Science Wednesday: Learning to Keep Children Healthy
Posted on October 28th, 2009 - 10:30 AMAs parents, we all want what’s best for our children and like to see them grow healthy. I have taught my daughters to wash their hands, eat nutritious meals, wear protective equipment when practicing sports, and to wear sun block. Now that they are teenagers, I talk to them about the dangers of smoking, drinking and drugs, and of course…boys. However, working for the EPA has given me an increased awareness about another set of dangers—environmental exposures.
In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on protecting children from environmental contaminants and learning how the differences in behavior and physiology affect their exposures. I remember as a child playing with mercury, pouring it on the floor and pushing the silver blobs around with my fingers to form a bigger blob. We didn’t know it was bad for us, and neither did our parents.
Since then, the potential health effects from exposure to mercury and other toxic chemicals such as lead, arsenic, and pesticides have become the focus of environmental policies. We have also learned that diet is an important route of exposure to pesticides and other substances in the environment.
But, why are children a concern and how are their exposures different from those of adults?
Children’s organ systems are still developing and they may be more susceptible to environmental exposures. Their behavior and habits can also put children at higher risks. We have learned that contaminants can be deposited in toys and objects that children put in their mouth. Contaminants can also find their way into the milk of lactating mothers. Another example: on average, children younger than one year old inhale approximately six times the amount of air by body weight than an adult.
I love that my job helps me learn about keeping my kids healthy. But, even if you don’t work here, EPA has developed lots of useful information to share. Our Children’s Health Protection web site is a great place to start if you are looking for generalized information. One source I’ve been involved with, the Highlights for the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook, provides risk assessors, economists, and others a wealth of data and EPA recommendations on exposure factors needed to estimate childhood exposure to toxic contaminants.
About the author: Jacqueline Moya is a chemical engineer with EPA’s Office of Research and Development. She has been with EPA for 25 years. Her work focuses on increasing our understanding about exposure to susceptible populations.
Tags: Childrens Health, lead, lead poisoning, mercury, mercury poisoning, Science Wednesday
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Question of the Week
October 28th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Yeah, a lot of people had no idea that mercury was so bad for you. There are a lot of toxic metals out there that can be affecting our children. Thanks for raising awareness of this issue.
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October 28th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
this is very well messege thanks
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October 28th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
In my chronological analyze, the EPA concept has been issuing in objective to help people in nature conservancy, environment protective and to prevent more emission of CO2 in our O3. I think that the same idea should share to those who is looking for helping pragmatic to their children health wellbeing, will come to this University for learning about lead poisoning and This bad element chemic Hg+ for their children health protective.
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October 29th, 2009 at 8:36 am
The EPA is focusing on the environmental behavior of citizens in and around their homes because the EPA is politically barred from focusing on the behavior of the industrial corporations and mega farms that are causing the pollution in the first place. It won’t work. As the population grows and the economy expands, the pollution inevitably gets worse, until so many millions are sick and can’t go to work, the economy can no longer function.
To save ourselves we humans must agree to safely recycle 100% of all waste and garbage while we peacefully reduce our human population through peaceful family planning clinics in every neighborhood Worldwide. It’s both a local AND a global problem.
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October 30th, 2009 at 2:33 am
What you are doing is great work. I can remember when the toys had lead paint and also sharp and tiny parts that would easily fall off if not handled right. I think a major problem for children today is the actions of their parents. Some parents smoke an incredible amount of cigarettes every day and the kids in the house get to breath in all the second hand smoke. Then there is a new thing called “e-cigarettes” that is a battery operated device in the shape of a real cigarette that generates fumes to breath in and that smell like a real cigarette, and that the FDA has determined has many of the same types of cancer causing agents as a real cigarette. Kids might think e-cigarettes won’t hurt them if they used them. Then there are the real cigarette lighters made to look like childrens’ toys and which kids can easily and sometimes do mistake for toys, resulting in fires, deaths, and injuries. And some parents don’t know what makes a good diet so we have an epidemic of overweight kids that may have some serious health problems later on. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.
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