Luiz A. C. Galvão, PhD, Area Management of Sustainable Environment and Environmental Health, Pan American Health Organization, Regional Office of the World Health Organization, 525 23rd Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037, (202) 974-3156, galvaolu@paho.org

This scientific session will address the state of the art knowledge and share experiences from the Americas on creating healthy and enabling environments for children. Evidence from health promotion research during the last two decades indicates that behavior is the result of the conditions in the unique environment where people live, work and play. This theory base has driven the development, implementation and evaluation of the healthy settings initiatives in the Americas. Three specific initiatives will be presented in this session illustrating key initiatives that target the creation of healthy environments for children from different perspectives. The Smoke Free Spaces Initiative in the Americas targets eliminating second hand smoke risk for children and provides a powerful message to parents and the educational community of the dangers of smoking. The Environmental Health Initiative provides evidence of the risk to health and development of children posed by many toxic environmental pollutants. And the Health Promoting Schools Initiative an integrated strategy that provides a strategic tool to three pronged approach to improving school settings overall by planing and implementing health education and life skills training, appropriate health services and enabling and healthy social and physical school environments.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of the session, the participants will be able to identify effective strategies and best practices in LAC that contribute to healthier settings for children, including key conditions to improve the psycho-social and physical environmental aspects, both risk and protective factors. The participants will have the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and experience to these presentations.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.