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Catholic
Perspectives on Environmental Health
Children's
Health and the Environment
February 2003
The Issue
Children’s bodies, behaviors, and size make
them different from and more vulnerable than adults
to many environmental health hazards. Also, because
children are exposed to environmental hazards
at an earlier age than adults are, they have more
time to develop slowly-progressing environmentally
triggered illnesses such as asthma, certain cancers
and learning disabilities. Exposure to air pollutants
and toxins is significantly more harmful to children,
but children in poverty and children of color
are at a disproportionate risk, with routinely
higher rates of lead poisoning, and asthma-related
deaths and hospitalization.
Background
In an effort to develop the leadership of Catholic
institutions to help address environmental hazards
affecting children's health, a coalition of major
Catholic organizations and networks formed the
Catholic Coalition for Children and a
Safe Environment (CASE).
CASE is made up of the following members: Catholic
Charities U.S.A. (CCUSA); Catholic Health Association
(CHA); Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI); Conference
for Catholic Facility Management (CCFM); National
Council of Catholic Women (NCCW); National Catholic
Educational Association (NCEA); National Catholic
Partnership on Disability (NCPD); National Catholic
Rural Life Conference (NCRLC); and the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB)
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities and Office
for Domestic Social Development. |
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CASE has been
making significant progress in finding ways to
integrate children’s health issues into
the larger mandates of their organizations. Specifically,
it has:
- Promoted leadership development. The NCEA
has published articles about the importance
of environmental health issues in making schools
safe aimed at educators, boards and commissions.
Most recently, it launched its mini-grant program
to recognize and promote best practices of environmental
safety among Catholic school boards. CCFM has
collaborated with NCEA in promoting school safety
issues. CCUSA has coordinated trainings for
housing counselors from 50 dioceses around the
country on environmental health issues related
to housing and advocacy strategies for clients
and their communities. The NCCW continues to
expand its outreach and advocacy by distributing
materials to its members.
- Supported health tracking nationwide. CASE
members spent time learning about the need for
a nationwide health tracking system as a measure
of preventing diseases that may be potentially
linked to environmental hazards and disproportionately
harmful to children. With the threat of bioterrorism,
the need to enhance our ability to track exposures
and clusters of illnesses has become more relevant.
Legislation was introduced in the 107th Congress,
Nationwide Health Tracking Act of 2002 (H.R.4061/S.2054).
The USCCB, the NCEA, CHA, the NCRLC and the
NCCW lined up institutional support for such
a system. CHA also supported other similar legislation
on chronic illness with a health tracking component.
CCUSA provided testimony during a hearing of
its Social Policy Committee (Children and Families)
at its annual conference.
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