Children's Environmental Health Proceedings of a Workshop (2023) / Chapter Skim
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5 Balancing Prevention and Uncertainty
5 Balancing Prevention and Uncertainty
Pages 51-62
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From page 51... ...
Stephanie Yendell, Minnesota Department of Health, Maida Galvez, New York State Children's Environmental Health Centers, and Shirlee Tan, Seattle King County Department of Health, presented examples from their respective programs. Heather Patisaul of North Carolina State University moderated the second session, a panel discussion on strategies for acting despite uncertainty.
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From page 52... ...
. • The Seattle and King County Department of Public Health has reduced harm ful indoor air and flame-retardant exposures in child care centers by providing centers with flame-retardant-free nap mats or nap mat covers and air cleaners (Tan)
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From page 53... ...
Many agencies coordinated so that the state could gain access to the Water Gremlin facility to inspect for lead hazards. The inspections identified many violations of best practices, such as personal protective equipment non-compliance, failure to provide safety trainings in the languages spoken by employees, and locker rooms in the building interior that required walking through lead-contaminated areas after changing out of work clothes (Yendell et al., 2022)
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From page 54... ...
. Additionally, if a location outside the home is determined to be the original source of exposure, the state or county health department may order the responsible party to perform a lead hazard reduction, giving the assessing agency the ability to reduce exposure without having to go through a district court process.
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From page 55... ...
NYSCHECK is a partnership between advocates for children's environmental health and staff of children's hospitals in Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester, Westchester, New York City, and Long Island. The network is composed of clinicians, allied health professionals, community partners, and state and federal partners working to grow children's environmental health services for state families and integrating environmental health into clinical practice by connecting clinicians and families to community public health resources.
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From page 56... ...
NYSCHECK has provided environmental health clinical services to over 125,000 families, according to Galvez. NYSCHECK has also provided education to health care and public health professionals and established an interdisciplinary scholars program open to applicants of any background with interest in advancing children's environmental health throughout the NYSCHECK regions.
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From page 57... ...
Through the Best Starts for Kids program, it created interventions for toxics reduction and to help improve indoor air quality in child care centers to reduce transmission of COVID-19. Recently, King County collaborated with Childcare Resources, a community-based organization focused on connecting families to early learning centers and training low-income and immigrant workers in the child care sector to reduce children's exposures to brominated and organophosphate flame retardants.
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From page 58... ...
[It] is not easy to know all the different hazards that need to be considered, so policies could ensure that children's environments are healthy, so the burden to avoid harmful chemicals is taken off those caring for our kids." PANEL DISCUSSION: STRATEGIES FOR TAKING ACTION DESPITE UNCERTAINTY Patisaul began by asking Wendy Wagner of the University of Texas, "Some of your work has described what is called a regulatory Catch-22 where policy action depends on scientific evidence, but the evidence regarding risks is driven at least in part by regulatory priorities.
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From page 59... ...
. Next, Patisaul asked Connolly about her work harmonizing exposure data across studies and whether exposure data can reduce uncertainty and improve study comparability to ease the decisions that the science informs.
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From page 60... ...
The workshop highlighted several areas of need, including investment in children through social services and education, policy changes, improving risk assessment, the continued threat of climate change, community investment and engagement, and several opportunities, such as the new authorities that the TSCA amendments give the EPA. Witherspoon highlighted unifying themes that could help improve children's health protection at the EPA.
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From page 61... ...
Hanna-Attisha emphasized that this is only one of many activities that Ms. Copeny is involved with and reminded the attendees that as this was a children's environmental health workshop, it was important to hear from children as well.
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