Children’s health includes the study of how illnesses and disorders in kids might be caused by their environment, as well as the prevention and treatment of diseases in kids and babies that are caused by their environment. Negative health effects from many outdoor factors are especially likely to happen to children.
The Beginning of Children’s Health and the Environment
Pollution and other things in the world that can be bad for health are especially likely to hurt children and babies. Children are more likely to get it for a number of reasons:
• Kids eat, drink, and breathe more than adults do for their size.
• Kids often put things in their mouths, play on the ground and floor, and explore more.
• Children’s protective body systems are not fully developed yet. For example, the systems that clean the air we breathe and break down chemicals in our bodies are not fully developed yet.
During times of rapid growth and development in children, chemicals in the surroundings may mess up regular biological processes.
At times, doctors and scientists don’t know what makes a sickness or disease happen. It is possible for some health problems to be passed down from grandparents to parents to children. Things in our surroundings can hurt us and cause some health problems. The idea that genes and the surroundings work together to cause diseases is supported by most experts. Because we can’t change our genes very much, experts think that the best way to stop diseases is to find and control environmental dangers.
We might also improve the health of people who were children because we protect them. NIEHS study found that pregnant women who improved their diet and limited their exposure to chemicals in the environment were more likely to have healthy babies. These babies were also better prepared to deal with stresses in the environment as adults.
What Does NIEHS Do on Children’s Health and the Environment?
Environmental health study on children is a top concern for the NIEHS when it comes to funding and supporting research. In the last 10 years, NIEHS has spent more than $1 billion, which includes giving $100 million a year to experts in funding. The NIEHS does study in the following areas.
Chemicals and childhood cancer: Studies show that women who took vitamins or folic acid before or during pregnancy lowered the chance that their children would get some types of leukemia.
Environmental exposure and vaccine response: A study backed by the NIEHS found that babies may not be able to properly respond to other shots after being exposed to common toxins that stay in the environment, like DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).Also, other researchers funded by the NIEHS have found that school-aged children in rural Bangladesh who are exposed to higher levels of arsenic have a different immune system and are less likely to respond to the mumps vaccine.
Autism and kids’ exposure: Genetics and being exposed to air pollution while pregnant were linked to a higher chance of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Other NIEHS-funded researchers found that pregnant women who are exposed to chemicals or who are inflamed because of diabetes, infections, or being overweight also have a higher chance of having a child with ASD. Lead exposure in childhood: NIEHS-funded study shows that even low amounts of lead in children’s blood are linked to more behavioral problems, later puberty, and worse hearing, cognitive performance, and growth or height after giving birth. Other research supported by the NIEHS found that being exposed to lead was linked to lower IQ scores, worse school performance, and more behavior problems and attention-related behaviors.
Researchers paid by the NIEHS found a link between higher amounts of lead in children’s baby teeth and autism.
NIH-funded studies, including work by NIEHS, found that segregation based on race makes the effects of lead exposure worse. Details from birth records, lead screenings, and standardized tests were linked in this study for almost 26,000 children born in 2000. As racial segregation grew, test scores went down for kids whose blood lead levels were higher. As blood lead levels rose, this effect became stronger.
Air pollution and kids’ health: One study, partly funded by NIEHS, found links between being exposed to air pollution while pregnant and later changes in kids’ brain structures, which could be seen using MRI technology.
Asthma and allergies: Researchers are still looking into what might cause asthma in the first place. One study found that by age seven, babies who lived in homes with a lot of mold from water damage were more likely to get asthma.
E-waste and health: Researchers at the NIEHS are looking into how quickly and easily used electronics can be recycled around the world to protect children and pregnant women from dangerous chemicals and health issues. tests on crumb rubber by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) – No one knows if crumb rubber is bad for your health. Artificial grass, which is often used as a play area, has crumb rubber in it. People may swallow it because it is so small and can stick to clothes, hair, and skin. As a starting point for future health studies, the NTP did some preliminary study and found: • There was no proof that mice that ate crumb rubber were hurt by it. The animal’s blood and pee tests showed that it had very low amounts of crumb rubber constituents inside it. There were no signs of health problems.
There were times when high heat and other conditions made chemicals leak out of crumb rubber. Some of these chemicals killed cells in cell-culture studies. Crumb rubber is made up of many things, including metals, plasticizers like phthalates, and bisphenol A (BPA).
The NTP studies did not look into what long-term exposure to crumb rubber does to your health or whether the chemicals in crumb rubber can cause cancer.
NIEHS Research Projects on Children’s Health and the Environment
• Children’s Environmental Health Translation Centers at NIEHS – NIEHS set up a network of joint centers to turn key research results into clinical and public health practice. This was built on 20 years of strong research in children’s environmental health. The centers’ main goal is to help people come up with useful and scalable ways to keep kids’ health safe from harmful outdoor exposures. Partners who are important include other studies, federal and state agencies, people who work in public and health care, community leaders, and families.
To effectively translate study results, researchers from many fields must work together. These include communication, medicine, policy, the social and behavioral sciences, environmental health sciences, and dissemination and implementation science.
Communication plans, risk management plans, public health interventions and practices, lesson plans, educational activities and toolkits, clinical standards, policies, and other goods are all examples of research that is turned into something useful. These kinds of goods are meant to protect and improve the health of children’s environments and to support health equity.
• NIH ECHO: ECHO was created by the NIH in 2016 and supports multiple longitudinal studies that work together. These studies use existing study populations, called cohorts, to look into how physical, chemical, biological, social, behavioral, natural, and built environments affect children’s health and development. The studies are mainly interested in four main outcomes for children: upper and lower airway; fat; results before, during, and after birth; and neurodevelopment.
Project TENDR aims to reduce environmental neuro-developmental risks. With help from the NIEHS, this project focuses on lowering the high risk of brain and nervous system disorders in children, such as autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, and other learning and behavior problems.
Project TENDR is a group of more than 50 scientists, health workers, and supporters working together to stop exposures and make sure that children of color and children from low-income families don’t get more than their fair share of exposures.
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