Save the date: MACCHE 2008 Annual Conference: September 18 & 19; Philadelphia, PA
Save the date for the 6th Annual Conference on Children's Health and the Environment.
September 18-19, 2008
University of Pennsylvania's Perelman Quad, Philadelphia, PA.
The conference is organized by the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PESHU) of Region 3; the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment (MACCHE). This two day event is targeted to health care providers, public health professionals and the interested public. The first day will include an optional Walk in the Park - a guided tour of the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. The second day will be full of engaging discussions on children's environmental health.
Childhood cancer rates highest in Northeast, study suggests
A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds childhood cancers are most common in the Northeast. However, experts claim this finding could be due to differences in regional reporting. The possible influence of environmental factors on cancer rates is discussed.
View the article here.
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Report outlines nationwide trend in healthcare sector: hospitals purchasing local, sustainable food
(From HCWH press release) For 127 hospitals across the United States, the words “hospital food” and “healthy communities, healthy environment” are one and the same, according to a new report released by Health Care Without Harm. The “Healthy Food in Health Care” report outlines concrete steps being taken by hospitals nationwide to change their food buying practices towards more sustainably produced, healthier choices for patients, staff and visitors. View the press release here.
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Fetal exposure to PCBs impacts reproductive markers of children and grandchildren of exposed animals
ScienceDaily (May 27, 2008) — Since the 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, awareness of how environmental toxicants can impact fertility has increased.
In a new article, Steinberg and colleagues provide evidence that adverse reproductive effects of toxicants may extend not only to the children of exposed individuals, but also to the next generation.
View the article here.
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Association of prenatal and childhood blood lead concentrations with criminal arrests in early adulthood
The objective of this study was to determine if prenatal and childhood blood lead concentrations are associated with arrests for criminal offenses. Findings from the study showed that prenatal and postnatal blood lead concentrations are associated with higher rates of total arrests and/or arrests for offenses involving violence. This is the first prospective study to demonstrate an association between developmental exposure to lead and adult criminal behavior.
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Special journal issue on human health and mercury
The Journal of Environmental Research (Vol. 107, No. 1, May 2008) has published a special issue on Human Health and Exposure to Mercury, containing selected papers from the Eighth International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant. The issue can be accessed online here.
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Environmental Health Nursing Education Collaborative website now available to help faculty integrate environmental health into nursing curricula
(From website) The Environmental Health Nursing Education Collaborative is a project organized by the Boston University Superfund Basic Research Program (BU SBRP) and the Harvard School of Public Health. The goal of this collaboration is to contribute to the education and training of nurses by helping their faculty integrate environmental health into the nursing curriculum. Nursing faculty interested in incorporating environmental health into their courses can choose to have a lecture given by an environmental health expert, utilize environmental health toolkits, work with BU SBRP and Harvard SPH staff to develop a nursing project with an EH theme, or use one of the environmental health case studies for nurses in their class. A variety of environmental health resources and continuing education for nurses are also available.
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EPA Launches New Multilingual Web Sites in Korean and Vietnamese
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is launching new consolidated Web sites in Vietnamese and Korean as part of its ongoing effort to provide environmental information in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, in addition to English.
These new sites compile EPA multilingual publications and materials in Korean and Vietnamese on a variety of environmental issues such as children's health, indoor air quality in nail salons and dry cleaners, asthma, fish consumption, proper pesticide usage, among others.
These sites also serve as valuable tools in delivering important health and environmental information to the Vietnamese and Korean communities in the United States and worldwide. This initiative promotes environmental protection in local communities as well as the global environment regardless of language.
According to the U.S. Census, over 14.9 million U.S. residents trace their roots to Asian countries.
Visit EPA's multilingual Web sites at:
www.epa.gov/vietnamese
www.epa.gov/korean
www.epa.gov/chinese
www.epa.gov/chinese/simple
www.epa.gov/espanol
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New Resource Available from Health Care Without Harm on Selecting Safer Products!
Are you interested in a more comprehensive approach to selecting products that contain safer chemicals at your institution? Have you been hearing the words 'chemicals policy' and wondering what exactly that means? Have you been concerned about recent media reports about Bisphenol A in baby bottles or lead and other harmful chemicals showing up in everything from lipstick to children's products?
Health Care Without Harm is releasing a new document called: Guide to Choosing Safer Products and Chemicals" Implementing Chemicals Policy in Health Care
A step by step guide for administrators, purchasers and other health care personnel to create a chemicals policy program within your institution.
You can download the document on the HCWH website http://www.noharm.org/us/chemicalpolicy/guide
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Dollars and Sense: Teaching Sun Safety to Children Saves Lives and Money
A study analyzing the cost effectiveness of the SunWise Program was published in the May 2008 issue of Pediatrics. The study is unique because few studies to date have analyzed the cost-saving benefits of
school-based health programs, and no study, to our knowledge, has analyzed sun safety programs. The primary message of the cost-benefit analysis is that teaching children about sun safety saves lives and
money. Click here for more information.
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Pediatric Environmental History Forms available for pediatric health care providers
(From website) NEEF's Pediatric Environmental History Initiative is a multi-year campaign to make environmental history-taking a routine practice for health care providers. This will enable health care providers to address environmental conditions that may prevent a child from reaching optimum health, increase public awareness of environmental exposures, and improve communication between health professionals and the public on environmental exposure-related disease.
As part of this initiative, NEEF has made Environmental History forms available to the public for use in routine pediatric clinical practice of health care providers.
Click here to access the forms and additional resources.
Top of page Noise Pollution - The Other Environmental Health Issue
The EPA's Office and Air and Radiation is initiating a new NOISE Awareness campaign to alert youth, parents, teachers and health care professional about the adverse affects of noise pollution on human health, particularly children. Studies have shown that there are direct links between noise and health. Problems related to noise include stress related illnesses, hearing loss, speech interference, high blood pressure, sleep disruption, and lost productivity. Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) is the most common and often discussed health effect, but research has suggested that exposure to constant or high levels of noise can warrant a variety of adverse health affects. To learn more, go to www.nonoise.org.
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Registration open for “Leadership In Green Health Care” Online Course
Leadership in Green Health Care is an 8-week online course designed for health professionals to become leaders in the emerging field of sustainable medicine. The Teleosis Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving sustainability in health care, provides this training to support emerging Green Health Care Leaders.
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