EPA's Children's Environmental Health Listserv

The EPA has created a special edition Children's Environmental Health Listserv that is meant to enhance collaborations by sharing children's environmental health information and upcoming events and activities. It is free, and they keep your email address private. To subscribe, send an e-mail to coopwood.theodore@epa.gov. You can unsubscribe at anytime by using the link below or by sending an e-mail to: unsubscribe-ceh-list@lists.epa.gov.

In The latest Edition

I. Children's Health Issues
A. EPA's Administrator Lisa Jackson's Memo: Leadership on Children's Environmental Health
B. Request for public Comment on National Obesity Challenge

Excerpts from this edition are below. To subscribe and read more, send an e-mail to coopwood.theodore@epa.gov.

I. Children's Health Issues

A. EPA's Leadership in Children's Environmental Health

Protecting children's environmental health is central to our work at EPA. As we move ahead on critical environmental initiatives and sharpen our focus on our seven priorities for EPA's future, we must ensure that children's health protection is a driving force in our decisions.

Let me reaffirm that it is EPA's policy to consider the health of pregnant women, infants and children consistently and explicitly in all activities we undertake related to human-health protection, both domestically and internationally. This includes consistently following Agency policies to account for specific exposure pathways and dose-response characteristics of children in our risk assessments and standard setting practices.

Research has demonstrated that prenatal and early-life exposures to environmental contaminants can have tragic, life-long effects. Children's neurological, immunological, digestive, and other bodily systems are still developing; children eat more food, drink more fluids, and breathe more air in proportion to their body weight than adults; and children's behavior patterns can make them more susceptible to environmental exposures. We must be diligent in our efforts to ensure that dangerous exposures and health risks to children are prevented.

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B. Task Force on Childhood Obesity Asks the Public for Ideas to Solve Obesity Challenge

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2010. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health and Human Services are asking the public for ideas to help the Task Force on Childhood Obesity come up with recommendations for public and private sector actions to solve the problem of childhood obesity. The work of the Task Force will complement the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama as she leads a national public awareness effort to tackle this critical public health issue.

On Feb. 9, 2010, President Obama created the first-ever federal task force to enhance coordination between private sector companies, not-for-profits, agencies within the government and other organizations to address the problem of childhood obesity. The Presidential Memo that established the Task Force (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-establishing-a-task-force-childhood-obesity) directed senior officials from executive agencies and the White House to develop a comprehensive interagency action plan that details a coordinated strategy, identifies key benchmarks and goals, describes research gaps and needs, and assists in the development of legislative, budgetary, and policy proposals that can improve the health and well-being of children, their families, and communities. The Task Force was also directed to review the following objectives:

(a) ensuring access to healthy, affordable food;
(b) increasing physical activity in schools and communities;
(c) providing healthier food in schools; and
(d) empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families.

In addition, the Presidential Memo directed the Task Force to conduct outreach with representatives of private and non-profit organizations, State, Tribal, and local authorities, and other interested persons that can assist with the Task Force's development of a detailed set of recommendations to solve the problem of childhood obesity. The Request for Information published today asks a series of detailed questions that will help the Task Force draft its report.

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