Power in Policies: Children's Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley, New York

The U.S. government executive order 13045(EPA, 2013) has made it a policy for federal agencies to identify and assess environmental health risks that disproportionately affect the safety of children. Public health leaders from academia and medical practice play an important role in collaborating with governmental agencies to advance policies to promote health.

In 2008, New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice, and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center joined together to promote, protect and mitigate against respiratory and other disease from environmental toxicants. The Children's Environmental Health Center of the Hudson Valley (CEHCHV) is a multi-disciplinary venture whose primary mission is to serve as a resource to promote children's environmental health in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley. The Center staff sees over12, 000 children annually in 7 practice settings, 25% live in areas with great health disparities; and increased exposures to a variety of environmental toxicants and pollutants.  Our center has three goals: (a) Clinical consultation services to children, their families, and their primary care physicians (b) educational programs to community and professionals (c) research to quantify the relationship between environmental risk factors and children’s health. The Faith-based Asthma prevention program, the safe cook tops initiative, and the primary care preceptor program (PCAP) are 3 examples that integrate policy and practice. A vibrant social marketing and community outreach campaign coupled with a broad –based funding strategy are key to the sustainability of the CEHCHV and replicable across a diverse range of practice settings.