Welcome to TEACH

The TEACH Web site contains summaries of scientific literature and U.S. federal regulations relevant to children’s¹ environmental health. TEACH currently focuses on information that pertains to 18 chemicals of concern.

The goal of the TEACH project is to complement existing children’s health resources. TEACH does not provide an evaluation or critique the validity of the relevant scientific studies; nor does TEACH derive toxicity values. Instead, the goal of TEACH is to summarize, compile, and organize information obtained from numerous resources into one online resource. TEACH is designed to support numerous efforts throughout the country that target the protection of children’s health.

The TEACH project team received the 2007 Joseph Seifter Award for Human Health Risk Assessment for the development of a national children’s health risk informational tool that creates a bridge between scientist and lay advocates of children’s health.

The TEACH list of chemicals² includes:

The TEACH Web site contains information in two formats:

• The TEACH Database is a searchable database containing individual summaries of published, peer-reviewed scientific research articles pertaining to the TEACH chemicals of concern.
• The TEACH Chemical Summaries provide an overview and summary of available information for each of the chemicals listed in TEACH.

Click here to search the TEACH Database.

The TEACH project was created and developed by the U.S. EPA Region 5 TEACH Workgroup and is funded through the U.S. EPA Office of Children’s Health Protection. Technical support was provided by Environmental Health Consulting, Inc.

EPA has a Risk Assessment Portal (www.epa.gov/risk) with information for the public about environmental risk assessments. Detailed information for risk assessors is also available at the site.

¹ Childhood represents a lifestage rather than a subpopulation -- the distinction being that a subpopulation refers to a portion of the population, whereas a lifestage is inclusive of the entire population.

² Exposure to lead can pose significant health hazards to children, and extensive information is provided elsewhere by the U.S. EPA at the National Lead Information Center.

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