Children's Health
lborkowski | December 30, 2015During the holiday season, Kim, Liz and I are taking a short break from blogging. We are posting some of our favorite posts from the past year. Here’s one of them, originally posted on August 12, 2015:
by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH
“It’s just like the paper we read in class.” That was the email message I received last week from a former undergraduate student from a class I used to teach called “Health and the Environment.” She was referring to a report of two young children from the Cincinnati, OH area who were lead poisoned because the toxic metal wasn’t controlled at their father’s…
kkrisberg | March 17, 2015In the first study of its kind, researchers have found that improved air quality in southern California had a direct effect on children’s respiratory health. The findings point to the effectiveness of smart public health policy — in other words, even as southern California experienced increases in traffic and commerce, aggressive air pollution policies resulted in cleaner air and healthier kids.
Published earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study concluded that air quality improvements in the southern California communities studied were associated with significantly…
kkrisberg | January 23, 2015Rarely do poverty and optimal health go together. In fact, income is consistently tapped as a major factor underpinning a person’s opportunity to live a long and healthy life. And children don’t fare much better, with low-income children facing increased risks of poor health and development. So, just how many American children face this challenge today? Four out of every 10.
This month, researchers at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health released their annual “Basic Facts about Low-Income Children” fact sheet, which reports that 44…
milhayser | December 5, 2014On Aardvarchaeology, Martin Rundkvist compiles his best November tweets into one riotous and insightful document. First up: "This chocolate praline contains something that looks and smells like shampoo. Apparently it’s flavoured with elderflower extract." Elderberry has been used for medicinal purposes worldwide for thousands of years, but maybe the praline makers should use the delicious berry extract instead of flower. Kim Krisberg considers less odorous possibilities on The Pump Handle, citing research that says advantages such as "proximity to parks and open spaces" help children start…
kkrisberg | November 26, 2014Children who have the opportunity to attend full-day preschool programs, versus part-day programs, tend to score higher on school readiness measures such as language, math, socio-emotional development and physical health, according to a recent study. So, why is this finding important to public health? Because education has literally been described as an “elixir” for lifelong health and wellbeing.
When it comes to the upstream factors that can put people on a lifelong trajectory toward longer life expectancy, greater health and less chance of disability and disease, educational achievement is…
lborkowski | August 20, 2013By Veronica Tinney and Jerome Paulson
Children breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food per unit of body weight than adults. Therefore, if a child’s air, water or food is contaminated with chemicals, children receive a larger dose per unit of body weight than would an adult in the same situation. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has been unable to regulate chemicals effectively, and new chemical legislation must consider these key physiological differences.
TSCA, which became law in 1976, gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limited authority to regulate…
cmonforton | February 20, 2013From my hometown of Detroit, there's more grim news. The story that made today's headline comes from the State-authorized financial review team. They unanimously concluded that a fiscal emergency exists in Detroit. The city, with a population of about 700,000 residents, has $14 billion in long-term debt and a projected $100 million budget shortfall for this year. The story that didn't get a headline, but is equally important for the city's future, concerns the effects of lead poisoning on academic achievement among Detroit's school children. A newly published study in the American…
lborkowski | March 8, 2011Given how many complaints we've been hearing lately about wasteful government spending, I thought this might be a good time to highlight some lesser-known, worthwhile government-funded programs that promote public health. (Core agency functions, like EPA's Clean Air Act enforcement, are also crucial for public health, but I trust this audience is already fairly familiar with them.)
One example - which comes immediately to mind because we have one affiliated with our department here at the George Washington University School of Public Health & Health Services - is pediatric environmental…