EPA Report on Children and the Environment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released “America’s Children and the Environment, Third Edition” in January 2013.  The report is a compilation of information from a variety of sources on children’s health and the environment.  According to the EPA news release, the report shows trends for contaminants in air, water, food, and soil that may affect children; concentrations of contaminants in the bodies of children and women of child-bearing age; and childhood illnesses and health conditions.

The report shows improvements on some issues, including children’s blood lead levels and exposure to tobacco smoke in the home.  Key findings include the:

• median concentration of lead in the blood of children between the ages of 1 and 5 years was 92% lower in 2009-2010 compared to 1976-1980 levels,


• median level of cotinine (a marker of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke) measured in blood of nonsmoking children ages 3 to 17 years was 88% lower in 2009-2010 than it was in 1988–1991, and


• percentage of children living in counties where pollutant concentrations were above the levels of one or more national air quality standards declined from 75% to 59% from 1999 to 2009.