EPA Celebrates the Sixth Annual Children’s Environmental Health Day
EPA also commemorates Children’s Health Month
WASHINGTON Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) celebrates the sixth annual Children’s Environmental Health Day, along with Children’s Health Month, highlighting actions to protect children from environmental hazards that impact their health.
“Protecting the health of our children and the environment where they live, learn and play is central to EPA’s mission, especially children in overburdened and underserved areas,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “As we celebrate Children’s Environmental Health Day, I think of the kind of world we want to leave for the next generation and the generations to come, and the work ahead of us to deliver justice and equity for all.”
In celebration of the day, Administrator Regan addressed the Children’s Environmental Health Network to highlight the significance and importance of Children’s Environmental Health Day.
EPA also announced its first-ever revision to the Policy on Children’s Health, originally issued in 1995. The 2021 policy expands the definition of children’s environmental health to include not only conception, infancy, adolescence, and early adulthood, but also the impact that early exposures may have later in life. This policy also reinforces the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to equity and threats to children’s health caused by climate change.
EPA is using American Rescue Plan funds to support underserved and vulnerable children through a network of pediatric healthcare professionals, cooperative agreements to improve children’s environmental health in learning environments, and to invest in improving its understanding of both the mechanisms of susceptibility and the benefits of protecting children through all life stages in the context of regulatory options.
Additionally, the agency has many programs in place to protect children’s environmental health. These include:
- Improving indoor air quality (IAQ) to protect the health and safety of all students and staff in schools across the country. Indoor air contaminants can cause or exacerbate health and performance problems in schools, particularly for children with allergies or asthma. Nearly 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma – with asthma being the leading cause of absenteeism. Through partnership with the Department of Education, EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program is supporting schools receiving American Rescue Plan funds to conduct IAQ-related activities and make infrastructure improvements by providing technical assistance and resources.
- Reducing diesel emissions through two school bus rebate opportunities, of approximately $17 million in combined funding, for schools and bus fleet owners to replace older highly polluting diesel school buses. Replacing these buses will improve air quality around schools and communities, reduce pollution and better protect children’s overall health. For more information about the rebates, visit the 2021 American Rescue Plan Electric School Bus Rebates and the 2021 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) School Bus rebates. The application deadline for both rebate programs is November 5th at 4 pm ET.
- Providing updated information with an accompanying infographic on Best Practices for Reducing Pollution Exposures at Near-Road Schools. The updated publication has new information on air quality measurements and includes strategies that are already being used by schools across the country to reduce exposures to traffic-related air pollution at near-road schools.
- Educating the public about the mental and physical health impacts of more frequent and severe wildfires due to climate change, which increases exposure to smoke and particle pollution, causing or worsening asthma attacks. To learn more about the impacts of wildfires, videos are available in English and Spanish at: www.airnow.gov/air-quality-videos/.
EPA will host a meeting of the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, a group of academics, practitioners, and other experts in children’s environmental health that provide advice to the Administrator related to children’s health, on November 2-3, 2021.
For more information: please visit: www.epa.gov/children .