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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP¹, Clyde Schechter, MD, MA², Raphael Falk³, Nathan Graber, MD³, Joseph Boscarino, PhD⁴, George Dunkel⁵, Jessica Geslani⁵, Evonne Kaplan-Liss, MD⁶, Jacqueline Moline, MD, MSc³, Richard Miller, PhD⁷, Katrina Korfmacher, PhD⁸, David O. Carpenter, MD⁹, Sophie J. Balk, MD¹⁰, Danielle Laraque, MD¹¹, and Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc¹². (1) Center for Children's Health and the Environment, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place Box 1057, New York, NY 10029, (2) Family Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 100 Morris Park Ave, Bronx, NY 10461, (3) Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place Box 1057, New York, NY 10029, (4) Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, (5) American Academy of Pediatrics, 420 Lakeville Road, Suite 244, Lake Success, NY 11042, (6) Dept of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook Hospital, HSC 3-103, Stony Brook, NY 11794, (7) Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester, 601 ELMWOOD AVE, RM 5-7550, Rochester, NY 14627, (8) Environmental Health Sciences Center, University of Rochester, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box EHSC, Rochester, NY 14642, (9) Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, SUNY, 5 University Place, Room A217, Rensselaer, NY 12144-3429, (10) Children's Hospital of Montefiore, Division of General Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1621 Eastchester Road, Bronx, NY 10461, (11) Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, (12) Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Center for Children's Health and the Environment, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place Box 1057, New York, NY 10029-6574, 212-241-4804, leo.trasande@mssm.edu

Diseases of environmental origin make an important and insufficiently recognized contribution to total health care costs among children. Using federal and New York State data sources, we estimated the environmentally attributable cost of lead poisoning, asthma, pediatric cancer and neurobehavioral disorders in New York State's children in 2000 to be $4.65 billion (range $4.13-$5.50 billion, 2000 dollars). Recognition, treatment and prevention of environmentally related illness in children requires collaboration among government, the medical community, academic health centers and the public. One efficient and effective approach to dealing with present and future problems in children's environmental health is the establishment of statewide, regionalized children's environmental health systems. A system of centers of excellence would increase the accuracy of diagnosis of children's diseases caused by environmental factors; improve the treatment of children's diseases caused by environmental factors; prevent diseases caused by environmental factors; better quantify and describe the burden in the state of children's diseases of environmental origin; and strengthen and expand educational programs in children's environmental health for professionals at all levels. If this system could reduce morbidity of childhood environmental diseases even by 1% at a cost of $8 million, this system could provide a positive and significant return on investment while improving the lives of children in New York and other states across the nation.

Learning Objectives:

• State the environmentally attributable costs of diseases and disorders in New York State.
• Describe how the establishment a system of centers of excellence in children’s environmental health could reduce significantly reduce morbidity of childhood environmental diseases and related costs.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Economic Analysis

Related Web page: www.childenvironment.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation