Children’s Environmental Health Initiative
Human development beginning with the fetus and extending
through adolescence is a particularly sensitive period during which environmental
factors play a central role in health status and lifetime health outcomes.
During this period, children may face a daunting array of challenges that severely
compromise their health and longevity. These include prenatal conditions such
as maternal exposure to toxic contaminants and inadequate nutrition and adverse
conditions in the home and surrounding environment that predispose children
to ill-health (1). A growing body of scientific research supports the involvement
of environmental factors in such childhood medical problems as birth defects,
asthma, learning and behavioral deficits, some cancers, and obesity (2). Furthermore,
it is likely that at least some adult disease or susceptibility to disease has
its origin in the environmental life history of children. There is strong evidence,
for example, that low birth weight children are prone to numerous diseases as
adults (3). There is also a hypothesis that exposure to neurotoxicants during
development compromises the brain such that is more prone to neurodegenerative
diseases associated with adulthood and aging (4).
Of particular concern are health disparities that children suffer in families
with lower socio-economic status. For example, exposure to components of tobacco
smoke, addictive drugs, etc (resulting in low birth weight, stunted development);
infant mortality; asthma, exposure to lead (depressed learning and other neurological
outcomes), etc. are all substantially higher in children borne into lower socio-economic
households (5-8). In this context, Milwaukee mirrors the health problems and disparities
that children face in urban centers across the country. In this context, our
focus on children’s environmental health offers opportunities to understand
and address adverse health determinants that affect early stages of life and
potentially play key roles in modulating adult health as well.
Strategic Vision
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Children’s Environmental Health Institute
- Landrigan, P.J., Kimmel, C.A., Correa, A., and Eskenazi, B. (2004) Children's Health and the Environment: Public Health Issues and Challenges for Risk Assessment. Environ. Health Perspect.
112: 257‑65.
- Goldman, L., Falk, H., Landrigan, P.J., Balk, S.J., Reigart, J.R., and Etzel, R.A. (2004) Environmental Pediatrics and Its Impact on government Health Policy. Pediatrics 113(4 Suppl):1146‑57.
- Holness, M.J. and Sugden, M.C. (2006) Epigenetic Regulation of Metabolism in Children Born Small for Gestational Age. Curr. Opin. Clin. Nutr. Metab. Care. 9: 482‑8.
- Barlow, B.K., Richfield, E.K., Cory‑Slechta, D.A., Thiruchelvam, M. (2004) A Fetal Risk Factor for Parkinson's Disease. Dev. Neurosci. 26: 11‑23.
- Gold, D.R. and Wright, R. (2005) Population Disparities in Asthma. Ann. Rev. Public Health. 26: 89‑113.
- Spencer, N. (2005) Maternal Education, Lone Parenthood, Material Hardship, Maternal Smoking, and Longstanding Respiratory Problems in Childhood: Testing a Hierarchical Conceptual Framework. J. Epidemiol. Community Health. 59: 842‑6.
- Lu, M.C. and Halfon, N. (2003) Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Birth Outcomes: a Life‑course Perspective. Maternal Child Health J. 7: 13‑30.
- Lidsky, T.I, and Schneider, J.S. (2003) Lead neurotoxicity in Children: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Correlates. Brain 126: 5‑19.
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