The Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov/children/indicators

America's Children and the Environment: A First View of Available Measures

January 10, 2001

A new Environmental Protection Agency report shows that while the number of children living in areas where air pollution exceeded national standards or where public water systems violated drinking water standards decreased in the last decade, several formidable challenges remain to better protect American children from environmental health hazards.

For instance, there was a higher incidence of childhood asthma during the early 1990s, with poor black children suffering from the disease at a higher rate than those of other races and income levels.

"Children are among the most vulnerable groups to environmental threats," EPA Administrator Carol Browner said upon releasing the report Monday. "We are especially concerned about such issues as exposure to lead and pesticides and rising incidents of childhood asthma."

In 1997, Browner established the Office of Children's Health Protection to ensure that all EPA programs and regulations account for children's unique vulnerabilities to environmental hazards. She also directed EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics to work with OCHP to measure trends in contaminants in air, water, food and soil; concentrations of contaminants in children's bodies; and childhood diseases that may be influenced by environmental factors.

Among EPA's findings:

• Between 1990 and 1998, the percentage of children living in counties where air pollution exceeded national air quality standards decreased from 28 to 24 percent, but fluctuated from a high of 32 percent to a low of 17 percent;
• The number of children with asthma increased from 5.8 percent in 1990 to 7.5 percent in 1995. During the period 1997-98, 8.3 percent of non-Hispanic black children living in families with incomes below the poverty line had asthma, the highest percentage for all race groups and income levels;
• Children living in poor families are more likely to have elevated blood lead levels, with black children having higher blood lead levels than non-Hispanic and Hispanic children;

"This report outlines the progress we have made by specifically targeting threats to children, and it underscores the challenges that still confront us," Browner said.

The executive order establishing OCHP, likely to play a lead role in attacking those challenges, was set to expire in 2002.

But last February, led by the Children's Environmental Health Network, more than 30 environmental, religious, public health and consumer groups asked the Clinton administration to seek continued funding for OCHP beyond 2002. Daniel Swartz, executive director of CEHN, said Browner subsequently removed the sunset provision from the executive order. President-elect Bush also has said in writing he supports continuing EPA's emphasis on protecting children from environmental health hazards, Swartz said.