Environmental Quality
There are many environmental hazards that
can negatively affect the health of children. The quality
of the child’s
whole environment within the Head Start program as well
as at home is critical to the child’s overall health.
The following links will give you further information on
how to incorporate healthy environmental practices into
the child care setting and the home.
Alliance for Healthy Homes (previously the Alliance To End
Childhood Lead Poisoning) provides information on recent
research and studies on how health hazards impact children
and communities, current policy updates, and definitions
of home health hazards. It also includes a free newsletter
that is sent to subscribers and in low income housing situations.
www.afhh.org
Community Environmental Health Resource Center helps community-based
organizations develop their capacity to document environmental
health hazards in substandard housing and to pursue preventive
action through access to hazard assessment tools and training,
technical assistance, strategy advice, mechanisms for peer
to peer support, and sub-grants.
www.cehrc.org
Healthy Schools Network, Inc. is a national not for profit
organization, centered on children's environmental health,
and is dedicated to assuring every child and school employee
an environmentally safe and healthy school through research,
information and referral, advocacy, and coalition-building.
www.healthyschools.org
Healthy School Environments is provided by the EPA and is
intended to serve as a gateway to on-line resources to help
facility managers, school administrators, architects, design
engineers, school nurses, parents, teachers and staff address
environmental health issues in schools.
cfpub.epa.gov/schools/index.cfm
National Safety Council provides educational materials and
information concerning the environmental health of children.
Included is a user friendly community action kit for poisoning
prevention in children.
www.nsc.org/ehc.htm
National Services Center for Environmental Publications from the EPA has publications available concerning pesticide
use, poisonings, school Integrated Pest Management, environmental
health, and guides and information for agricultural workers.
www.epa.gov/ncepihom
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a process that works
to achieve long-term, environmentally sound pest suppression.
The following links have more information to describe this
system and how to successfully integrate this system into
you program.
IPM in Schools from the EPA has information on pest control
and pesticide use in schools, a booklet for adopting an Integrated
Pest Management system, and a national directory of school
IPMs.
Website: www.epa.gov/pesticides/ipm
Booklet: www.epa.gov/pesticides/ipm/brochure
School IPM from the University of Florida includes definitions,
a manual for creating an Integrated Pest Management system
in your facility, curriculum for teaching children about
this system, and other teaching materials.
schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu
IPM Technical Resource Center from Purdue University covers
the Midwest region for Integrated Pest Management in schools
and child care centers. The goal of the center is to help
you maintain safe and pest-free learning environments for
children through improved pest management practices. www.entm.purdue.edu/entomology/outreach/schoolipm
Community and School IPM from the Michigan State University
provides a curriculum guide for teaching school and community
Integrated Pest Management. Included are teacher fact sheets,
lesson plans, and student worksheets. The topics include
IPM steps and tips for decision-making, insect and rodent
pest control, inspections, and control method choices.
www.pested.msu.edu/CommunitySchoolIpm/curriculum.htm
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