EPA Gives $1 Million in Grants to Improve Children's Environmental

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News for Release: Tuesday, November 1, 2005

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

EPA Gives $1 Million in Grants to Improve Children's Environmental Health

Contact: Dave , 202-564-4355 / ryan.dave@...

(Washington, D.C.-November 1, 2005) EPA has awarded seven grants

totaling $1,042,152 to help increase the number of physicians, nurses

and public health workers able to address the broad spectrum of

children's environmental health issues, whether in their private

practices, in the institutions which they work, in academia, or in their

communities.

There is a wide range of multi-state, national and international

projects funded. In one project visiting Public Health Nurses will

attend 12 training sessions put on by the National Center for Healthy

Housing and funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control. The

training is designed to develop " Faculty Champions, " faculty from

pediatric residency and graduate nursing programs interested in becoming

environmental health champions at their academic institutions. These

programs will help health professionals understand, diagnose, and

develop prevention messages about the children's environmental health

issues they encounter.

" As science develops, so does our understanding of how the natural

environment affects our physical health -- especially for our most

vulnerable residents, " said EPA Administrator L. . " EPA

is proud to be providing health professionals, both here and throughout

the world, the information they can use to protect children from

possible hazards in their environment. "

The recipients, along with location and amount received, are:

1. The Canadian Institute of Child Health-Insitut Canadien de la sante

infantile, Ottawa ($149,999)

2. The University of Massachusetts, Lowell ($150,000)

3. The National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, Md. ($142,510)

4. Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility ($149,862)

5. Northeastern Ohio Universities, College of Medicine, Rootstown

($149,881)

6. International Pediatric Association, Boston ($150,000)

7. National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Washington,

D.C. ($149,900)

The projects will provide training to: 1) healthcare professionals in

Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile to prevent

environmentally related diseases in children; 2) healthcare

professionals who serve low income/refugee and minority children in the

New England states; 3) public health nurses dealing in residential

environmental health and safety hazards; 4) pediatric practitioners in

Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Washington and Oregon; 5) post

graduate pediatric professionals in Central and Eastern Europe; 6)

pediatricians in India, Kenya, and Haiti; and 7) medical and nursing

school faculty who will work to integrate environmental health education

into medical and nursing school curricula in the United States.

Funds were provided by EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection,

whose mission is to promote environmental health protection for children

and older adults in the United States and around the world. This effort

builds on other agency efforts to ensure that health professionals are

equipped to address environmental health issues.

For more details on each separate grant, go to:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/building2005.htm

For general information on EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection,

go to: http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/homepage

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