Caring for Children's Environmental Health in Early Care and Education Settings: Evidence-Based Standards

Millions of children are being cared for in early care and education programs every day. Keeping children of all ages healthy and safe is vital, yet our youngest children are especially vulnerable when being cared for in these settings. Young children are more vulnerable to exposures of contaminated environmental toxins when compared to adults because their bodies are developing; they eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size; and their behavior, such as crawling and hand-to-mouth activity, can expose them more to chemicals/toxins. Maintaining a healthy, toxic-free physical environment positively impacts the health and well-being of the children served. Further, environmental responsibility is an impor­tant concept to teach and practice daily. And early care and education programs are no exception.

The AAP, the APHA, and the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education (NRC) recently produced* Caring for Children's Environmental Health in Early Care and Education, a sub-collection of Caring for Our Chil­dren: National Health and Safety Performance Standards; Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs, 3rd Edition (CFOC3). These standards represent the best evidence and expertise in the country on quality health and safety practices and policies for today’s early care and education settings. This environmental health collection presents those CFOC3 standards that address several key environmental topic areas, e.g. lead, radon, plastics, etc. This environmental collection are recommended for use by caregivers/teachers, families, health consultants, licensors/regulators, policymakers, early childhood systems, and researchers.

*By 2014 APHA Annual Meeting.