A DAMNING picture of the child health problems caused by deprivation and poverty in East Lancashire -- and the severe affects they cause in later life -- were revealed today.

The catalogue of statistics has prompted the area's public health director to call for fluoride to be added to the water supply and an MP demanded extra cash to be made available to add to the schemes already launched in a bid to tackle the issues.

The information is contained in East Lancashire Health Authority's first comprehensive report into child health.

Public health bosses say that although there is no way of knowing which area of the country has the biggest overall problem, East Lancashire has one of the worst.

The report shows young people in East Lancashire are more likely than those in other areas to:

Live in poor housing;

Have teenage pregnancies;

Have poor dental health;

Have a poor diet;

Leave school at a young age with fewer qualifications and

Have trouble forming relationships when they are older

The public health report 2000-1, shows that as a result of poverty and deprivation, children in the area have a poor start and go on to have poorer prospects for their adult lives.

The authority's public health director Dr Stephen Morton said: "Children raised in poverty are more likely to have learning difficulties, drop out of school, resort to drugs, commit crimes, be out of work as an adult, have teenage pregnancies and die from coronary heart disease.

"We do need to change aspirations and assumptions in young people. That needs to change and the expectations of their parents need to change too.

"We think children have specific disadvantages in East Lancashire. Some will need a while to turn around."

But he said there were a number of schemes in East Lancashire already up and running and others proposed which, over time, would improve things.

According to the report more than half of the wards locally suffer badly from child poverty and 10 are in the top 100 nationally with the highest levels. The Ribble Valley had the lowest level in the area.

The area has large amounts of housing, especially privately rented, of poor quality and damp, which can lead to a higher incidence of asthma among children.

More than half the wards in Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale are among the top 25 per cent nationally for poor housing.

The report said 41 per cent of East Lancashire wards are in the lowest 25 per cent for educational attainment nationally.

Sixty two of the 843 recorded drug users are aged between 15 and 19 and 229 reported their first use was in that age group.

Dr Morton said local children were taking less physical exercise, partly due to small terraced housing, without front gardens and on-street parking.

The state of local children's teeth is worse than national figures, with the average five-year-old having more than two teeth either decayed, filled or missing, compared with the national target of just one.

Teenage pregnancies are the second highest in the north west, with figures for 1999 showing 55.8 girls out of every 1,000 in East Lancashire aged 15- 17 became pregnant.

The report also showed that, although the numbers of children truanting from school were around the national average, the numbers of crimes committed by young people were high.

It also said the amount of nutritionally-rich foods eaten, including fruit and vegetables, were related to social class, with nationally children in the poorest class eating an average of 15 per cent less than the highest.

It said: "Poor diet in adulthood is associated with coronary heart disease, osteoporosis, anaemia, dental disease and obesity."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "The Government has clearly failed to deal with some major problems in our area and more must be done."

Greg Pope, Hyndburn MP, said: "There is no doubt that poor housing and poor health are clearly interwoven. That is why we had the housing minister Lord Falconer here recently. Over a long period of time East Lancs has lost out in terms of money for health and housing.

"It is worth noting that ELHA had received increases in money both this year and last but it is not enough. I shall be continuing to press ministers on the issues of health and housing."

Chief officer with Blackburn Community Health Council, Nigel Robinson, said: "I think the figures are alarming in some respects if you look at them raw, but you have got to look at what is happening behind it and it is getting better."

David Lamb, from the Child Poverty Action Group's Manchester base, said: "If you solve the child health difficulties then a lot of the adult health problems will be a lot less, because if they grow up healthy as children, they should stay healthy."

The report recommended more strategies for promoting good parenting, teenage-friendly health and advice centres and wider health promotion.

Lord Tony Greaves, Liberal Democrat peer for Pendle, said: "The problem is that East Lancashire is full of small and medium sized towns next to the countryside and people simply don't recognise the problems like they do in the middle of Salford or Liverpool.

"We lose out to Manchester and Liverpool when it comes to allocating resources. We need more recognition and more money from the Government to tackle these problems."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We recognise there are pockets of deprivation within East Lancashire, as there are in many other parts of the country, and the results of this consultation exercise will be a key criterion in deciding the allocation of NHS resources in future."