Preventing child exposures to environmental hazards: research and policy issues.

This monograph contains 39 papers presented at the Symposium on Preventing Child Exposures to Environmental Hazards: Research and Policy Issues held March 1994. This national invitational meeting brought together 200 researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and community advocates to develop recommendations for action for the federal government and the research community. It was the first time that policy and research issues concerning child exposures were discussed by multidisciplinary experts at the national level. The purpose of the symposium was to: * Develop a set of recommendations for federal agencies, the research community, and community-based organizations that incorporate a multidisciplinary and multicultural perspective; * Increase communication between the research, policy, clinical practice, and advocacy arenas by building a national network of organizations and individuals who are dedicated to issues of pediatric environmental health; and * Define the field of pediatric environmental health through the commission and presentation of papers that identify and explore cutting-edge research and policy issues. Four plenaries formed a framework for discussion. The plenary topics covered children's unique vulnerabilities to environmental exposures, environmental justice for children, the federal government's agenda for protecting children from exposures, and successful community models for participatory research. Thirteen workshops were held during the 2-day meeting and included topics such as Age-Specific Carcinogenesis: Radiation and Genetics; Asthma Among Children-Does Air Pollution Play a Role?; Neurotoxicology-The Role of the Environment in Injuries to the Developing Nervous System; and Pesticides-How Research Has Succeeded and Failed in Informing Policy. There are two workshops that are not included in this supplement, Building Healthy Environments for Children: Visions for the Future, and From Science to Soundbite: Understanding and Improving Communication Between Science and the Media. If you are interested in receiving copies of the manuscripts written for these workshops, please contact us. The papers are grouped by their plenary sessions and workshops. These papers represent briefs and commentaries on specific aspects of pediatric environmental health rather than original research. This mono-