Toolkit

Toolkit for Poisoning Our Children

Here is the Toolkit for the book -- located online for easy access and updating!

Top Ten Ways to Help Protect Your Children from Cancer, Autism, ADHD, and Lower IQs from Environmental Exposures

The American Academy of Pediatrics has determined that we can help prevent disease and disability in children by limiting their exposure to pesticides and other chemicals found in everyday life. Here are some things parents can do.

  1. Choose non-toxic and environmentally safe chemicals, eliminate landscape pesticide and fertilizer use; do not use pesticides inside or on pets, and dispose of toxic chemicals safely.

  2. Reduce exposure to pesticides by choosing organic foods or washing thoroughly. If eating meat, choose free-range or organic and avoid eating processed, charred, or well-done meat. Waste less food and consider plant-based diets.

  3. Remove shoes before entering the home, and if exposed to chemicals, wash work clothes separately from family laundry.

  4. Filter home tap water, preferably with reverse osmosis, and carry and store in stainless steel or glass containers. Microwave food and beverages only in ceramic or glass. Avoid canned goods and plastics, especially #1, #3, and #7.

  5. Make informed choices about purchases by consulting Recommended Resources. Foam items bought before 2005 should be inspected; anything ripped or breaking down should be replaced; be careful when removing old carpeting and padding. Inquire about fire retardants. Use a HEPA filter on vacuums. Avoid coal-tar sealants and perfumes. Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle.

  6. Cut down on fossil fuel use by turning off lights, switching to renewables at home, driving a fuel-efficient, hybrid, or electric car, and walking and biking when possible. Don’t idle when parked. Avoid flying.

  7. Avoid tobacco and vaping.

  8. Limit cell phone use, check home radon levels, and weigh risks of medical tests against diagnostic benefits.

  9. Wear protective covering and sunscreen.

  10. Speak up and vote the environment. “Each person can become an active voice in his or her community. To a greater extent than many realize, individuals have the power to affect public policy by letting policymakers know that they strongly support measures that will reduce or remove from the environment toxics that are known or suspected carcinogens or endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Individuals also can influence industry by selecting non-toxic products and where these do not exist, communicating with manufacturers and trade organizations about their desire for safer products.”[i]

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Resources: Learn More to Protect Children:

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Statement on Pesticides

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/130/6/e1757

AAP Healthy Children

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/all-around/Pages/building-healthy-places-for-children-to-thrive.aspx

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) on Environmental Agents

https://www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Health-Care-for-Underserved-Women/Exposure-to-Toxic-Environmental-Agents

CDC Biomonitoring Project

http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/

CDC / ATSDR Environmental Health and Medicine Education: CME credit

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/emes/health_professionals/index.html

EPA Pediatric Environmental Health Subspecialty Unit (PEHSU)’s Pediatric Environmental Toolkit

https://www.pehsu.net/PEH_ToolKit.html

EPA: Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-01/documents/rmpp_6thed_final_lowresopt.pdf

Great Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health

https://great-lakes.uic.edu/childrens-environmental-health/

Healthy Fish Choices: CME credit

http://cores33webs.mede.uic.edu/HealthyFishChoices/index.html

Little Things Matter

littlethingsmatter.ca

National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)

https://www.neefusa.org/

Pediatrics: “Childhood Leukemia: A Preventable Disease”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5080868/

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)

http://www.panna.org/resources/kids-frontline 

President’s Cancer Panel 2010: Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk

https://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/annualreports/pcp08-09rpt/pcp_report_08-09_508.pdf

TENDR Consensus Statement

https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp358

UCSF: Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit

https://wspehsu.ucsf.edu/curriculum-tools/pediatric-environmental-health-toolkit/

UCSF: Sowing the Seeds of Change: Childhood Cancer & the Environment

https://wspehsu.ucsf.edu/projects/childhood-cancer-environment-overview/childhood-cancer-and-the-environment-program/

UCSF: Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment

https://prhe.ucsf.edu/

Unthinkable: Supports for Climate Trauma and Ecological Distress

https://www.unthinkable.earth/resource-hub

At Home, School, and Work:

Because Health

https://www.becausehealth.org/

Bioshield Paints

https://bioshieldpaint.com

Chem Trust

https://chemtrust.org/

Children’s Environmental Health Network

https://cehn.org

Environmental Health News

https://www.ehn.org

Environmental Working Group (EWG): Dirty Dozen, Cosmetics, Ten Americans

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list.php or http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ or http://www.ewg.org/news/videos/10-americans

Gardens Alive!

https://www.gurneys.com/collections/garden-supplies?srsltid=AfmBOootMBuSiNkKube_ZWhx9w7OgosjU3kE_5OMwIStmkAh6j5qJaDP

Made Safe

https://madesafe.org/

Million Marker to test EDCs in urine

https://millionmarker.com

My Safety Nest

https://www.mysafetynest.com

Pharos Healthy Building Materials

https://pharos.habitablefuture.org

Precede: Public Repository to Engage Community and Enhance Design Equity

https://precede.perkinswill.com/about-precede/

Seafood Watch

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-basics/sustainable-healthy-fish

Toxic Free Future

https://toxicfreefuture.org/

Zero Waste Home

https://zerowastehome.com/

Apps:

Clearya

Detox Me

EWG’s Healthy Living App