Textbook of Children's Environmental Health

Children are exquisitely sensitive to hazards in the environment. Even minute quantities of toxic chemicals can trigger cellular changes that result in disease and disability that affect children across their lifespan. New discoveries in children's environmental health continue to elucidate the profound impacts of chemical, biological, physical and societal hazards on children's health and guide effective intervention.

Textbook of Children's Environmental Health is the landmark textbook channeling scientific findings into evidence-based strategies in children's environmental health. Edited by two internationally recognized pioneers in environmental pediatrics, this second edition presents up-to-date information on the chemical, biological, physical, and societal hazards that confront children in today's world. It presents carefully documented data on rising rates of disease in children with new or expanded chapters covering the climate crisis, biodiversity, racism and environmental injustice, chemicals in food, pesticides, indoor and outdoor air pollution, per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances, microplastics, lead, electromagnetic fields, and the built environment. The volume also offers a critical summary of new research linking pediatric disease with environmental exposures and explores the cellular, molecular, epigenetic, and societal mechanisms underlying diseases of environmental origin.

Authoritative and comprehensive, Textbook of Children's Environmental Health, Second Edition is essential reading for pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners, public health workers, and environmental scientists concerned with prevention and control of the environmental hazards that cause disease in children.

Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized pediatrician, environmental epidemiologist, and preventive medicine specialist. Dr. Etzel is the founding editor of Pediatric Environmental Health, now in its fourth edition. She performed the first study documenting that children with secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke had measurable exposure to nicotine. Her pioneering work led to nationwide efforts to reduce indoor exposure to tobacco, including the ban on smoking in US airliners. She also produced the first research to show that exposure to toxigenic molds in the home could be dangerous to infants' health. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Etzel led the World Health Organization's activities to protect children from environmental hazards. She teaches at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, is a pediatrician and epidemiologist. His research examines the connections between toxic chemicals and children's health. His studies of lead poisoning demonstrated that lead is toxic to children even at very low levels and contributed to the US government's 1975 decision to remove lead from paint and gasoline, actions that reduced blood lead levels in the USA by 95% and increased children's average IQ by 5 points. A study he led in the 1990's at the National Academy of Sciences defined children's unique susceptibilities to pesticides and catalyzed fundamental revamping of US pesticide policy. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Landrigan co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, and he led the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health from 2022 to 2023. Dr. Landrigan directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College.

Part I: Introductory/Overview Chapters

Chapter 1: Children's Environmental Health - A New Branch of Pediatrics
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc and Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD

Chapter 2: Children's Exquisite Vulnerability to Environmental Exposures
Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD and Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 3: The Chemical Environment and Children's Health
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc and Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD

Chapter 4: The Changing Global Environment and Children's Health
Perry E. Sheffield, MD, Lucy Schultz, and Kristie L. Ebi, PhD

Chapter 5: Social and Behavioral Influences on Child Health and Development
Summer Hawkins, PhD

Chapter 6: Epidemiology - A Tool for Studying Environmental Influences on Children's Health
Dean Baker, MD, MPH

Chapter 7: Exposure Science to Protect Children's Health
Clifford P. Weisel, PhD

Chapter 8: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Children's Environmental Health
Panos G. Georgopoulos, PhD

Chapter 9: Developmental Toxicology and Children's Environmental Health
Edward D. Levin, PhD

Chapter 10: Genetics, Epigenetics, and Children's Environmental Health
Rebecca Fry, PhD and Margaret Pinder

Chapter 11: Racism, Environmental Injustice and Child Health
Danielle Laraque, MD

Chapter 12: Economics and Children's Environmental Health
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 13: The Global Dimension of Children's Environmental Health
Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD


Part II: Environments

Chapter 14: The Intrauterine Environment and Early Infancy
Winnie Fan, Marya G. Zlatnik, MD, MMS, Annemarie Charlesworth, MA, and Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH

Chapter 15: The Home Environment
David E. Jacobs, PhD, CIH and Miranda Brazeal, MPH, PhD

Chapter 16: Chemicals in Food
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 17: The School/Child Care Environment
Maida Galvez, MD, MPH, Sarah Evans, Mana Mann, MD, MPH, and Hester Paul

Chapter 18: The Shape of the Built Environment Shapes Children's Health
Richard J. Jackson, MD, MPH

Chapter 19: The Play Environment
James Roberts, MD, James T. McElligott, MD, and Kristina Kay Gustafson, MD

Chapter 20: Access to Nature and Child Health
Abby Nerlinger, MD, MPH, Aparna Bole, MD, and Pooja Tandon, MD

Chapter 21: Rural and Agricultural Environments
Barbara Lee, PhD and Matthew Keifer, MD, MPH

Chapter 22: The Work Environment and Children's Health, Safety, and Wellbeing
Kimberly Rauscher, ScD and Jennifer Fuller

Chapter 23: Intrauterine Nutrition and Children's Health
Alicia Cousins, Nicholas Rickman, and Cynthia F. Bearer, MD, PhD

Chapter 24: Biodiversity Loss and Children's Health
Keith Martin, MD


Part III: Environmental Hazards

Chapter 25: Outdoor Air Pollution
Frederica Perera, PhD

Chapter 26: Indoor Air Pollution
Roshan Wathore and Archana Patel, MD, PhD

Chapter 27: Tobacco Smoke: Active and Passive Smoking
Meghan Buran, MPH, Kelsey Phinney, MPH, and Jonathan M. Samet, MD, MS

Chapter 28: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
Katherine Arnold

Chapter 29: Interventions to Mitigate Burdens of Waterborne and Water-Related Diseases
Robert G. Arnold, PhD

Chapter 30: Hazardous Waste and Toxic Hotspots
Richard Fuller

Chapter 31: Lead
Nicholas C. Newman, DO, MS and Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH

Chapter 32: Mercury
Philippe Grandjean, MD, PhD

Chapter 33: Arsenic Exposure in Children
Antonio J. Signes-Pastor, Fen Wu, Shohreh F. Farzan, PhD, Yu Chen, PhD, MPH, and Margaret R. Karagas, PhD

Chapter 34: Fluoride and Manganese
Yenny Fariñas Diaz, Somaiyeh Azmoun, and Roberto G. Lucchini, MD

Chapter 35: Pesticides
Catherine J. Karr, MD, PhD and Virginia A. Rauh, PhD

Chapter 36: PCBs, Dioxins, Furans, DDT, Polybrominated Compounds, Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and other Halogenated Hydrocarbons
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 37: Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances
Philippe Grandjean, MD, PhD

Chapter 38: Nanomaterials and Child Health
Kam Sripada, PhD

Chapter 39: Organic Solvents and Other Volatile Organic Compounds
Dana Boyd Barr, PhD, Parinya Panuwet, PhD, MS, MSPH, P. Barry Ryan, PhD

Chapter 40: Endocrine Disruptors
Annemarie Stroustrup, MD, MPH and Shanna H. Swan, PhD

Chapter 41: Chemical Obesogens and Obesity
Michele La Merrill, PhD, MPH and Leda Chatzi, MD, PhD

Chapter 42: Environmental Carcinogens and Childhood Cancer
Kurt Straif, MD, PhD

Chapter 43: Mold and Population Health
J. David Miller, PhD

Chapter 44: Physical Hazards
Sophie J. Balk, MD

Chapter 45: Ionizing Radiation
Eric J. Grant, PhD

Chapter 46: Electromagnetic Fields
Denis Henshaw PhD, Fiorella Belpoggi, PhD, Daniele Mandrioli, MD, PhD and Alasdair Philips DAgE


Part IV: The Environment and Disease in Children

Chapter 47: Prematurity and Low Birth Weight Associated with Environmental Exposures
Margaret Kuper-Sassé, MD, Cansu Tokat, MD, Hilal Yildiz Atar, MD and Cynthia F. Bearer, MD, PhD

Chapter 48: Asthma, Allergy, and the Environment
Dwan Vilcins, PhD and Peter D. Sly, MD

Chapter 49: Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Children
David C. Bellinger, PhD

Chapter 50: Prenatal Environmental Exposures and Birth Defects
Stephanie Ford, MD and Cynthia F. Bearer, MD, PhD

Chapter 51: The Environment and Cardiovascular Disease in Children
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 52: The Environment and Liver Disease in Children
Frederick J. Suchy, MD

Chapter 53: The Environment and Kidney Disease in Children
Virginia M. Weaver, MD, Jeffrey J. Fadrowski, MD, MHS, Darcy K. Weidemann, MD, MHS

Chapter 54: Injuries, Trauma, and the Environment
Laura Schwab-Reese, Cara Hamann, MPH, PhD, Amy Hunter, MPH, PhD

Chapter 55: Acute Pediatric Poisoning
Jennifer Sample, MD


Part V: Prevention and Control of Diseases of Environmental Origin in Children

Chapter 56: The Environmental History and Examination: The Key to Diagnosis of Environmental Diseases
Jerome A. Paulson, MD and Sandra H. Jee, MD, MPH

Chapter 57: Clinical Practice of Environmental Pediatrics in South America
Amalia Laborde, MD, PhD

Chapter 58: Public Policy on Children's Environmental Health in the United States and Around the World
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc

Chapter 59: Public Policy in Children's Environmental Health in Europe
Peter van den Hazel, MD, PhD

Chapter 60: Public Policy on Children's Environmental Health in Asia
Eunhee Ha, MD, PhD

Chapter 61: Public Policy on Children's Environmental Health in Africa
Kofi Amegah, PhD and Christian Sewor

Chapter 62: Global Treaties and Children's Environmental Health
Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD

Chapter 63: The Impact of War on Children's Health
Barry S. Levy, MD, MPH

Chapter 64: Natural Disasters, Environmental Emergencies, and Children's Health
Henry Falk, MD, MPH

Chapter 65: New Frontiers in Children's Environmental Health
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc and Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD

Index