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Background on America's Children and the Environment
- What are the purposes of America's Children and the Environment?
- Why did EPA focus on measures for children?
- How were the measures in America's Children and the Environment selected?
- What are the sources for the data in America's Children and the Environment?
- What groups of children are included in America's Children and the Environment?
- What years are included in America's Children and the Environment?
- What is the Office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education at EPA?
- What are the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation and the National Center for Environmental Economics at EPA?
What are the purposes of America's Children and the Environment?
America's Children and the Environment has three principal objectives. First, it presents concrete, quantifiable measures for key factors relevant to the environment and children in the United States. These measures offer a basis for understanding time trends for some factors and for further investigation of others. Second, it can inform discussions among policymakers and the public about how to improve federal data on children and the environment. Third, America’s Children and the Environment includes measures that can be used by policymakers and the public to track and understand the potential impacts of environmental contaminants on children’s health and, ultimately, to identify and evaluate ways to minimize environmental impacts on children. The authors and sponsors hope America's Children and the Environment will contribute to the effort to integrate the environmental health needs of children into the nation’s policy agenda.
Why did EPA focus on measures for children?
Environmental contaminants can affect children quite differently
than adults, both because children may be more highly exposed to
contaminants and because they may be more vulnerable to the toxic
effects of contaminants.
Children generally eat more food, drink more water, and breathe
more air relative to their size than adults do, and consequently
may be exposed to relatively higher amounts of contaminants. Children’s
normal activities, such as putting their hands in their mouths or
playing on the ground, can result in exposures to contaminants that
adults do not face. In addition, environmental contaminants may
affect children disproportionately because their immune defenses
are not fully developed and their growing organs are more easily
harmed.
How were the measures in America's Children and the Environment selected?
Three principal criteria were used to select measures for America's Children and the Environment: 1) importance to the health of children, 2) availability of data for much or all of the United States, and 3) sufficient quality of data to generate a reliable measure.
For environmental contaminants, five important media were identified: outdoor air, indoor air, drinking water, food, and soil. For each of these media, data available from federal environmental and health agencies were reviewed. The most informative sources that provided national coverage (or close to it) and a reasonable assurance of reliability were selected. If data about concentrations of key contaminants could be identified and were of adequate quality, they were used. If not, the best available surrogate measure was selected.
The available data for concentrations of contaminants in the bodies of children and women were reviewed, and the report presents selected contaminants for which several years of data were available or for which health impacts had been well established. These are lead, mercury, and cotinine (the latter of which reflects exposure to environmental tobacco smoke)—pollutants long recognized as having important impacts on children’s health. The report presents the best available information about the concentrations of lead and cotinine in the blood of children, and about the concentrations of mercury in the blood of women of child-bearing age.
For childhood illnesses associated with environmental contaminants, the report presents measures of asthma and other respiratory conditions, childhood cancer, and neurodevelopmental disorders. The best available data to assess the frequency of these illnesses in children were selected, with measures structured to portray changes over time, where possible.
In cases where data are not available for a sufficient number of years, measures are structured as snapshots; in the future, EPA expects to have data that can be used to portray trends for those measures.
In the Special Features section are measures that reflect important aspects of children’s environmental health for which data were not available at the national level. These were chosen based on recommendations from peer reviewers and others.
America’s Children and the Environment is intended to convey information about trends in children’s environmental health in the United States. The key measures presented in this report are based on the best available data to provide the most complete picture possible at this time. There are certain data limitations and assumptions in some of the measures, resulting in a degree of uncertainty for certain key measures and trends. As data and methods improve, we aim to develop increasingly reliable indicators of children’s environmental health.
America’s Children and the Environment should not be construed as a definitive basis for planning specific policies or projects. Other technical information also will be used to inform the activities of EPA and other federal agencies concerning children’s environmental health. Emerging and ongoing research will help shape these activities for years to come.
What are the sources for the data in America's Children and the Environment?
Federal agencies provided the data for most of the measures. The data on environmental contaminants generally are from data systems maintained by EPA and by state environmental agencies. Data on contaminants in blood and on respiratory diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders are from the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cancer data are from the National Cancer Institute. Population data from the Census Bureau were used to calculate the number of children potentially exposed to environmental contaminants.
Data for the special features section are from the states of California and Minnesota. The data on lead in schools are from a survey of schools in California. The data on pesticide use in schools are from a survey of Minnesota schools. The data on birth defects are from California’s birth defects monitoring program.
Detailed descriptions of the data sources are available in the Data Sources and Methods section.
What groups of children are included in America's Children and the Environment?
Most of the measures include all children in the United States under the age of 18, representing approximately 72 million individuals based on the 2000 census. Exceptions are noted under Data Sources and Methods.
In response to suggestions from peer reviewers, America's Children and the Environment presents (where possible) measures for groups of children of different races and ethnicities and for children living in households with various levels of income. In some cases, these breakouts by race/ ethnicity and family income are shown in the graphs, while in other cases they are included in the data tables.
The report generally uses five categories of race or ethnicity: White non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander; however, specific race/ethnicity categories used for any particular measure depend on the information in the underlying data source.
The report uses three categories of family income: 1) below the poverty level (shown in graphs and tables as < Poverty Level), 2) between the poverty level and twice the poverty level (100-200% of Poverty Level), and 3) more than twice the poverty level (> 200% of Poverty Level). Graphical presentations of the data use just two categories (below poverty level and above poverty level), while the data tables present the more detailed information. “Poverty level” is defined by the federal government and is based on income thresholds that vary by family size and composition. The category of incomes between the poverty level and twice the poverty level represents households that have relatively low incomes but are not below the officially defined poverty level. This category frequently is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its reporting of health data and was recommended by peer reviewers for use in this report.
What years are included in America's Children and the Environment?
America's Children and the Environment is updated periodically. The most current data available at the time of the latest update are included. For the Summer 2006 update, data are presented for each year from 1990 through 2004 whenever possible. For several measures, data are available only through 2002. In some cases, data available before 1990 are included to provide an expanded depiction of trends.
What is the Office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education at EPA?
The Office of Children’s Health Protection and Environmental Education supports and facilitates EPA’s efforts to protect children and older adults from environmental threats, and promotes environmental education. OCHPEE's mission includes promoting environmental health protection for children in the United States and around the world. The children's health program of OCHPEE is uniquely positioned to maintain a cross-Agency, multimedia effort to reduce environmental exposures that lead to disease in children. The children's program works across all of EPA's programs to address the suite of environmental threats to children's health in a comprehensive, coordinated way.
What are the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation and the National Center for Environmental Economics at EPA?
The Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation develops new approaches and provides analysis to enable EPA to better address emerging environmental challenges. The office addresses cross-cutting environmental management strategies, identifies emerging issues, and serves as a catalyst for testing and institutionalizing integrative approaches to environmental protection.
Within the Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation, EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics (NCEE) provides economic and health analysis of important environmental issues for the regulatory and policy process. NCEE also conducts research that will improve our current understanding of the impacts of environmental contaminants on public health. NCEE’s staff includes specialists in air, water, solid waste, cross-media economics, and children’s health risks. The center’s health scientists emphasize new methods for assessing previously unidentified risks, assessing relationships between exposures and disease, and developing tools to communicate this information to the public.