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Children's Health
The mission of the Child Proofing our Communities Campaign is to protect children in the places they live, learn, play and pray. We focus on protecting children from toxic chemical exposures because they are more at risk from even low dose exposures to environmental contaminates than adults are.
A few of the many factors that make children more sensitive to toxic exposures include:
- Children are not little adults: they consume more calories, drink more water, and breathe more air per pound than do adults, and therefore take in a larger amounts of any harmful substances that may be present
- Children's natural curiosity, tendency to explore, and inclination to place their hands in their mouths often exposes them to health risks adults readily avoid
- Children's immature systems are less able to handle toxins: their body tissues more readily absorb many harmful substances
- Children's bodily systems are not suited to repair damage caused by toxins: thus, if neurotoxins assault cells in the brain, immune system, or reproductive organs, or if endocrine disruption diverts development, the resulting dysfunction will likely be permanent and irreversible
- Children have more time to develop disease: their longer remaining life span provides more time for environmentally induced diseases to develop
Source: Landrigan et al. "Children's Health and the Environment: A New Agenda for Preventive Research,"
Environmental Health Perspectives, June 1998
Every person can have a positive impact on the health and development of children. To learn more and share this information with decision makers in your parent teacher organization, environmental club, school community, childcare center or house of worship, use the links at the right.
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