THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Section snippets
OBESITY, ASTHMA, AND INJURY
Childhood obesity and asthma have increased dramatically in the past 2 decades21, 26, 92 and are exacerbated by factors in the modern built environment. In addition, recent reductions in childhood injury are linked directly to the introduction of safety measures to housing construction and community and roadway planning. This section summarizes the trends in occurrence of these diseases and their links to risk factors in the built environment.
Obesity is an important predictor of pediatric
HOME AND SCHOOL
Faulty construction or neglected maintenance are the primary causes of structural hazards in homes and schools. Faulty construction leads to building defects that increase the likelihood of structural hazards and fires, which in turn increase the risk for falls, burns, and other injuries. These defects also lead to inadequate ventilation and moisture accumulation; both factors increase the levels of asthma triggers in the home.38, 52 Poor ventilation, especially of tightly sealed homes, can
CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING
No children's environmental health problem is associated more closely with the condition of the home environment than childhood lead poisoning. Over the last 30 years, there has been a sustained effort to eliminate this disease. This effort is a model for broader programs to address the child health consequences of substandard housing. This section summarizes the epidemiology of childhood lead poisoning and the recent efforts to eliminate it.
Lead is a systemic toxicant to children and adults
FROM HEALTHY HOME TO HEALTHY COMMUNITY
Quality land-use planning and urban design protect human health and quality of life and preserve essential natural resources, such as open space, forests, and clean drinking-water supplies. With the projected doubling of the US population over the next century,4 protection of water sources, underground and surface water (lakes and rivers), is no longer solely an aesthetic issue but a crucial health-protection need as well.
Forests sustain the planet because they provide shade and cooling and
RESEARCH NEEDS
There are still few researchers documenting the damage to health caused by poor neighborhood design. For example, although we know that exercise helps to control weight and people walk more in cities designed to encourage walking, there is no research evaluating whether approaches to urban design that promote walking reduce overweight. Only limited research has evaluated whether transportation planning and efforts to reduce automobile use actually lower exacerbations of asthma. The scope of
SUSTAINING HEALTHY COMMUNITIES INTO THE FUTURE
When considering the range of issues encompassed by the interaction of children and their environment, two worlds come in to play: (1) the tangible world the child is touching, tasting, and experiencing daily and (2) the future world into which the child is growing. Ensuring that a child's proximate world is safe is straightforward through actions such as covering electrical outlets and putting toxic chemicals out of reach.
This same mindfulness must be brought to a child's whole world, right
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National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA