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RESEARCH STRATEGY PUBLISHED ON ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS TO CHILDREN

Release Date: 10/26/2000
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, OCT. 26, 2000

RESEARCH STRATEGY PUBLISHED ON ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS TO CHILDREN


EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) today made available a Strategy for Research on Environmental Risks to Children to strengthen the scientific foundation of the Agency's risk assessment and management decisions that affect children. The strategy provides a framework of research needs and priorities to guide EPA programs over the next five to ten years. The Agency is committed to promoting a safe and healthy environment for children by ensuring that all EPA regulations, standards, policies, testing methods, and risk assessments consider special childhood vulnerabilities to environmental pollutants. Children are most susceptible from early gestation through adolescence, when pollutants may permanently alter the function of a system. The agency said differences in a child's breathing rate, metabolism, diets and activities (such as playing on floors) may result in a higher toxic dose than adults would receive. The ORD strategy provides a long-term program of research in hazard identification, dose-response and exposure assessment and risk reduction, as well as problem-oriented research that addresses current critical needs identified by EPA offices. Implementation of the program will involve partnerships between EPA, industry, states, local communities, tribes, the international community and other federal organizations. Printed copies of the strategy are available through the EPA/ORD publications office in Cincinnati, Ohio (1-800-490-9198), and at: https://www.epa.gov/ORD/WebPubs/final.


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