EPA New England Launches Children First Campaign

When a three-year old boy inhales sooty fumes from a Hartford bus, he is much more likely than an adult to have an asthma attack. When a six-year-old girl eats fish from the Housatonic River, she is far more vulnerable than her parents to the toxic effects of mercury.

Pollution is unhealthy for everyone, but is particularly threatening for children, whose bodies are small and growing. Pound for pound, children breathe more air and consume more milk, water, and food than adults. They are prone to ingesting dirt and other “foreign” objects containing toxic substances. And, of course, they are often unaware of the dangers they may face breathing, playing, and swimming in contaminated environments.

Because children are so vulnerable, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England Office has launched a $1 million campaign called “Children First” aimed at protecting the health of children.

Unveiled this fall in cities across the region, the initiative focuses on creating healthier environments in the three places where children spend most of their time – at home, in schools, and outdoors. Because thousands of New England children are still being made sick every year by lead poisoning, mercury, dirty air, and other environmental threats, combating childhood lead poisoning, soaring asthma rates, and mercury exposure are among the biggest priorities.

The statistics are unconscionable, the EPA said.

In Connecticut, nearly 2,000 kids under the age of six have elevated lead levels in their blood, including more than 1,300 in Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport alone. New Haven and Bridgeport are still wrestling with childhood lead poisoning rates of 10 percent, while Hartford’s lead poisoning rate remains at five percent.

Asthma rates are skyrocketing, especially among children living in our inner-city neighborhoods. The Connecticut Department of Public Health estimates that 10 percent of the state’s children, about 87,000 kids, have asthma. This results in 6,000 emergency room visits a year by children under 15 years of age.

The “Children First” campaign includes $500,000 of new investments to combat lead poisoning in New England Cities, $200,000 to improve air quality and reduce toxic exposure at schools, and $225,000 to curb asthma. In addition, we are launching a new “Showcase Schools” initiative in which one school in each of the New England states will be selected to showcase numerous EPA programs available to make schools safer for children.

Much of the EPA’s focus is on making schools environmentally safer. Among those efforts:

*Tools for Schools: New England’s school buildings suffer from a variety of environmental problems, including poor maintenance and poor ventilation, that make our children ill. Two-thirds of Connecticut’s schools reported indoor environmental problems in a recent study. One solution to this problem is the Tools for Schools programs, which helps educators and administrators identify ways to improve indoor air quality.

Highlights of the EPA’s safer homes and safer outdoor actions plan include:

*Lead Safe Yards: EPA New England has collaborated with Boston University and community partners to launch Lead Safe Yards, an award-winning project aimed at reducing lead exposure in residential yards. The project, which entails on-the-spot lead testing followed by low-cost remediation measures such as covering contaminated areas with wood chips, paving stones, and shrubs, has been used successfully in Boston and is now being introduced all across New England. A training program was held this fall for lead abatement teams from a dozen cities, including Hartford, Manchester, and New Haven.

*Lead Abatement: In a move expected to spur more lead abatement work across the region, EPA’s New England Office recently approved a policy change that allows lead-based demolition debris from residential buildings to be classified as household waste as opposed to hazardous waste which is more expensive to dispose of. The policy change is applicable all across the county. EPA New England has also created a lead enforcement team that will focus on enforcing laws requiring landlords to inform tenants about the presence of lead paint.

*Asthma Reduction: EPA New England is funding organizations such as Saint Francis Hospital, University of Connecticut, and the Hartford Justice Network to teach families at home and in health centers how to reduce the risks of asthma attacks.