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EPA New England Administrator Announces Children First Campaign

Release Date: 09/18/2000
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

MANCHESTER, NH - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office today in Manchester announced a $1 million initiative aimed at protecting children from environmental health threats in the places where they spend most of their time - in school, at home, and outdoors. The announcement was made at a Safe House, a new residence in downtown Manchester that will provide safe, temporary housing for families while their homes are being renovated for lead paint or asthma allergens.

The initiative, called Children First, includes $500,000 of new investments to combat lead poisoning in New England cities, $200,000 to improve air quality and reduce toxic exposure at 200 schools, and $225,000 in programs to curb skyrocketing asthma rates.

In announcing the $1 million initiative, EPA New England Regional Administrator Mindy S. Lubber challenged New Hampshire schools to become an EPA "Showcase School." As part of EPA's Safe Schools initiative, EPA will choose one school in each New England state to showcase numerous EPA programs available to make schools safer and healthier for children.

"At a time of unparalleled national prosperity, it is unacceptable that thousands of children in New England are still afflicted by lead poisoning, mercury poisoning and bouts with asthma," said Lubber, who is holding events like this one in each New England state this fall to announce the children's health initiative.

Lubber pledged that EPA New England - through a newly formed Children's Health Team comprised of a dozen EPA staff members - will use all the tools in its arsenal to reduce environmental risks that are causing elevated rates of asthma, lead poisoning and other diseases suffered by children.

"Nothing is more important than the health of Manchester's children," said Manchester Mayor Robert Baines. "The city has made a concerted effort to work with EPA and state officials to make Manchester a safer and cleaner place for families. EPA's new campaign will further our joint agenda, giving us a better understanding of the environment and how it contributes to such childhood diseases as lead poisoning and asthma."

"Pollution is unhealthy for everyone, but it is particularly threatening to children whose bodies are small and growing," said Lubber, a mother of two small children. "Our society cannot stand still when dozens of New Hampshire kids are still being diagnosed with lead poisoning each and every month and our hospital emergency rooms are being flooded with small children suffering from asthma."

The Children First initiative will build upon work already done by the city in partnership with EPA New England to improve the environmental health of its children. A landmark 1999 agreement between Manchester and EPA led to a $500,000 investment by the city into programs aimed at preventing childhood lead poisoning and asthma in Manchester. The initiative includes funding for a full time city toxicologist, screening of children for lead poisoning, lead hazards reduction training and education, and asthma reduction programs. This money complemented $135,000 EPA awarded to Manchester under the EPA Children's Health Champion Initiative to reduce home-based environmental health hazards that cause lead poisoning and trigger asthma.

"The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is proud to partner with the Manchester Health Department in an air monitoring effort at Beech Street Elementary School where asthma rates are particularly high," said Robert Varney, Commissioner of DES. "This project will combine hospital admissions data and school nurse observations of asthmatic children with air monitoring data to see whether poor air quality is partially to blame for the high rate of asthma in this center city neighborhood of Manchester." The Beech Street School is a short distance from Manchester's new Safe House.

The Way Home's Safe House, which will open in June 2001, will provide safe housing for families and help avoid lead poisoning among children who move into homes with lead paint. In 1999 and 2000, 15 families needed temporary housing due to lead poisoning or abatement activities. Once renovated, this Safe House will provide six apartments of short-term transitional housing for families whose permanent residences are being renovated. The Way Home is a non-profit organization in Manchester dedicated to ensuring safe housing for low-income families.

"Families, especially poor families, have the right to safe housing so that their children are not exposed to lead paint and other environmental hazards that can cause illness," said Mary Sliney, director of The Way Home. "This is our mission, and with funding from EPA New England, The Way Home has worked to help low income families improve the health of their children by addressing housing conditions."

Lubber kicked off the New England-wide campaign during the first month of the school year by announcing the first prong of the Children First campaign -- a Safe Schools Initiative that will focus on making sure elementary schools and high schools in New England have the safest yards, classrooms and laboratories possible. The school initiative includes the following:

Safe Schools

• Tools for Schools: New England's school buildings suffer from a variety of environmental problems that make our children ill. Nearly 27 percent of New Hampshire schools reported unacceptable indoor air quality in a 1995 government study. Tools for Schools is already being implemented in 150 New England schools, including 20 in New Hampshire. In the coming months, EPA New England will enlist an additional 200 schools and train 1,000 more school officials to undertake the Tools for Schools program
• Showcase Schools: One school in each New England state will be offered a broad spectrum of EPA programs to ensure clean indoor air, healthier building construction, safer use and storage of chemicals and a student body educated about its environment.
• Toxics-Free Schools: Schools use chemicals in classrooms, science laboratories and vocational shops as well as in facility maintenance. Toxic chemicals such as mercury are also prevalent in medical equipment, lighting and electrical devices found in schools. A newly formed team of EPA experts will hold workshops and visit high schools and vocational schools to educate teachers and administrators on safer use, storage and disposal of chemicals and equipment.

Healthy Homes

• Lead Safe Yards: New England's children are particularly at risk for lead poisoning because the region's older wooden houses often contain lead paint and lead-contaminated yards. In New Hampshire, 1044 children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning since January of 1995, including 336 in Manchester alone.
• Lead Enforcement: EPA New England's enforcement program is making lead paint a priority by creating a team to enforce laws requiring that landlords inform tenants of the presence of lead paint.
• Asthma Reduction: In New Hampshire 80,000 people (6.6 percent of the population) have asthma, and rates for children are even higher. Asthma accounts for one third of all pediatric emergency room visits and is a leading cause of school absences. EPA New England is funding area organizations to teach families at home and in health centers how to reduce asthma attacks. EPA New England also held an Asthma Summit this spring that for the first time drew together federal and state agencies along with private health groups and asthma coalitions to address this issue. The group established an initiative to track asthma rates in children and to promote new building guidelines for healthier indoor spaces.

• Mercury: An estimated one in four children nationally are exposed to mercury at unsafe levels. Mercury exposure may lead to irreversible neurological effects. Across New England, more than 80 percent of the inland waters have fish too polluted with mercury to eat. EPA New England has challenged the region's hospitals to eliminate mercury waste by the year 2003. Already thirteen New England hospitals have joined the program, resulting in the elimination of more than 600 pounds of mercury from their waste streams. Recognizing that many children get mercury poisoning because their mothers did not know the risks of eating fish from regional waters, EPA New England is launching a program to teach parents the dangers of mercury and mercury poisoning.
• Air Quality Alerts: Air pollution causes lung and other respiratory diseases in children. Every summer, EPA New England gives reports on air quality to the public through the media and through electronic messages to 1,000 camps, daycare centers and individuals.

For more information on children's health issues and EPA-NE's Children First campaign, visit EPA's web site at www.epa.gov/region1/children. Also visit Manchester's web site at http://eol.grolen.com/manch/index