Public Health Stops at the School House Door

Conclusions Recommendations from the Meeting’s Participants In November 2015, Healthy Schools Network, Inc. convened the first national facilitated discussion of children’s environmental health in schools and child care centers (Healthy Schools Network 2015). The authors organized the meeting that consisted of a public forum with presentations from the U.S. EPA, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and indoor air researchers; a facilitated workshop was also organized and attended by representatives of more than two dozen federal and state health agencies, as well as an array of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) from the fields of health, environment, and education. While the meeting was not facilitated to full consensus, the authors, advised by the NGO attendees, summarized the following major recommendations from official notes taken during the meeting: Call to Action. There are scores of national organizations concerned about traditional school health (Michael et al. 2015), but this effort is distinct from the traditional view and should be known as “Environmental Health at School,” as the panel and workshop are titled. Develop a communication and advocacy strategy. Advocacy organizations should coordinate a communication and advocacy strategy to demonstrate the urgent moral, ethical, cost savings, and legal imperatives to care for children where they learn and play and to integrate children’s environmental health into public health a...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Brief Communication October 2016 Source Type: research