EPA Recognizes Children’s Health Month
EPA is recognizing October as Children’s Health Month. Every year, EPA begins the fall season by raising awareness about the crucial role our environment plays in the ability for our nation’s children to grow up healthy and happy.
“Every child deserves to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in healthy, thriving neighborhoods,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, “At EPA we are committed to making this a reality by advancing policies that reduce health disparities, and ensure that communities have the tools to safeguard their children’s future and lifelong health.”
Children, especially those in vulnerable communities, are susceptible to environmental hazards such as pollution and threats posed by climate change. Their developing bodies make them sensitive to toxins, their behavior can increase their exposure to pollutants, and social contexts including poverty and cumulative impacts affect their ability to recover from environmental exposures. Early exposure to pollutants can have lifelong health implications. Most recently, EPA took several actions to advance children’s health protection including:
- Launching the Kids and Climate Health Zone, a collection of stories and information about how climate stressors are impacting children’s health at various life stages across different regions of the U.S.
- Reducing diesel emissions and creating cleaner air for children and communities by awarding nearly $900 million through the EPA Clean School Bus Program Awards to approximately 53 school districts to support the purchase of over 3,400 zero-emission and clean school buses, part of an overall $5 billion investment.
- Reducing exposure to lead in drinking water for countless families through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), which announced $3 billion to help identify and replace lead service lines, part of a $9 billion total investment to replace an estimated 1.7 million lead service lines nationwide and $50 million in funding to reduce lead exposure in schools.
- Preventing exposure to “forever chemicals” by investing $10 billion to tackle PFAS in water, establishing the first-ever national drinking water standard for PFAS to protect over 100 million people, and initiating cleanup efforts at Superfund sites to protect children and public health.
- Finalizing a suite of standards to reduce air pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants and investment in the transition to a clean energy economy.
Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act are changing the world where our children live, learn and play.
Join us in celebrating Children’s Health Month. Get involved this October and learn more about children’s environmental health.
|
