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Envirnmental & Occupational Health | Overview
 
   
Envirnmental & occupational health
 
This is Chapter 3, Outcome Area 7 of California's adolescent health strategic plan. To view the full plan, click here.
The environment plays an important role in the health of people of all ages, contributing to illnesses such as asthma and cancer, and to neurodevelopmental and reproductive conditions. However, environmental concerns vary somewhat based on age and development. Children and young adolescents are physically smaller than adults, increasing their vulnerability to lower exposures of toxins and to workplace hazards. Most importantly, adolescence is a time of rapid physical and sexual growth; the body is particularly vulnerable to disruption of the hormonal and endocrine changes necessary for normal development and reproduction. Fortunately, we are seeing a positive trend toward considering the needs of children and adolescents in environmental and occupational health regulations. Still, much remains to be learned about how to best protect youth from environmental hazards.		  
     
  Data snapshot  
     
  Schools  
  The physical condition of schools in California has raised concerns about the exposure of youth to environmental hazards. Forty-three percent of California public schools report that at least one on-site building is in inadequate condition and 87% report a need to upgrade or repair on-site buildings.119  
     
  The portable classrooms used to alleviate overcrowding and create space for class size reduction are often constructed from materials that release irritant chemicals into the air. The concentration of these chemicals can reach dangerous levels if classrooms are not adequately ventilated. Improved compliance with the most stringent heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems regulations is needed. In addition, air filters are needed to reduce airborne dust, pollen and microorganisms from recirculated and outdoor air streams which may contribute to asthma and other problems.  
     
  A recent study of California public schools found that 4.7% of responding schools had at least one classroom with radon levels exceeding the levels recommended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).120 The EPA estimates that approximately 14,000 lung cancer deaths per year occur in the U.S. due to residential radon exposures.  
     
  School buildings are densely populated, with the typical school having approximately four times as many occupants as office buildings for the same amount of floor space. There are a variety of pollutant Source in schools, such as art and science supplies, industrial and vocational shop areas, home economics classes, and others.  
     
  An assessment of toxic pesticide use in schools found that 52% of responding California schools reported using one or more pesticides identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of California as being a reproductive or developmental toxin.121  
     
  Home and Community Environments  
  Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) also called “secondhand smoke,” is a major indoor air pollutant that affects youth. One study of the health effects of ETS found that children who were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke had a higher incidence of acute respiratory illnesses, twice as many days of restricted activity, and more school absences per year than children who were not exposed to ETS.122 Exposure to high level of allergens such as dust mites and cockroaches also has been shown to exacerbate asthma.123,124 Both of these allergens are more prevalent in lower income environments, which is consistent with the higher death and hospitalization rates from asthma among poor and African American children.125  
     
  Another potentially hazardous exposure in the house is to pesticides. Although pesticide residues on food have received a great deal of public attention, youth are often exposed to higher levels of pesticides through use at home and in schools. In a monitoring project conducted by the Environmental Working Group in 1998, 64% of the air samples collected contained traces of pesticides known to cause cancer, brain damage, birth defects, acute poisoning and other illnesses.126  
     
  A growing number of youth are affected by asthma, the most common chronic illness of childhood.127 Between 1980 and 1994, the prevalence of asthma among children 5 to 14 years old increased by 74% (from 42.8 to 74.4 per 1,000).128 Common air pollutants are associated with increased respiratory illnesses, aggravation of asthma, and decreases in lung function. High levels of fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide have been found to be associated with emergency room visits for asthma in youth.127 Ground-level ozone, which is a ubiquitous air pollutant, also has been linked to a higher incidence of asthmatic attacks.129  
     
  Environmental racism is a growing concern in many low-income communities and communities of color that have a disproportionate share of waste disposal sites and industries with potentially hazardous emissions.130  
     
  Workplace Health and Safety  
  According to the 1990 Census, there are almost 800,000 youth (ages 16 to 19) in the labor force in California. Nationally, work related injuries are responsible for approximately 100,000 hospitalizations and 70 deaths among young people each year. The most common causes of work-related deaths among 16 and 17 year olds are motor vehicle related, electrocutions, and homicides. Adolescents’ rate of injury per hour worked is almost twice as high as the rate for adults (4.9 injured per 100 compared to 2.8 per 100). Factors contributing to youth injuries at work are lack of adequate health and safety training, inadequate supervision, lack of experience, and assignment of tasks for which youth may not be prepared, physically, cognitively, or emotionally.60 In addition, the physical conditions of most job sites, health and safety protection standards, and health and safety training are often adult-oriented. The federal 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, the principal federal law addressing the protection of children at work, contains many outdated provisions. Agricultural occupations carry fewer restrictions for laborers under age 18. This is a concern for California’s youth given the hazardous nature of agricultural work and its prevalence in California.  
     
  Examples of current efforts  
     
 
  • The Children’s Environmental Health Network is a national, multidisciplinary project dedicated to promoting a healthy environment and to protecting children from environmental hazards. The Network is composed of experts who address children’s environmental health issues through education, research, and policy.
  • The California Department of Toxic Substances Control works to protect the public and the environment from hazardous substances and includes programs such as site clean-up, pollution prevention, and environmental technology certification and education.
  • The State Environmental Health Investigations Branch responds to environmental health problems, conducts health and exposure investigations as well as surveillance, provides public health oversight and assistance to state and local health agencies, and develops policy recommendations.
  • The Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), established in 1974, is a community outreach program at the University of California, Berkeley dedicated to improving health and safety in the workplace. LOHP provides information and training to unions, workers, joint labor-management groups, community organizations, health professionals, government, and schools with an emphasis on toxic substances, hazardous waste, youth in the workforce, workplace violence, ergonomics, workers’ compensation, and environmental justice.
  • The State Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control conducts surveillance, investigation, laboratory analyses, education, and technical assistance on environmental and occupational diseases.
  • In the area of occupational health, the State of California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards Enforcement has regulatory oversight of California’s child labor laws. California’s child labor laws generally were less stringent than federal law until 1994 when the legislature voted to bring them into compliance with federal standards.
  
     
  Strategies to improve environmental & occupational health  
     
  1. Create safer school environments.  
 
  • Create specific standards regarding portables in the Building Standards Code that will adhere to the State Department of General Services’ specifications on portable classrooms.
  • Eliminate schools’ use of pesticides that cause cancer and other adverse effects and ensure that school pesticide use is reported under the state pesticide use reporting system.
  • Include the California Department of Toxic Substance Control, school districts, and the California Department of Education in the review and clean-up of all new school sites where the presence of toxins is suspected.
  
     
  2. Support broad-based environmental health strategies.  
 
  • Revise existing federal and state regulatory standards establishing allowable levels of exposure to hazardous toxins in order to adequately incorporate adolescents’ differential exposure and susceptibility.
  • Study the effects of environmental toxins on adolescents, particularly concerning the interaction of environmental chemicals and reproductive development.
  • Create community-based pollution prevention campaigns targeting, for example, city councils, city environmental managers, school boards, superintendents, and others.
  • Create pollution prevention plans through collaboration between local government and private industry that allow changes to be made in a phased, strategic way.
  • Enhance awareness among parents and communities about the hazards of environmental tobacco smoke to the health of children and adolescents, and promote tobacco-free environments for children and adolescents.
  
     
  3. Enhance teens’ safety in the workplace.  
 
  • Develop and provide information and training to employers, educators, parents, and youth to reduce the risks and enhance the benefits associated with youth employment.
  • Ensure that each school district in California establishes a comprehensive system for issuing work permits and increase compliance with permit requirements.
  • Establish “Commendable Workplaces for Youth” as an incentive to encourage employers to create and maintain safe workplaces for youth.
  • Regularly review regulations prohibiting youth employment in jobs deemed too hazardous for youth under the age of 18 (and under the age of 16 in agriculture).
 
     
  Additional resources  
     
  Failing Health: Pesticide Use in California Schools. California Public Interest Research Group Charitable Trust, 1998.  
     
  Advisory on Relocatable and Renovated Classrooms. California Department of Health Services, Environmental Health Laboratory Branch, Indoor Air Quality Program, 2151 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.  
     
  Our Children at Risk: The Five Worst Environmental Threats to Their Health. Natural Resources Defense Council, November 1997.  
     
  Protecting Youth at Work. National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, 1998.  
     
  Young Workers At Risk: Health and Safety Education in the Schools. Bush, D. and Baker, R. Labor Occupational Health Program, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Berkeley, 1994.  
  Click here to view references  
 
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