Children's Health
Children thrive with clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, safe food to eat, and a healthy environment in which to learn and grow. Children are more vulnerable to some environmental risks than adults for several reasons:
- Children’s nervous, immune, digestive, and other systems are still developing and their ability to metabolize or inactivate toxicants may be different than adults;
- Children eat more food, drink more fluids, and breathe more air in proportion to their body weight than adults; and
- Children’s behavior—such as crawling and placing objects in their mouths—may result in greater exposure to environmental contaminants.
Choices:
- Help children breathe easier by not smoking near them and keeping your home as clean as possible.
- Protect children from lead poisoning. National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week occurs each November. Call 1-800-424-LEAD for more information.
- Keep pesticides and other toxic chemicals away from children.
- Protect children from carbon monoxide (CO), radon, and mercury.
- Protect children from contaminated fish and polluted water.
- Protect children from too much sun.
- Limit your child’s outdoor activity on days when pollution levels are high and could lead to respiratory problems.