Hazards Facing Children
The environmental hazards facing your child's health include:
Dioxins, lead, mercury, air pollution, pesticides, environmental tobbaco smoke, and drinking water contamination.

More information about toxic substances can be found at Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ToxFAQs

Dioxins
Dioxins are a bioaccumulative toxin, meaning they are very slow to be processed and removed from the body, causing them to build up in the blood, fat, urine, breast milk, ovaries, and sperm. Since dioxins accumulate, even low levels of exposure can build up to create high levels in the body. Dioxins may be passed from parent to child across the placenta and through breast milk. Dioxins are formed during combustion processes such as trash incineration and manufacturing processes such as herbicide manufacture. Dioxin is a constituent of Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively in Vietnam during the war. Vietnam veterans show increased cancer rates, and children of veterans show increased rates of learning, attentional, emotional, and behavioral problems as well as growth hormone deficiency and allergic disorders. In animal studies, fetuses exposed to dioxins showed learning disabilities during postnatal development. According to the recently released Toxics Release Inventory released by the EPA, Delaware ranked 1st and Pennsylvania ranked 5th in dioxin emissions from power plants. Also, the Harrisburg incinerator is the nation's largest source of airborne dioxin emissions from a municipal incinerator.

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Lead
Though banned from gasoline and paint, lead remains a significant risk to children. Lead affects virtually every system in the body and is particularly harmful to the developing brain and nervous system of fetuses and young children. Low levels of lead can decrease IQ, cause reading and learning disabilities, reduce attention span, and cause behavioral problems. These effects persist until adulthood and may be irreversible. For children, the primary sources of exposure are lead in old paint in homes, lead in dusts and soil from paint chips, leaded gasoline exhaust, industrial emissions, and lead in drinking water from pipes. Some 900,000 children under the age of six in the United States are estimated to have lead levels higher than the Centers for Disease Control's level of concern. Lead poisoning is entirely preventable. Parents can have their children tested for lead poisoning by a physician and have their homes evaluated for lead-based paint and plumbing hazards. Care should be taken during repainting or remodeling projects not to create lead dust.

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Mercury
Human exposure to Mercury has devastating health effects. Fetuses and nursing infants are especially susceptible as the mercury (in its organic form methylmercury) is passed from mother to child. Health effects include impaired memory, mental retardation, and reflex and visual abnormalities. The largest anthropogenic source of mercury is coal-fired electric power plants. The coal combustion process releases large amounts of mercury into the atmosphere through smokestacks. This mercury then falls in precipitation into the nation's lakes and rivers. Once in the water, bacteria can transform the mercury into the particularly dangerous organic form, methylmercury. Methylmercury is a fat-soluble molecule that can move through cell membranes and become attached to muscle tissue. Therefore, it is easily absorbed through fish gills and hence, gets into the food chain. Methylmercury is bioaccumulative (it remains in body tissue and accumulates up the foodchain) consequently, concentrations can be up to one million times greater in large predator fish tissue than in the surrounding waters.

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Air Pollution
Common air pollutants, such as ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxides are associated with increased respiratory illnesses and symptoms, aggravation of asthma, and decreases in lung function in children. One recent study found an association between particulate air pollution and an increased risk of infant mortality. In 1995, about 18 million children under the age of ten lived in areas with air quality that did not meet federal standards. The major sources of air pollution include motor vehicles, stationary point sources - such as coal-burning power plants, refineries, industrial facilities, incinerators, and metal smelters - and consumer products. Parents can protect children by checking air pollution levels regularly where they live, limiting children's outdoor exercise when air pollution levels are high, and ensuring that the child's school is prepared for smog episodes. Reforms needed to protect children include improving standards for air pollutants, particularly by implementing the newly revised ozone and particulate matter standards, and adopting more aggressive programs to control air pollution, such as tighter emissions requirements for new vehicles, cleaning up existing cars, and improved transportation strategies and alternatives.

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Pesticides
Pesticides have been associated with the development of certain cancers in children, including leukemia, sarcomas, and brain tumors. Many classes of pesticides have been shown to adversely affect the developing nervous system of experimental animals. Parental exposure to pesticides has been linked with birth defects in children. New studies suggest that pesticides may compromise the immune system of infants and children. Children are exposed to pesticides at home, at school, in playgrounds and parks, in food and in water. Nationwide, 85 percent of households stored at least one pesticide, and 47 percent of households with children under the age of five were found to store at least one pesticide within the reach of children. Parents can eliminate the use of pesticides in and around their homes and work with school boards to reduce pesticide use. If possible, parents can buy organically grown and in-season foods. Congress passed legislation in 1996 designed to improve regulation of pesticides, particularly in food, so that children are adequately protected. The implementation of this law will be a critical test of EPA's intention to safeguard the next generation. Additional reforms needed include reducing the use of pesticides, better testing of pesticides' ability to affect infants and young children, and more data on children's exposure to pesticides.

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Environmental Tobacco Smoke
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) contains some 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals. Infants and young children whose parents smoke are at increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis. ETS is responsible for an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections annually in children under 18 months of age, resulting in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year. ETS also worsens asthma in between 200,000 to one million children each year. ETS has also been found to increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and induce asthma in children. Forty percent of children under the age of eleven live in homes with at least one smoker. Parents can protect children by prohibiting smoking in their homes and cars or near their children. A variety of reforms are needed to reduce smoking and prevent adolescents from starting to smoke. These include elimination of advertising and promotion of tobacco products targeted towards teenagers, adoption of mass media anti-tobacco campaigns, and adoption of tobacco-free policies in all public locations, especially those frequented by children and youths.

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Drinking Water Contamination
Children are at particular risk from drinking water contaminants, not only because they consume two and a half times more water as a percentage of their body weight than adults but also because federal standards for pollutants are set based on anticipated effects on adults. Americans consume tap water containing microorganisms, trihalomethanes, arsenic, radon, lead, and pesticides. Bottled water is not necessarily of any better quality. To protect children, parents can determine what contaminants are present in their drinking water. Public water systems must disclose the results of their own testing for contaminants, and identify the origins of their drinking water and possible sources of pollution. Congress enacted new legislation in 1996 to strengthen the Safe Drinking Water Act by, among other improvements, requiring consideration of children. The next several years will be a critical period for determining whether implementation of the law is as rigorous and effective as Congress intended.

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