Children's Health Projects
On this page
- Lead Outreach
- Healthier Philadelphia Girl Scout Day
- Walk to School Day
- Working With a Migrant Community
Lead Outreach
A health fair arranged by Senator Shirley Kitchen's office was held at the R.W. Brown Community Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Represented at the health fair were:
- EPA
- National Nursing Centers Consortium
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- Congreso de la Unidas
- HOPE Worldwide , and
- Philadelphia Department of Health
Free blood lead level screening was conducted and there were workshops relating to asbestos, asthma, lead, and pesticides.
Healthier Philadelphia Girl Scout Day
EPA and a number of partners (such as the City of Philadelphia, US Department of Agriculture, and the University of Pennsylvania) have sponsored Environmental Health Days at the Philadelphia Zoo and the Franklin Institute . Thousands of Girl Scouts and their families participated in a variety of interactive activities on lead poisoning, indoor air quality, second-hand smoke and integrated pest management to learn about these issues and earn environmental badges.
Walk to School Day
International Walk to School Month is October, the same as Childrens Health Month. To celebrate, EPA co-sponsored a Walk to School Day event at York Elementary School in Lansdale Pennsylvania. This event encouraged walking and biking to school which reduces air pollution and offers respiratory benefits to children.
Working With a Migrant Community
The Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) conducted a project on Virginia's Eastern Shore called Mi Casa Es Su Casa . Funded by EPA's mid-Atlantic Region, MCN partnered with a local migrant Head Start program to recruit and train 6 "promotores de salud" on children's environmental health issues. These promotores then educated approximately 400 farmworker parents about 4 environmental topics:
- lead
- pesticides
- indoor air quality/asthma triggers, and
- water/sanitation
MCN developed an in-home needs assessment and trained the promotores to conduct these assessments. About 76 in-home needs assessments were conducted and education and training were provided as appropriate. The most notable accomplishments through the needs assessment was the gained knowledge and changed practices from the analysis of pre/post test - 63% reported changes in bathing practices and taking off their shoes before entering homes thus minimizing exposures to their children. MCN developed a short video and radio dramas on the subjects: pesticide safety, pest control in the home, water and sanitation, and indoor air quality/asthma triggers. The radio novellas are available on the MCN website .