Eco Friendly Lifestyle in Diapers?

There has been a lot said and written about the probable harm or danger of disposable diapers such as Pampers or Huggies for health and the environment. They contain super-absorbent gelling materials (or AGM) and these are being linked to childhood asthma and a decrease in sperm production among boys. Environmental cost of the mass production and waste of disposable diapers is also great. Even the so called "Eco Friendly disposable diapers" are no better, if we are to trust people in the the Tumble Tots organization. Even the comparative environmental value of the ordinary diapers from cloth and their usage are disputable, some say (see the paragraphs below).

The basic facts are quite amazing: An average baby goes through 5,000 diapers in its life. Around 95 % of these are disposable. In US, the diapers "made up 3.4 million tons of waste, or 2.1 percent of U.S. garbage, in landfills in 1998". I do not know the figures of today but I suspect they are higher, not lower.

"Diapers in landfills in underdeveloped countries are especially problematic because they often aren't properly disposed, and excrement leaks into the local water supply." (Source: "The Poop on Eco-Friendly Diapers")

Procter and Gamble's motivated spokespersons of course claim that energy and water used for growing cotton, making, distributing and washing the cloth diapers can compare with the similar burden for the environment which the disposable ones produce. Of course, the promoters of cloth diapers and many other green organizations disagree, but estimating these two burdens through a whole life-cycle analysis is next to impossible. Many untested assumptions and unmeasurable circumstances are involved, whoever is trying to make such an estimation.

If you know any accurate or reliable results or measurements in this category, please inform me and other readers of this blog in the comments to this post.