Two Decades of Enhancing Children's Environmental Health Protection at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This article provides an overview of public health efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the past two decades to protect children’s health from environmental hazards.

Identifying important life stages for monitoring and assessing risks from exposures to environmental contaminants: results of a World Health Organization review.

In this paper, we summarize exposure-related issues to consider in determining the most appropriate age ranges and life stages for risk assessment. We then propose a harmonized set of age bins for monitoring and assessing risks from exposures to chemicals for global use. The focus is on preconception through adolescence, though the approach should be applicable to additional life stages.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency strategic plan for evaluating the toxicity of chemicals.

In the 2007 report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences envisioned a major transition in toxicity testing from cumbersome, expensive, and lengthy in vivo testing with qualitative endpoints, to in vitro robotic high-throughput screening with mechanistic quantitative parameters.

Options for incorporating children's inhaled dose into human health risk assessment.

Increasing attention has been placed on inhalation dosimetry in children because of children's greater air intake rate and unique windows of vulnerability for various toxicants and health outcomes. However, risk assessments have not incorporated this information because dosimetric adjustments have focused upon extrapolation across species rather than across age groups within the human population. The objectives of this study were to synthesize information regarding child/adult intake and dosimetry differences for particles and gases for potential application to risk assessment.

Protecting children from environmental risks throughout each stage of their childhood.

Children's susceptibility to environmental contaminants can vary significantly by life stage. The recent adoption by the US Environmental Protection Agency of a standard set of childhood age groups is proving instrumental in improving our ability to protect children by more consistently considering life-stage changes when assessing exposure, dose, and risk.

Potential new approaches for children's inhalation risk assessment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) practice of risk assessment is moving toward more thoroughly considering children's unique susceptibilities and exposure potential.

Identifying childhood age groups for exposure assessments and monitoring.

The purpose of this article is to describe a standard set of age groups for exposure assessors to consider when assessing childhood exposure and potential dose to environmental contaminants. In addition, this article presents examples to show how the age groups can be applied in children's exposure assessments. A consistent set of childhood age groups, supported by an underlying scientific rationale, will improve the accuracy and comparability of exposure and risk assessments for children.

Review and analysis of inhalation dosimetry methods for application to children's risk assessment.

Young children have a greater ventilation rate per body weight or pulmonary surface area as compared to adults. The implications of this difference for inhalation dosimetry and children's risk assessment were evaluated in runs of the U.S.

Children's environmental health--an international perspective.

Parents in all countries want and deserve safe and healthy environments for their children. Children in all countries need, as part of normal growth and development, regular and frequent opportunities to interact with their environments as they learn to crawl, run, climb, swim, and explore. Environmental scientists and regulators recognize that environmental hazards are not contained by international borders.

Zonal frequency analysis of infarct extent. Part II: anterior and posterior cerebral artery infarctions.

The object of the study was to test the hypotheses that analysis of the anatomic zones affected by single anterior (A), posterior (P), and middle (M) cerebral artery (CA) infarcts, and by dual- and triple-vessel infarcts, will disclose (i) sites most frequently involved by each infarct type (peak sites), (ii) sites most frequently injured by multiple different infarct types (vulnerable zones), and (iii) anatomically overlapping sites in which the relative infarct frequency becomes equal for two or more different infarct types and/or in which infarct frequency shifts greatly between single and multivessel infarcts (potential border zones). Precise definitions of each vascular territory were adopted. CT and MRI studies from 20 ACA, 20 PCA, three dual ACA-PCA, and four triple ACA-PCA-MCA infarcts were mapped onto a standard template (Part I).