Contact Us

Newsroom

All News Releases By Date

 

EPA Gives $1 Million in Grants to Improve Children's Environmental Health

Release Date: 11/01/2005
Contact Information:


Contact: Dave Ryan, 202-564-4355 / ryan.dave@epa.gov

(Washington, D.C.-November 1, 2005) EPA has awarded seven grants totaling $1,042,152 to help increase the number of physicians, nurses and public health workers able to address the broad spectrum of children's environmental health issues, whether in their private practices, in the institutions which they work, in academia, or in their communities.

There is a wide range of multi-state, national and international projects funded. In one project, visiting Public Health Nurses will attend 12 training sessions put on by the National Center for Healthy Housing to learn how to incorporate environmental health into their practice. In another project, The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation is developing "Faculty Champions," a program for faculty from pediatric residency and graduate nursing programs interested in becoming environmental health champions at their academic institutions. These programs will help health professionals understand, diagnose, and develop prevention messages about the children's environmental health issues they encounter.

"As science develops, so does our understanding of how the environment affects our physical health -- especially for our most vulnerable residents," said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "EPA is proud to be providing health professionals, both here and throughout the world, the information they can use to protect children from possible hazards in their environment."

The recipients, along with location and amount received, are:
1. The Canadian Institute of Child Health-Insitut Canadien de la sante infantile, Ottawa ($149,999)
2. The University of Massachusetts, Lowell ($150,000)
3. The National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, Md. ($142,510)
4. Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility ($149,862)
5. Northeastern Ohio Universities, College of Medicine, Rootstown ($149,881)
6. International Pediatric Association, Boston ($150,000)
7. National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Washington, D.C. ($149,900)

The projects will provide training to: 1) healthcare professionals in Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile to prevent environmentally related diseases in children; 2) healthcare professionals who serve low income/refugee and minority children in the New England states; 3) public health nurses dealing in residential environmental health and safety hazards; 4) pediatric practitioners in Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Washington and Oregon; 5) post graduate pediatric professionals in Central and Eastern Europe; 6) pediatricians in India, Kenya, and Haiti; and 7) medical and nursing school faculty who will work to integrate environmental health education into medical and nursing school curricula in the United States.

Funds were provided by EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection, whose mission is to promote environmental health protection for children and older adults in the United States and around the world. This effort builds on other agency efforts to ensure that health professionals are equipped to address environmental health issues.

For more details on each separate grant, go to: https://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/building2005.htm

For general information on EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection, go to: https://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/homepage