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Chronology of Children's Environmental Health

1776   Young Chimney Sweeps, Cancers Linked to Environmental Toxicants
London physician Percival Pott notes incidence of scrotal cancer in young chimney sweeps in what is often cited as the first identified case of cancer caused by environmental hazards.
1904   Paint Linked to Lead Poisoning in Children
J.L. Gibson of Queensland, Australia, is the first to recognize paint as the source of lead poisoning among children.

 
1953   Mercury Linked to Nervous System Damage in Developing Fetus
Grain contamination in Sweden in 1953 demonstrates the devastating effect of high-dose prenatal exposure to mercury and its derivative methyl mercury to the developing nervous system. Other historic incidents of mercury poisoning include: contaminated fish in Minimata, Japan in 1958; pollution in Nugota, Japan in 1965; grain contamination in Iraq in 1971; and grain contamination in New Mexico in 1972. These incidents illustrate the extreme vulnerability and susceptibility of the fetus to mercury.
1970   Clean Air Act Enacted
In 1970, President Nixon establishes the US Environmental Protection Agency and Congress adopts the Clean Air Act in response to the growing recognition that air pollution can harm our health. The Clean Air Act commands health-based standards to safeguard vulnerable subpopulations, thus implicitly offering stronger protections for children. The Clean Air Act eliminates the most egregious sources of air pollution.
1970s   Environmental Protection Agency Tackles Lead in Gasoline
In addition to the banning of lead from interior house paint in October 1978, the US Environmental Protection Agency implements two programs in the 1970s to reduce ambient lead levels:
  • First, regulations issued in the early 1970s require a reduction in the lead content of all gasoline over a period of many years. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 further mandate the elimination of lead from all US motor fuel by January 1, 1996.
  • Second, as part of the EPA's overall automotive emission control program, unleaded gasoline is introduced in 1975 for automobiles equipped with catalytic control devices. In 1993, unleaded gasoline sales account for 99% of the total gasoline market, while airborne lead concentrations throughout the country had decreased by 89%.

By 1997, children's blood lead levels dropped by 94%, due in large part to these phase-out efforts.

1984   Studies Reveal Long-Term Effects of Low-Level Lead Exposure
For the first 50 years of the illness, it was believed that if lead poisoning did not kill a child, he or she would be left with no stigma of the exposure. A pioneering study published in 1984 by Herb Needleman et. al. reveals the long term psychological effects of lead exposure. The study reports that asymptomatic children with elevated body lead burdens had a 4.5-point deficit in mean verbal IQ scores compared to comparable children with lower lead burdens. An 11-year follow-up of the children in the study found that children who had higher lead burdens in early life were more likely to experience persistent reading difficulty and to fail to graduate from high school. Thus, early subclinical exposure to lead appears to result in life-long disability.
Oct.
1986		   Communities' Right-to-Know Codified
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA), also known as SARA Title III, is designed to provide citizens, local governments, and local response authorities with information regarding the potential hazards and chemicals in their community and to promote emergency planning and preparedness at the state and local level.
Feb.
1989		   Pesticides in our Children's Food Labeled "Intolerable Risk"
Natural Resources Defense Council launches it's Children's Environmental Health Initiative and releases Intolerable Risk: Pesticides in Our Children's Food, the first detailed analysis of children's exposure to pesticides in food and a determination of the potential hazards posed by these residues. This report sparked national interest in this issue, including the undertaking of the study Pesticides and the Diet of Infants and Children by the National Academy of Sciences.
Oct.
1989
   Kids in the Environment Project Founded
The Kids in the Environment Project (the precursor to the Children's Environmental Health Network) is founded to train health professionals on environmental health and children in California.

Alar Withdrawn for Use on Apples
The compound Alar was widely used on apples and other fruit crops consumed in large quantities by children. Parents, learning from environmental scientists that a major metabolic breakdown product of Alar was a probable human carcinogen, send the message to fruit suppliers that they will not buy apples treated with Alar. Apple growers quickly respond and Alar is withdrawn from use on food within months. The Alar example demonstrates the crucial role that parents - the consuming public - can play in creating policies to protect their children.

Sept.
1990
   Pediatric Environmental Health Curriculum Developed
Kids and the Environment Project (the precursor to the Children's Environmental Health Network) develops the first curriculum on environmental health hazards for children. The curriculum is used to train pediatricians throughout the state of California.
Oct.
1992
   The Children's Environmental Health Network Goes National
The Network forms the first, broad based coalition dedicated to children's environmental health. The network of 18 national organizations - representing medicine, government, health, environment and environmental justice interests - focuses on research, education and policy with the goals of elevating the issue at the national level and protecting children from exposure to environmental hazards. The main message: "Children are not just little adults."

Congress Reveals Lead in Housing and Community Development Act
The Housing and Community Development Act mandates a comprehensive revision of requirements pertaining to lead-based paint. Title X, Section 1018 of this law directs the US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development to jointly issue regulations requiring disclosure of known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards by persons selling or leasing housing constructed before the phase-out of residential lead-based paint use in 1978. HUD and EPA jointly issues regulations implementing Section 1018 on March 6, 1996.
June
1993		   National Academy of Sciences Issues Pesticides and the Diet of Infants and Children
This ground-breaking report scientifically identifies the eating, exposure and development patterns for infants and children regarding pesticide on foods and food consumption. The report identifies large gaps in our knowledge about pesticides and their health effects on children and calls for a ten-fold margin of safety in establishing environmental standards when data on children's differential susceptibility are not available.
  First Research Workshop on Children's Environmental Health
The Network and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences sponsor the "National Research Workshop on Pediatric Environmental Health." The workshop brings together, for the first time, 25 researchers from different disciplines to undertake the challenge of merging pediatric and environmental research. The results of the two day dialogue highlight immense data gaps, identify specific areas for research, and form the research framework for the Network's 1994 Symposium on Children's Environmental Health.
Feb.
1994		   President Issues Executive Order on Environmental Justice
President Clinton issues an executive order on environmental justice in response to the widespread belief that federal programs, policies, and activities may place disproportionate burdens on minorities and low-income populations. The Executive Order requires all federal agencies to make "achieving environmental justice part of their missions by identifying and addressing disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations."


March
1994
   First National Symposium on Children's Environmental Health The Network sponsors a national symposium, "Preventing Child Exposures to Environmental Hazards: Research and Policy Issues," which creates a basic policy and research framework for children's environmental health and helps to galvanize interest in the issue on a national level. Symposium Report
Sept.
1995		   Environmental Health Perspectives Dedicates Issue to Children's Environmental Health
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences publishes the 39 papers presented at the Network's 1994 National Symposium. This issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (a research journal) forms the largest published collection of peer-reviewed pediatric environmental health literature.
Nov.
1995		   American Public Health Association Adopts Children's Environmental Health Resolution
The Network submits a resolution on children's environmental health to the American Public Health Association. Once adopted, this resolution enables the American Public Health Association, the nation's largest organization representing public health professionals, to advocate for children's environmental health in the policy, research and medical arenas.

US EPA Requires Protection of Infants and Children
EPA Administrator Carol Browner issues a policy requiring the Agency to consistently and explicitly take into account the unique vulnerability of children and infants to environmental hazards when conducting assessments of environmental risks.
April
1996		   ATSDR Launches Child Health Initiative
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) launches a Child Health Initiative to emphasize policies and projects that promote the health of infants, children and youth. The ATSDR's external Board of Scientific Counselors forms a Child Health Workgroup.
May
1996
   Pediatric Faculty Trained in Children's Environmental Health
To initiate it's national Train-the-Trainers Project, the Network sponsors the first training of pediatric faculty at the Ambulatory Pediatric Association Annual Meeting, training 21 pediatric faculty from teaching institutions nationwide.


Aug.
1996		   Food Quality Protection Act Protects Infants and Children
The Food Quality Protection Act - based on findings from the National Academy of Science's June 1993 report, Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children - is signed into law. The Act's provisions require that children's special needs be taken into account in setting pesticide standards and that a margin of safety be established when data are unavailable. This is the first piece of environmental legislation (with the exception of legislation on lead) that specifically requires that children's vulnerabilities be explicitly incorporated.
Sept.
1996
   Network Opens DC Office The Network establishes a presence in Washington, DC to advocate for children.

 
Questions for Candidates and Elected Officials Raised The Network works with the Coalition for America's Children to produce the voter education pamphlet entitled "Children's Environmental Health: Questions for Candidates and Elected Officials."

US EPA Strengthens Child-Protective Policies
The EPA issues "Environmental Health Threats to Children," an ambitious agenda to protect children's health which includes the commitment to consider the special risks and cumulative and simultaneous exposures faced by children in standard-setting and to re-evaluate existing standards.

Children's Environmental Health Legislation Introduced
Senator Barbara Boxer (CA) introduces the "Children's Environmental Protection Act of 1996."
1997   Children's Environmental Health Generates Congressional Interest
Numerous bills that would help to protect children from environmental toxicants are introduced in the 105th Congress:
  • the Children's Environmental Protection and Right to Know Act of 1997
  • the Right-To-Know-More and Pollution Prevention Act of 1997
  • the Pediatric Research Initiative Act of 1997
  • the Defense of the Environment Act of 1997


Jan.
1997		   Training of Pediatricians To Include Environmental Health
The Pediatric Residency Review Committee, acting on a position paper submitted by the Network in 1995, requires the inclusion of pediatric environmental health training for pediatric residents.
Feb.
1997
   Network Hosts National Research Conference
Children's Environmental Health: Research, Practice, Prevention and Policy focuses on five key research priority areas in the field of children's environmental health: asthma and respiratory diseases; childhood cancer; endocrine disorders; neurodevelopmental effects; and cross-cutting issues. The conference provides a national forum for more than 260 researchers, clinicians, administrators, policy makers, and community representatives to present and discuss the latest research findings, to outline cutting edge research questions, and to identify steps needed to fill in research gaps.


April
1997		   Executive Order on Children's Environmental Health and Safety
President Clinton issues an executive order directing all Federal agencies to take into account the special risks and disproportionate impact that standards and safeguards have on children. Among a number of charges, the executive order establishes a Health Risk Task Force, to be chaired by the EPA Administrator and the Health and Human Services Secretary. The task force is charged with recommending coordinated strategies for better addressing children's environmental health and safety within the Federal government.

US EPA Establishes Office of Children's Health Protection
The EPA establishes the Office of Children's Health Protection to make the protection of children's health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States and to help implement EPA's ambitious national agenda to protect children's health from environmental threats.


May
1997		   International Children's Environmental Health Declaration
Prompted by the United States, the G-7 nations plus Russia issue a "Declaration of the Environment Leaders of the Eight on Children's Environmental Health," a framework for domestic, bilateral and international efforts to improve the protection of children's health from environmental threats. Action areas include: risk assessment and standard setting, lead, drinking water, air quality, environmental tobacco smoke, and endocrine disruptors.
July 1997   US EPA Protects Children with New Air Pollution Standards
The EPA issues stricter ozone and particulate matter air quality standards that acknowledge the inherent vulnerabilities of children to air pollution. Children have increased oxygen needs compared to their size, they breathe more rapidly, inhale more pollutants per pound of body weight and have smaller airways than adults.
Sept.
1997		   Call for Children's Environmental Health Research Centers
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the US EPA issue a request for proposals to establish national research centers on children's environmental health based on a recommendation from the Network's 1994 Symposium. The Centers represent the potential for child-focused research and risk assessment paradigms and research strategies that include a strong community component. They offer the hope of filling in some of the large gaps and of moving toward prevention oriented research and policies.
Sept.
1997
   Network Publishes Resource Guide on Children's Environmental Health The Network develops the Resource Guide on Children's Environmental Health to assist community leaders, policy makers and others in identifying and accessing key resources in children's environmental health.