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EPA Grant of $200,000 Awarded to Children's Mercy Hospital

Release Date: 06/11/2013
Contact Information: Denise Morrison, 913-551-7402, morrison.denise@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., June 11, 2013) - EPA has awarded a $200,000 Environmental Education Grant to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., for a collaborative project to teach health care students about pediatric environmental health and healthy homes, with emphasis on indoor air quality and pesticide use in homes.

The Environmental Education for Health Care Initiative will provide students with information on the health effects that can occur from environmental exposures in homes, such as asthma, lead poisoning and skin reactions from pesticides. This project will provide in-depth knowledge about environmental health and home-related hazards. Students will learn how to take a basic environmental history and provide an overview of how to perform environmental health assessments using a combination of visual assessment techniques.

The project will focus on increasing health care education and improving indoor air quality in homes of children and adults in rural, urban, low income and minority communities. It will emphasize improving asthma health outcomes for these vulnerable populations, and will be easily replicated to advance and strengthen environmental education in the area of health care.

“This innovative project will focus on teaching health care students about environmental and health hazards as they relate to children’s health and healthy homes,” EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks said. “Students will share this knowledge within the health care community to increase awareness about environmental issues in the home that can affect the health of families. This project will have a region-wide impact in protecting human health by decreasing home-related asthma health care costs and improving indoor air quality.”

EPA’s Environmental Education Grant Program is a competitive grant program that supports efforts to enhance the public’s awareness and knowledge about environmental issues. This grant program supports environmental education projects to increase skills and to help people make informed decisions that affect environmental quality and to take responsible actions toward the environment.