In response to school environmental hazards, Governor Gray Davis signed the Healthy Schools Act into law in September, 2000. The distribution of a manual to all schools in least toxic integrated pest management. Compared with adults, children are more exposed and more vulnerable to toxic chemicals. Pound for pound, children breath twice as much air, eat three to four times more food, drink two and half times as much water and have more skin surface area than adults. This means that children breath, eat, drink and absorb through the skin more contaminants than adults.
Children also lack mature organs to filter, metabolize and excrete toxic chemicals.
Organ and tissue growth throughout childhood depend on highly complex biological processes that are susceptible to disruption by toxic chemicals. Most laws do not protect children from toxic substances. In spite of children's relatively greater vulnerability to toxic substances, most environmental health standards are based on the risks faced by an average adult. According to the American Cancer Society, childhood cancers are on the rise, increasing over ten percent between 1973 and 1994. Cancer is now the leading cause of death by disease among children under 15.