POLLUTION DANGERS TO CHILDREN NOTED

Children face far greater risks from global pollution than do adults, a U.N. report says. "Children are too often the victims of pollution - their young bodies make them far more vulnerable than adults to the poisons we spew into the air, and toxins we sow on Earth," said the UNICEF report. The report by the U.N. Children's Fund, titled "Children and the Environment," was compiled in association with the U.N. Environment Program and was released on Tuesday, World Environment Day. It listed many of the ills facing children in developing and developed countries alike. Forty thousand children under the age of five die daily, it said. About 100 million children live on the streets, where they are forced to scavenge, steal and often fall prey to drugs, prostitution and gangs, it said. An increasing number of children are AIDS orphans, whose parents have died from the dread disease, it said. The number of children living in poverty in the United States has risen by more than 3 million over the past 10 years, the report said. Despite the discouraging news of poverty, sickness and death, the report said improved international cooperation on the environment offers hope.