EPA Failing on Children's Environmental Health Issues

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) told a Senate oversight committee Sept. 16 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ignored recommendations from an advisory committee established to assist the agency in creating policies to protect children's health. For example, in developing three recent air quality standards on particulate matter, ozone, and lead, EPA either rejected the committee's recommendations or treated them as one of many public comments, according to GAO.

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held the oversight hearing because of the concern that EPA has rolled back or not acted on standards for dangerous chemicals, such as perchlorate, mercury, and lead, all at the expense of children's health, according to the opening statement of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the committee. Boxer and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) asked GAO to review EPA's efforts. GAO's John Stephenson testified on the interim findings of a longer-term study the office is conducting and expects to complete in 2009.

In April 1997, President Clinton issued Executive Order 13045, Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks, directing federal agencies to make a concerted effort to address children's health issues because of children's increased susceptibility to toxic chemicals and air pollutants. The order established an interagency task force co-chaired by the heads of EPA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In addition, EPA created an Office of Children's Health Protection (OCHP) and the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee.

According GAO's testimony, the advisory committee was "to provide advice, information, and recommendations to assist the agency in the development of regulations, guidance, and policies relevant to children's health." Committee members include public health officials from government, nonprofits, academia, industry, and health care organizations. OCHP and other EPA officials have met with the advisory committee regularly, as have outside groups. Nevertheless, GAO concluded that in more than 30 meetings of the advisory committee in the first ten years, "EPA has rarely sought out the committee's advice and recommendations to assist it in developing regulations, guidance, and policies that address children's health."

EPA requested advice from the committee on regulations only three times, on guidance three times, and only once on developing a policy. Fourteen other times, EPA asked for advice on other issues such as developing plans and evaluating pilot programs. Yet over the period GAO reviewed, the committee sent over 600 recommendations for action EPA should take on a wide variety of issues, ranging from mercury regulation and farm worker protections to pesticides and air pollution. GAO concluded, "EPA has largely disregarded the advisory committee's recommendations."

The task force created by the executive order was intended to provide federal leadership and interagency coordination of children's health issues. Nine cabinet officials and several White House policy directors were part of the task force that met regularly between October 1997 and October 2001. Although senior staff of the task force continued to meet until the task force expired in 2005, the last meeting of high-ranking members was in October 2001.

GAO concluded that EPA and HHS no longer have the mandate or infrastructure to coordinate federal activities regarding children's health since the task force expired. One consequence of this retreat from a coordinated federal response is that

    "the task force could have helped the federal government respond to the health and safety concerns that prompted the 2007 recall of 45 million toys and children's products, 30 million of them from China. Furthermore, since the provision of the executive order expired in 2005, the task force no longer reports the results of its efforts to the President. Those reports collected and detailed the interagency research, data, and other information necessary to enhance the country's ability to understand, analyze and respond to environmental health risks to children."

 

Other witnesses at the hearing testified about the rapidly increasing rates of chronic disease in children and various efforts and studies underway to document the scientific connections between exposure and disease. One notable research effort being assembled is the National Children's Study, an epidemiological study that will track more than 100,000 children from the womb to age 21. The study "will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development" of children, according to the study's website, with the goals of identifying preventable environmental causes of disease and developing preventative actions to improve children's health and health care. The first preliminary results are expected in 2011. Congress appropriated $200 million between 2000 and 2008 to set up the study, according to Dr. Leo Trasande of Mount Sinai Medical Center, one of the hearing witnesses. Trasande urged Congress to include funds in its FY 2009 appropriations so the study will not be abandoned.

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