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EPA HOLDS SECOND ANNUALHEALTHY INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS CONFERENCE & WORKSHOP OCTOBER 13, 14 & 15

Release Date: 10/07/2005
Contact Information:

Environmental News
Kris Lancaster
(913) 551-7557
[email protected]

NEWS MEDIA ADVISORY

October 7, 2005

EPA HOLDS SECOND ANNUALHEALTHY INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS CONFERENCE & WORKSHOP OCTOBER 13, 14 & 15

EPA Region 7 in partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Missouri Departments of Natural Resources and Conservation, Children’s Mercy Hospital, KU Med-Center’s Mid-American Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit, the Healthy Indoor Environments Coalition of KC and the Healthy Homes Network is celebrating October as Children’s Health month by sponsoring a professional conference on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 13 & 14. They will also offer a free-to-the-public workshop on Saturday, Oct. 15.

EPA Region 7 Administrator, Jim Gulliford called the conference “a great opportunity to bring together some of the areas experts to share ideas on improving indoor environments where children live, go to school and play. This year the planning committee has extended the scope by adding the Saturday workshop, where the public can listen and ask questions of some of these experts talk about residential indoor environmental issues, such as, asbestos, lead-based paint, mold, radon and household hazardous waste.”

Asthma affects 29 million people, more than 4.8 million are children and costs $3.6 billion annually. A recent study found that indoor irritants long suspected of influencing rising asthma rates in young children could be the key to asthma problems for four out of ten children.

Healthy Indoor Environments Conference – Register at the Door (Free to the Media) Thursday and Friday, October 13 & 14, 2005

Location: The Jack Reardon Center, 520 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan.

Media is invited to an award presentation by EPA’s Director of Indoor Environments Division to Children’s Mercy Hospital. They will receive the “National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management” at 10:00 a.m. followed at 10:30 a.m. with a demonstration of the “Telltale House” an interactive model of a house made of clear plastic that uses theatrical smoke and pinwheels to demonstrate how air and pollutants move from room-to-room and in and out of a home. Shortly after the telltale there will be a demonstration of thermal imagining, a relatively new technology used to evaluate air and moisture infiltration of buildings which impacts energy efficiency and mold growth.

On Friday afternoon there will be a tour of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Discovery Center and the Metropolitan Energy Center’s Discover House.

Creating a Healthy Indoor Home Environment Workshop (Free to the public)

Saturday, October 15, 2005
10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Refreshments will be served

Location: The Discovery Center at 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, Mo.

The public will have the opportunity to hear experts in the field of indoor environmental issues. After their presentations the experts will be available to answer specific questions from the public.

The media is invited Saturday Morning at 8:00 a.m. to a media only demonstration of mold remediation by Ramsey Environmental Group, at the Metropolitan Energy Center’s Discover House adjacent to the Discover Center, 913 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd, Kansas City, Mo. www.kcenergy.org