Your Family: How to Protect Children

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Your family... How to protect children

How to Protect Children from Environmental Risks

Don't smoke and don't let others smoke in your home or car.
Keep your home as clean as possible. Dust, mold, certain household pests, secondhand smoke, and pet dander can trigger asthma attacks and allergies.
Limit outdoor activity on ozone alert days when air pollution is especially harmful.
Limit motor vehicle idling.
Avoid open burning.

Get kids tested for lead by their doctor or health care provider.
Test your home for lead paint hazards if it was built before 1978.
Wash children's hands before they eat; wash bottles, pacifiers, and toys often.
Wash floors and window sills to protect kids from dust and peeling paint contaminated with lead - especially in older homes.
Run cold water until it becomes as cold as it can get. Use only cold water for drinking, cooking, and making baby formula.

Store food and trash in closed containers to keep pests from coming into your home.
Use baits and traps rather than toxic chemicals when you can; place baits and traps where kids can't get them.
Read product labels and follow directions.
Store pesticides and toxic chemicals where kids can't reach them - never put them in other containers that kids can mistake for food or drink.
Keep children, toys, and pets away when pesticides are applied; don't let them play in fields, orchards, and gardens after pesticides have been used for at least the time recommended on the pesticide label.
Wash fruits and vegetables under running water before eating - peel them before eating, when possible.

Have fuel-burning appliances, furnace flues, and chimneys checked once a year.
Never use gas ovens or burners for heat; never use barbecues or grills indoors or in the garage.
Never sleep in rooms with unvented gas or kerosene space heaters.
Don't run cars or lawnmowers in the garage.
Install in sleeping areas a CO alarm that meets UL, IAS, or Canadian standards.

Be alert for local fish advisories and beach closings. Contact your local health department.
Take used motor oil to a recycling center; properly dispose of toxic household chemicals.
Learn what's in your drinking water - call your local public water supplier for annual drinking water quality reports; for private drinking water wells, have them tested annually by a certified laboratory. Call 1-800-426-4791 or contact www.epa.gov/safewater for help.

Test your home for radon with a home test kit.
Fix your home if your radon level is 4 pCi/L or higher. For help, call your state radon office or 1-800-SOS-RADON.

Wear hats, sunglasses, and protective clothing.
Use sunscreen with SPF 30+ on kids over six months; keep infants out of direct sunlight.
Limit time in the mid-day sun - the sun is most intense between 10 and 4.

Eat a balanced diet but avoid fish with high levels of mercury.
Replace mercury thermometers with digital thermometers.
Don't let kids handle or play with mercury.
Never heat or burn mercury.
Contact your state or local health or environment department if mercury is spilled - never vacuum a spill.

See it in action at the HealtheHouse built by the Children's Health Environmental Coalition.

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