatic development influenced by material-living conditions and the outside environment factors. The aim of the study is evaluation of the influence of outer environment on the state of somatic development of seven-year-old children who start education in primary school. In the years 1998-1999 a research was conducted on somatic development of primary school children form a selection of towns/cities differing in the degree of environment pollution. The control group for comparison consisted of children from ecologically clean town of Szczawnica, which is situated at a distance form industrialized, Silesian area. The children subject to analysis were seven years old and had been living from their birth in Brenna, Bytom Bobrek, Miasteczko Slaskie, Pyskowice and Tamowskie Góry. Their somatic development was evaluated on the basis of fundamental parameters: weight and body height and the BMI. The accumulated material was statistically handled with the use of standard deviation scale Z, where the development norms of the Warsaw Mother and Child Institute, from 1983, were the reference point. It was found that there are environmental differences in somatic development, in the researched population, more clearly seen in the group of boys. The lowest weight, body height and BMI are features of girls and boys from holiday-agricultural towns of Brenna and polluted Bytom Bobrek, whereas the highest values were found among the children from Miasteczko Slaskie, who receive much social and health assistance from the zinc-mill plant and the foundation in aid of children "Miasteczko Slaskie", and [the children] from Pyskowice which lies at the outskirts of Silesia. In comparison to development standards of the Mother and Child Institute only the children from Miasteczko Slaskie and Pyskowice slightly exceeded the weight standards. The remaining children were smaller or close to the standard. The children of Miasteczko Slaskie and Pyskowice clearly surpassed in weight, body height and BMI their peers from Szczawnica. The weight and height of seven-year-old children, especially boys, seems to be a good/sensitive indicator of the influence of environmental conditions on children's development.