SPH Roundtable: Environmental Threats to Children

How to protect children from the toxic agents that permeate our environment was the topic of the latest SPH Roundtable. The event featured a keynote address from Philip Landrigan, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Landrigan is known for his work in protecting children from environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides. He has been a leader in developing the National Children's Study, the largest study of children's health and the environment ever launched in the United States.

Landrigan spoke of the unprecedented rates of cancer, autism, asthma, birth defects, and developmental disabilities that afflict American children today. And he outlined the growing body of research that links hazardous chemicals to these diseases. To address the problem, we must draw on the power of major epidemiologic studies, said Landrigan, who cited the country's plummeting rates of heart disease and stroke over the past decades as a "great triumph" of public health and an example to follow in reducing the diseases linked to toxic exposure.

In following 100,000 American kids from conception to age 21, Landrigan said the National Children's Study has the potential to improve children's health in a similarly profound way. (Learn about the SPH's role in this study.) Outside of the research arena, action must be taken at the federal level.

"There's no other way to do it," said Landrigan. "We need to have legislation in this country that requires that chemicals be tested for their toxicity. . . .We need to have representatives in Washington who think it's important to protect the next generation against toxic hazards."

To watch a video of this presentation, go to www.sph.umn.edu/cpheo/events/roundtable.