NCSL Takes Stand on Children

Photo courtesy John Winters

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NCSL Takes Stand on Children’s Environmental Health

At its summer conference in Chicago in July, the National Conference of State Legislatures adopted a resolution that recognizes “the need to develop environmental protection programs for children, especially vulnerable populations such as low income and racial/ethnic communities. . .”

As part of the resolution, NCSL supports:

Consideration of the sensitivity of children to environmental contamination in all environmental policy, legislation and regulation;
Policies that will result in reducing the exposure of children to environmental hazards; and
Federal funding for health research on the effects of exposure of children to environmental contaminants, and consistent reporting and tracking of birth defects, cancer, and other relevant diseases in children.

The resolution was introduced by Delegate James Hubbard of Delaware and Senator Beverly Gard of Indiana. It was adopted by the NCSL through the Environment Committee chaired by Senator Gard. IKE’s Tom Neltner and the Dr. Landrigan of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York made presentations introducing the committee to children’s environmental health issues before the decision.

IKE applauds the leadership of NCSL, Senator Gard and Delegate Hubbard.