FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 5, 2003
#03-01

NIEHS CONTACT:
Bill Grigg
(301) 402-3378

05 Feb 2003: Major Symposium to Investigate Environmental Health Threats to Children and Opportunities to Translate Science into Protection

A public meeting entitled "Children's Environmental Health: Identifying and Preventing Environmental Threats to Children" will be held Feb. 24-26 at the National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov) campus in Bethesda, Md.

Children are not merely small adults, and can be exceptionally vulnerable to exposure from harmful toxicants. Exposures that may prove benign to an adult may have profound effects in an infant or child.

To be held in the NIH's Natcher Conference Center (http://orf.od.nih.gov/AboutORF/Buildings/45.htm) , the meeting is sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov), which is a part of NIH. NIEHS has a wide research portfolio regarding children's environmental health including asthma and other respiratory diseases, birth defects, learning disabilities and developmental disabilities.

Former U.S. Public Health Service Director, Phillip Lee, will keynote the meeting, which begins at 8:00 am on Monday February 24th. Each day's sessions will include plenary speakers, questions from the participants and breakout sessions where feedback from the conference attendees will be encouraged.

The goals of the Symposium are to:

• Examine environmental health risks to children
• Address ways to translate science into action to protect children
• Identify research gaps and developing plans to fill them
• Discuss ways to better communicate risk through strengthened media relations

The conference website, which contains the agenda and registration information (there is no fee for the conference) was available at: https://www-apps.niehs.nih.gov/cehc2003/home.htm. Or contact Kevin R. Wheeler (919) 541-5125 or email cehc@niehs.nih.gov.

NIEHS supports, along with the Environmental Protection Agency, twelve children's environmental health research centers across the nation. Researchers from EPA and the jointly funded centers will be participating in the meeting.