Ten Years of Addressing Children's Health through Regulatory Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Published in: Environmental health perspectives Vol. 116; no. 12; pp. 1720 - 1724
• Main Authors: Payne-Sturges, Devon, Kemp, Debra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. National Institutes of Health. Department of Health, Education and Welfare 01.12.2008; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Subjects: Child; Child Welfare; Children; Children's Health; Economic regulation; Emission standards; Emissions regulations; Environmental agencies; Environmental health; Environmental protection; Environmental regulation; Environmental regulations; Executive orders; Government regulation; Health aspects; Health Policy; Health risks; Humans; Laws, regulations and rules; Safety; United States; United States environmental policy; United States Environmental Protection Agency; United States; USA; Executive Order 13045; EPA’s policy on evaluating health risks to children; children’s environmental health
• ISSN: 0091-6765; 1552-9924
• DOI: 10.1289/ehp.11390

Background: Executive Order (EO) 13045, Protection of Children From Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks, directs each federal agency to ensure that its policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate environmental health and safety risks to children. Objectives: We reviewed regulatory actions published by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Federal Register from April 1998 through December 2006 to evaluate applicability of EO 13045 to U.S. EPA actions and consideration of children's health issues in U.S. EPA rulemakings. Discussion: Although virtually all actions discussed EO 13045, fewer than two regulations per year, on average, were subject to the EO requirement to evaluate children's environmental health risks. Nonetheless, U.S. EPA considered children's environmental health in all actions addressing health or safety risks that may disproportionately affect children. Conclusion: The EO does not apply to a broad enough set of regulatory actions to ensure protection of children's health and safety risks, largely because of the small number of rules that are economically significant. However, given the large number of regulations that consider children's health issues despite not being subject to the EO, other statutory requirements and agency policies reach a larger set of regulations to ensure protection of children's environmental health.