Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Determining Soil-transmitted Helminth Infection Status and Physical Fitness of School-aged Children
10:57

Determining Soil-transmitted Helminth Infection Status and Physical Fitness of School-aged Children

Published on: August 22, 2012

Environmental health of children

Ardys M Dunn1, Cathie Burns, Barbara Sattler

  • 1University of Portland School of Nursing, Portland, Ore., USA. dunn@up.edu

Journal of Pediatric Health Care : Official Publication of National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates & Practitioners
|October 25, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Pediatricians play a crucial role in protecting children from environmental toxins. This guide offers tools and strategies for assessing and managing environmental health risks in primary care settings.

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Health
  • Pediatric Medicine
  • Toxicology

Background:

  • Children possess unique developmental, biological, and behavioral traits rendering them more susceptible to environmental toxins.
  • Pediatric primary health care providers are essential in identifying and managing health conditions arising from environmental hazards.
  • Environmental factors significantly impact child health, necessitating specialized assessment and management strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To equip pediatric primary care providers with knowledge and tools to address environmental toxins.
  • To review the vulnerability of children to environmental toxins and provide assessment and management strategies.
  • To discuss specific environmental toxins implicated in childhood illnesses and outline prevention methods.

Main Methods:

  • Review of children's unique vulnerabilities to environmental toxins.
  • Presentation of general assessment and management strategies for environmental toxins.
  • Detailed discussion of specific toxins including lead, mercury, environmental tobacco smoke, particulate matter, asbestos, radon, molds, and pesticides, covering exposure routes, symptoms, and management.

Main Results:

  • Children's unique characteristics increase their susceptibility to environmental toxins.
  • An assessment tool for use in pediatric primary care offices is provided.
  • Specific information on common environmental toxins, their effects, and management is detailed.

Conclusions:

  • Pediatric providers require specific knowledge to manage environmental health risks in children.
  • Prevention of exposure is paramount in environmental health interventions for children.
  • Collaboration between providers and caregivers is key to minimizing children's exposure to environmental toxins.

More Related Videos

Visualizing Field Data Collection Procedures of Exposure and Biomarker Assessments for the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network Trial in India09:33

Visualizing Field Data Collection Procedures of Exposure and Biomarker Assessments for the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network Trial in India

Published on: December 23, 2022

Oral Biofilm Sampling for Microbiome Analysis in Healthy Children10:42

Oral Biofilm Sampling for Microbiome Analysis in Healthy Children

Published on: December 31, 2017

Related Concept Videos

Dimensions of Health and Illness01:21

Dimensions of Health and Illness

The factors influencing the health-illness continuum can be internal or external and may or may not be under conscious control. They are related to the following eight human dimensions, and each dimension is interrelated to one other.
Environmental Influences on Intelligence01:29

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Despite the strong genetic influence on traits like intelligence, environmental factors significantly shape outcomes. For example, while over 90% of height variation is due to genetic differences, environmental factors such as nutrition also have a notable impact. Similarly, for intelligence, changes in a child's surroundings can significantly alter their IQ. Research shows that enriched environments boost children's academic success and help them develop key cognitive skills. Children from...
Types of Toxins01:36

Types of Toxins

Humans continually engage with an environment rich in potentially harmful chemicals. These are introduced to our bodies through inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact. These chemicals exist in various forms, such as air and environmental pollutants, agricultural chemicals, organic solvents, and heavy metals.
Air pollutants, primarily gases, pose significant threats to respiratory health, leading to conditions like hypoxia, lung cancer, and in extreme cases, death.
Environmental pollutants like...
Development of the Oral Microbiota01:28

Development of the Oral Microbiota

The establishment of the oral microbiome begins before birth, challenging the long-held belief that the fetal oral cavity is sterile. The presence of oral microbes such as Streptococcus and Fusobacterium in amniotic fluid suggests that microbial exposure may occur in utero, potentially through translocation from the maternal oral or gastrointestinal tract. This early colonization primes the neonatal immune system and sets the stage for subsequent microbial succession. Maternal health,...
Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II01:30

Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II

Rural Health Centers
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
Transmission-based Precautions II: Airborne and Protective Environment01:25

Transmission-based Precautions II: Airborne and Protective Environment

Transmission-based precautions are for patients infected or suspected to be infected (or colonized) with organisms posing a significant risk to others. The transmission precautions include airborne and protective environment precautions.
Airborne precautions:
Use airborne precautions when treating patients known or suspected to have diseases that spread through the air—for example, tuberculosis or measles. These organisms are present in smaller droplets expelled by an infected person and...