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EPA NEW ENGLAND ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCES CHILDREN FIRST CAMPAIGN IN MAINE

Release Date: 10/03/2000
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs Office (617) 918-1064

PORTLAND, Maine - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's New England Office today 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. With the Fred P. Hall, Jr. School as a backdrop, EPA challenged Maine schools to join the agency's Showcase School program to demonstrate the numerous EPA programs available to make schools safer and healthier for children.

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. "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 Mindy S. Lubber, EPA New England regional administrator, who is holding events like this one in each New England state this fall to announce the children's health initiative.

"Nothing is more important than the health of Maine's children," said Governor Angus S. King. "As we work to improve the educational opportunities for our students we must recognize that their health and wellness play a major role in creating a successful learning environment. The state of Maine has shown its commitment to putting its children first, and I am very excited that the Environmental Protection Agency through the Children First Initiative will be a strong partner in this process."

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.

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

In 1998, the state of Maine passed a law related to the renovation and maintenance of public schools that includes requirements for protecting the health of students and educators, including a requirement to ensure healthy air quality in Maine schools. To date, Maine's Revolving Renovation Fund has helped local school districts address urgent indoor air quality needs affecting more than 15,000 students in more than 50 school buildings across Maine.

The city of Portland is also the site of a state-of-the-art air monitor, funded by EPA, that measures ozone and toxic air pollutants in a heavily trafficked downtown area. The data, posted hourly on the web, helps individuals make decisions about whether outdoor exercise might damage their lungs. It can also be used to encourage people not to drive when air pollution, coming from cars, is high.

"We require children to attend school," said Edward F. Miller, executive director of the American Lung Association. "This gives us a special obligation to assure the healthfulness of that environment. Maine has been a leader in both recognizing the indoor air problems in schools and in taking action to both fix the immediate concerns and prevent future problems."

"With the turn of the century, programs like the "Children First Campaign" are essential to improve the quality of life for children and adolescents," said Dr. Chris Stenberg, director of Pediatric Ambulatory Care at Maine Medical Center. "It is fantastic to see the support for initiatives to improve asthma management, reduce lead poisoning and improve the air quality in schools. What has truly impressed me in Maine, is a real commitment to improve the lives of our young people. Now with new partnerships, including the EPA, even more will be possible."

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 one-third of Maine schools reported unacceptable indoor air quality in a 1995 government study. Tools for Schools is already being implemented in 150 New England schools, including 5 in Maine. In the coming months, EPA New England will enlist an additional 200 schools and train an additional 1,000 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 Maine, more than 6 percent of children screened had high lead levels - some 400 children in one year alone. In Portland, nearly two-thirds of the houses were built prior to 1950, and are more likely to contain lead paint. EPA's Boston pilot program to make the play areas around a home safe for children has been called a national model. Officials from Augusta were in Boston yesterday learning how to begin a similar program in Maine.
• 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 Maine 80,000 people (6.4 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: Small amounts of mercury can damage a developing brain. Babies in the womb, nursing babies and young children are most at risk.. Too much mercury can affect behavior, learning ability and impede a person's problem-solving skills later in life. Across New England, nearly 80 percent of the inland waters have fish so polluted with mercury that states have issued limits on the amount of fish that is safe to eat. The state of Maine is about to launch a program to teach parents of children under 8 years of age the dangers of consuming mercury-contaminated fish.
• EPA New England has challenged the region's hospitals to eliminate mercury waste by the year 2003. Already 13 New England hospitals have joined the program, resulting in the elimination of more than 600 pounds of mercury from their waste streams. Just last week, with the goal of increasing participation in the program, EPA sent letters to every hospital in New England urging them to take the mercury elimination challenge. Maine will also host a biomedical conference this month with the intent of enlisting every hospital in Maine to eliminate mercury emissions.
• 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.