**GAO-10-545T**                      Published: Mar 17, 2010. Publicly Released: Mar 17, 2010.                  

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## Highlights

This testimony discusses highlights of GAO's report about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to institutionalize the protection of children's health. EPA's mission is to protect human health and the environment. As a result of mounting evidence about the special vulnerabilities of the developing fetus and child, the federal government and EPA took several bold steps to make children's environmental health a priority in the late 1990s. In 1996, EPA issued the National Agenda to Protect Children's Health from Environmental Threats (National Agenda) and expanded the agency's activities to specifically address risks for children, documenting EPA's plans to achieve seven goals, such as (1) ensuring that all standards set by EPA are protective of any heightened risks faced by children; (2) developing new, comprehensive policies to address cumulative and simultaneous exposures faced by children; and (3) expanding community right-to-know to allow families to make informed choices concerning environmental exposures to their children. EPA's Advisory Committee has raised concerns about whether the agency has continued to maintain its earlier focus on protecting children or capitalized on opportunities to tackle some significant and emerging environmental health challenges. For example, the Advisory Committee wrote to the Administrator in April 2007 to reflect on EPA's achievements in the 10 years since the Executive Order was signed. The committee cited successes, such as increased margins of safety for pesticides mandated under the Food Quality Protection Act and the creation of the National Children's Study. However, the Advisory Committee also expressed serious concerns about EPA's continued lack of focus on children's environmental health issues and the lack of progress in addressing the committee's many recommendations. In the intervening years, children's environmental health has become no less pressing. In fact, 66 percent of children lived in counties where air exceeded one or more of the six principal pollutants. Two of them--ozone and particulate matter--are known to cause or aggravate respiratory diseases such as asthma. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is the third most common cause of hospitalizations for children, resulting in $3.2 billion for treatment and 14 million days of school lost annually. In light of concerns about EPA's focus on children, Congress asked that GAO assess the agency's consideration of children's environmental health. This statement summarizes highlights from GAO's report being released today that addresses the extent to which EPA has institutionalized the protection of children's health from environmental risks through (1) agency priorities, strategies, and rulemakings, including implementation of Executive Order 13045; (2) the use of key offices and other child-focused resources, such as the Office of Children's Health and the Advisory Committee; and (3) involvement in federal interagency efforts to protect children from current and emerging environmental threats. To perform this work we, among other things, interviewed officials from multiple EPA program offices most directly involved with children's health issues; reviewed key EPA children's health-related policies, strategic and performance plans, and guidance documents; analyzed regulations subject to the regulatory requirements of the Executive Order; and identified the accomplishments of the Task Force.

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## Topics

Natural Resources and Environment

Advisory committeesChildrenEnvironmental lawEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental protectionEnvironmental researchExecutive ordersHealth hazardsInteragency relationsPollutantsPollution controlPublic healthReporting requirementsRespiratory diseasesRisk factorsStandardsStrategic planningToxic substancesPolicies and proceduresProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementation