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The Center for Children's Health and the Environment
The Center for Children's Health and the Environment (CCHE) was established
within the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine with the support of the PewCharitable Trusts in 1998. The Center's mission is to
promote the health of children by conducting environmental health and policy research. The
Center will provide the results of this research to government agencies and officials to
promote environmental policies that will protect the health of children. The initial
agenda of the Center will focus on risk assessment around the interrelationships between
environmental toxins and children's early growth and development. The CCHE held a
conference on May 24-25, 1999 on environmental toxins and neurodevelopment, entitled
"Environmental Influences on Children: Brain, Development, and Behavior."
CCHE is the first policy Center specifically established to address the particular
vulnerability of children to the hazards posed by environmental pollutants. Children's
unique susceptibility arises from three basic factors. First, children are exposed
disproportionately to high dosages of toxic substances because, as a percentage of body
weight, they eat more food, drink more water and breathe more air than adults do. Second,
children may have unique exposure patterns to pollutants because of their special dietary
habits and behaviors. Third, children are physiologically more susceptible than adults to
certain hazards associated with exposure to pollutants.
Although there is a growing body of scientific literature indicating that children are
significantly and disproportionately affected by environmental pollutants, federal
environmental regulations and health standards have not, until recently, routinely
considered children's higher vulnerability. However in 1996, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) established a new national policy that aims: (1) to insure that all EPA
standards consider the potentially heightened risks faced by children, (2) to identify and
expand scientific research into child-specific susceptibility and exposure to
environmental pollutants and (3) to develop new comprehensive polices to address
cumulative and simultaneous exposures faced by children.
To address the Administration's National Agenda to focus environmental protection
standards on the risks that pollution poses to the health of children, CCHE is bringing
together for the first time a specialized team of scientific experts within the health
community to work with policy makers, the environmental and health communities and the
media. This group will marshal the expertise available in the medical and public health
community for the benefit of all children in the areas of asthma, cancer, and neurological
exposure including pesticides, lead, and drinking water contaminants. CCHE will harness
this new wave of federal commitments and legislation, and to incorporate children's
special health needs into environmental standard setting.
The Center's Director is Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc., a pediatrician, who chairs the
Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. In
collaboration with the American College of Preventive Medicine, the Center will operate
another office in the District of Columbia to facilitate interaction with federal
agencies.
For further information contact Catherine Hughes Tel. (212) 241-8557 Fax. (212) 360-6965
email: catherine.hughes@mssm.edu
April 08 1999 Press Release;
MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS ANNOUNCE NEW CENTER FOR
CHILDREN’S HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
May 23, 1999 Press Release;
CCHE GIVES FIRST CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AWARD TO COLUMBIA’S
FREDERICA P. PERERA, Dr.P.H.
May 24, 1999 Press Release;
HEALTH SCIENTISTS EXPLORE LINKS BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS AND CHILDREN'S NEUROLOGICAL
DISORDERS
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