NCS Approps Letter NCS Senate Approps Letter
Washington, DC – In a letter to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, national and state environmental and health organizations called for full funding of the National Children’s Study.
Authorized by the Children’s Health Act of 2000, the study is one of the most comprehensive national efforts to study environmental, social and genetic influences on children’s health, including air, water, diet, noise, family dynamics and community and cultural influences.
The study is uniquely positioned to assess the impact of chemical exposures in the earliest stages of life – in the womb and during infancy. Large-scale biomonitoring data for this population has been unavailable because research by the only federal agency that addresses these questions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only focuses on children beginning at age six. In the words of the letter:
“There are great and growing concerns about the increased rate of chronic and acute disease in the United States, and the National Children’s Study is designed to help all Americans have a better understanding of the links between those diseases and our environment. However, to ensure the study’s success, it is critical that it continue to receive the necessary funding throughout each and every stage. No study has ever followed children from before birth to age 21, but to do so the National Children’s Study must receive sufficient and consistent funding.”
Twenty-four organizations, including Environmental Working Group, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and Physicians for Social Responsibility, signed the letter supporting the requested funding of $193.88 million for the study in fiscal year 2012.
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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. https://www.ewg.org
