Protecting Children's Health: The National Pesticide Program
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) has published a new document entitled "Protecting Children's Health: The National Pesticide Program." This document provides an overview of OPP's comprehensive activities to protect children from pesticide risks and discusses efforts to expand that protection.
October 7, 2010
The mission of OPP is to protect human health and the environment from potential risks associated with pesticide use. When used properly, pesticides can help control disease-causing organisms and foster a safe and abundant food supply. It is OPP's goal to ensure that pesticides marketed in the United States are sold, distributed, and used in a way that is protective of people's health, particularly vulnerable populations like children. This requires that the Office use the best available science when reaching regulatory decisions, find ways to communicate those decisions effectively, develop educational and training opportunities to help pesticide users make informed choices, and ensure proper implementation of pesticide statutes.
OPP has established a strong foundation of activities, procedures, and policies that protect children from potential pesticide risks. The Office is building on that foundation by developing additional initiatives that expand current activities and address gaps and deficiencies. Protecting Children's Health: The National Pesticide Program outlines the multiple ways that children may be exposed to pesticides and details how the national pesticide program is working to address potential pesticide risk in a number of core programmatic components.
This document is available at www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/protecting-children.pdf. In celebration of Children's Health Month, other EPA publications highlighting the importance of protecting children from environmental risks are available at http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/chm2010.htm.
Press Release is available from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.