Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109553

Kristy A. Siegel, MPH, CHES and Janvier Gasana, MD, MPH, PhD. Stempel School of Public Health, Florida International University, HLSII 595, 11200 Southwest 8th Street, Miami, FL 33199, 305-348-4903, ksiegelapha@hotmail.com

The aim of this presentation is to allow insight into the extent to which adverse environmental conditions affect the health of children and to develop the skills necessary to expand risk assessment and health promotion activities to include advocacy and policy change. Many of the current regulations concerning environmental contaminants are primarily based upon an adult's physiology, weight, and behaviors and do not consider that children are more vulnerable than adults because of their unique physiology, behaviors, and developing processes. Using cases from the inner-city communities within and around the city of Miami, examples will be shown to illustrate the steps necessary to make the shift from researcher to advocate. By highlighting community concerns and research findings, action has been taken to address environmental justice issues, particularly those that pose a present or imminent health threat, in the city of Miami, such as lead toxic homes, unhealthy schools built on contaminated land, highway pollution and noise, and dredging of contaminated waterways. One such activity was to develop a coalition as a precursor of advocacy for the parents of lead poisoned children to receive federal funding for abatement of their homes and relocation during the process. If we, as practitioners and researchers, stop the incessant model employed today of using our children as canaries to identify environmental health threats and become their voices and advocates, our children will have the opportunity to grow and develop into healthy productive adults, free from illnesses resulting from lead-contaminated homes, unhealthy schools, and toxic neighborhoods.

Learning Objectives: