EPA Says US Children Face Environmental Health Threats
I don’t mean to diminish the importance of maintaining a clean environment. It is unquestionable that we have toxins in our environment that negatively impact our health. The best way I can illustrate my concern is with a conversation I had with an asthmatic’s mother recently. The mother had done everything she could think of; got rid of the cat, uses air filters, covers on the mattress and pillows, etc… But she never once considered attacking the problem from inside. By improving her daughter’s health. The rates of asthma are increasing, and I’m afraid we are going to blame it all on the external environment, and not claim any personal responsibility for the internal environment.
(article) Fewer US children now live in counties with heavily polluted air, but children face other growing environmental health problems such as asthma, the US Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. Outgoing EPA Administrator Carol Browner used the report to highlight concerns of the Clinton administration, which has fewer than 2 weeks left in office. “The Clinton-Gore administration has made the protection of children’s health one of its highest environmental priorities,” Browner said in a statement. “We especially are concerned about such issues as exposure to lead and pesticides and rising incidence of childhood asthma.” The report showed there has been some progress in curbing environmental health threats to children. For example, data showed a decline from 28% in 1990 to 23% in 1998 in the percentage of American US living in counties where one or more of a half-dozen key air pollutants exceed national air quality standards. Those pollutants include carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead. The EPA also noted a decrease in the percentage of homes with both a tobacco smoker and a child under age 7. That fell from 29% in 1994 to 19% in 1999, the study said. Another improvement occurred in the availability of safe drinking water for children. The percentage of children living in areas that logged violations of drinking water standards fell from 19% in 1993 to 8% in 1998. But other trends are worrisome, according to the EPA, which found that environmental health problems are consistently higher among low-income families. Poor black children have a higher rate of asthma than children in other racial groups and income groups. Also, the prevalence of asthma among all children in the US increased from 5.8% in 1990 to 7.5% in 1995, the agency said. The EPA said that its report could not offer any quick fixes to the health issues, and instead it outlined how the federal government needs to develop better measurements and data to address children’s environmental health issues. The EPA separately announced that it will require companies to make public more information about their lead emissions into the air, water and land. The new rules will require companies that annually use more than 100 pounds of lead and lead compounds to provide information to the EPA under the agency’s consumer right-to-know program. Previously, reporting rules applied to users of more than 10,000 pounds annually.