Forest Kids

Forest Kids
Take the trees that surround the children at Norwegian forest
schools or the children of Sangster’s Nature Kindergarten.
The link between trees and human health is becoming clearer,
and sadly, that’s become evident when we lose them to development
or disease. Not only do they protect the planet from global
warming, they also filter smog and pollutants like carbon monoxide,
lead, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, making the air safer to
breathe, according to a 2012 report from Trees Ontario called “A
Healthy Dose of Green.”
Those pollutants have been linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular
disease, diabetes and cancer.
By the time an invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer
killed 100 million trees in southwestern Ontario, Michigan and
Ohio, the U.S. Forest Service made another ominous discovery.
Trees weren’t the only things dying from the blight. So were Americans.
Over an 18-year-period, researchers found that areas of infestation
had 15,000 more cardiovascular deaths and 6,000 more deaths
as a result of respiratory problems than uninfected regions, even
when demographics were factored in. No causal link was proven,
but the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, was important in associating trees with human health.
Studies have found similar correlations between health and nature,
including a recent one in The New England Journal of Medicine
that looked at almost 1,000 European children and found
those who grew up on farms were 30 to 50 per cent less likely to
have asthma.
And remember the phytoncides emitted by evergreens, which
are associated with lower stress hormones? They are also believed
to boost immunities by stimulating production of antioxidants
that prevent cancer and cells that fight tumours and infections like
influenza and colds.
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