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Early this week, the Government Accountability Office released a report
chastising the EPA for failing to protect children's health. The
report outlines how between 2002-2008 the EPA's head officials
frequently ignored recommendations and failed to "fulfill priorities and
commitments" with regards to protecting children from environmental
health threats.
In a Senate hearing before the Environment and
Public Works Committee, health experts testified that the problems with
the EPA "are setting the stage for an overwhelming wave of disease and
disability in the coming decades."
Children are most at risk
from environmental pollutants because they breathe more air in
proportion to their weight than do adults, which can lead to higher
concentrations of toxic chemicals. Because their bodies are still
developing, toxic chemicals also affect them more profoundly.
This
is not the first time the EPA has been caught asleep at the wheel. In
2008, USA Today released an in-depth report about the impacts of
pollution near schools and profiled several ways in which the EPA
had ignored or disregarded information that could have been used to
protect children.
However, GCM is optimistic that the report
will force the new EPA Director Lisa Jackson to commit to rectifying the
problems. Children are one of our nation's most valuable resources,
and the EPA must step up and protect them.
Because of the health
impacts of toxic pollution on children, Global Community Monitor's work
often focuses on determining levels of exposure and health impacts in
schools and playgrounds. For example, our work in West Oakland,
California has highlighted the drift of toxic dust into neighboring
schools, day care centers and homes, and is working to change land use
planning policies to ensure that industrial facilities are not sited so
close to places where children are spending most of their days.
Environmental monitoring, such as air sampling buckets, is a key method
through which communities can gather hard data to link to specific
health problems, such as asthma, in fenceline neighborhoods to pollution
from specific industrial facilities and identify solutions to prevent
this pollution.
For more information:
USA Today
(3/18/2010) GAO report scolds EPA
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