Oral

Every day, people come into contact with environmental contaminants. For children, these chemical exposures may be greater than those experienced by adults. This may be due in part to children's unique behaviors, such as hand-to-mouth activity, crawling, and the foods they eat. However, it may also be in part due to their environment. Many young children spend the majority of their day in childcare settings, and older children spend their day at school. These environments may provide unique environmental and safety hazards. Because children spend such a large portion of time in childcare or school, it is important that environmental and safety risks are appropriately addressed to ensure their protecton. This session addresses some of the environmental and safety hazards that may be encountered in the childcare or school setting. It also explores several tools and strategies that have been developed for training, intervention, and remediation. Finally, this session will look at the role that can be played by the community, nurses, schools, day care facilities and local health departments in protecting children from environmental and safety risks.

Session Objectives: 1. Understand potential roles for local public health agencies in response to environmental contamination of recreational settings. 2. Describe the "Tools for Schools" and "Clean Air Zone" Programs for a preschool program 3. Discuss approaches to asthma tracking on a school community basis 4. Recognize environmental health and safety risks for children in childcare environments and understand the impact of poor housing conditions and the risks they present to children in home-based childcare.