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Our children live in a world vastly different from the one we grew up in. More than 80,000 chemicals, most of which did not exist fifty years ago, are registered for use in commerce in the United States, and an estimated 2,000 new ones are introduced every year^1,2.

These chemicals are used in everyday items such as foods, shampoos, toys, furniture, electronics, household cleaners, and lawn care products, to name just a few. The effects of many of these chemicals on human health are unknown.

Unfortunately, there is no pre-market safety testing required under any federal law for these chemicals and of the 15,000 most commonly used chemicals, more than 80% have not been tested for potential health effects on children³. Even fewer have been tested for their health effects when they interact with one another, but that’s how we’re exposed to them⁴.

What is this doing to our kids? For the most part, we don’t really know. It’s largely an unregulated experiment – and it’s being conducted on us and our children. One thing we do know is that childhood disease and disabilities that have links to toxic exposures are on the rise^5,6,7.

It’s a phenomenon we can see with our own eyes. Think of how many children you know who have asthma, allergies, learning or behavior disabilities, or even cancer. Most of us can see that there are more than there were even ten years ago. Our health is the result of complex interactions among genetic, environmental and social factors, but toxic exposures deserve special attention because they are preventable causes of harm.

Why it’s so important to prevent children’s exposure to environmental toxins

Beginning in utero, babies and children are different than adults — they are often much more vulnerable to these environmental toxins.

Pound-for-pound, children breathe more air, drink more water, and eat more food than adults. Thus, they are more exposed to air and water pollution and pesticides.

Their bodies are more rapidly growing and developing, so chemicals that can harm development can do maximum damage at this critical time.

Children play on the floor, where allergens, such as dust, and heavier-than-air chemicals settle and collect. Young children put everything in their mouth, which is a crucial part of normal development, the way a baby learns about the world.

Everyone can do something

It may seem overwhelming, but there are many things each of us can do to protect children from harmful exposures to toxins. Healthy Child Healthy World has a wide variety of resources for you to learn about easy steps you can take to create a healthier environment for children.

¹U.S. EPA. Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee. Final Report. Washington DC. 1998.
²Oleskey, Christopher, PhD and McCally, Michael, MD, A Guide to Biomonitoring and Body Burdens of Industrial Chemicals, Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 2001.
³Commission on Life Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, Toxicity Testing: Strategies to Determine Needs and Priorities. National Academy Press, Washington DC 1984.
⁴Christopher, PhD and McCally, Michael, MD, A Guide to Biomonitoring and Body Burdens of Industrial
Chemicals, Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York,
NY 2001.  
⁵America's Children and the Environment: Measures of Contaminants, Body Burdens, and Illnesses, 2003, U.S. EPA. http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/publications.htm.
⁶Environmental Health Threats to Children: A Look at the Facts; Dr. Phillip J. Landrigan,
http://www.informinc.org/fact_children.php from information under the auspices of the Office of Children's Health Protection of the US Environmental Protection Agency.
⁷Acta Psychiatry Scand 99(6):339-406, 1999.

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