As a grandmother of 4, 2 of which have forms of autism, I submit this.
Always asking WHY? Joyce Naffier
EPA Faulted For Cutting Funds For Study Of Environment And Children's
Health
[By Joan Lowy for the Scripps Howard News Service
<http://65.54.172.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=0fa03bc01549b2edb9fb801
157
937406&lat=1052776264&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2enandotimes%2ecom%2fh
eal
thscience%2fstory%2f882716p%2d6149940c%2ehtml>
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/882716p-6149940c.html
Children's health advocates Thursday protested the Environmental
Protection Agency's decision to cut funding for a groundbreaking study of
environmental influences on children's health.
The agency recently withdrew its promised contribution of $1
million
this year toward the National Children's Study. It will examine the
effects
of environmental influences on the health and development of more than
100,000 children across the United States, following them from before
birth
until age 21.
A growing body of scientific research indicates that exposure to
low
levels of a wide variety of environmental contaminants may be having
profound health effects in developing fetuses and young children. They
range
from obvious birth defects to susceptibility in later life to breast
cancer,
heart attacks and diabetes.
The withdrawn funds amount to all or nearly all of the EPA's
contribution this year to the study, currently in the planning stage,
said
Daniel Swartz, executive director of the Children's Environmental Health
Network. His group is one of 60 organizations that protested the funding
cut
in a letter to President Bush.
Signatories also included the American Nurses Association, the
American Public Health Association, the National Urban League, the
National
Conference of Catholic Women and the Learning Disabilities Association of
America.
If fully funded, the study could fill in major gaps in the
scientific
understanding of a number of health risks - including how environmental
factors contribute to mental impairments ranging from obvious autism to
subtle learning difficulties that appear to be increasing, Swartz said.
The funding cut amounts to nearly 10 percent of the study's $11
million budget for this year, Swartz said. The rest of the funding comes
from other government agencies, including the National Institutes of
Health
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"EPA's decision to withdraw the 2003 funds it had committed to the
study not only damages the process of the study overall, but also could
dramatically reduce the environmental focus of the study and thus erase
this
rare opportunity to reduce environmental health risks to children,"
Swartz
said.
Liz Blackburn, a spokeswoman for the EPA's Office of Children's
Health, did not give a reason for the cut. But she said the agency is
still
participating in the study.
"EPA is not dropping out of the study in any shape or form,"
Blackburn
said. "EPA is still heavily involved in this process."
"It is important to look at the broader context," Blackburn said,
adding that the administration has requested $69.7 million for fiscal
year
2004 for children's health programs at the EPA, which is an increase of
$6.4
million over the current budget.
However, Swartz noted that the agency's budget for children's
health
programs in fiscal 2001, the last year of the Clinton administration, was
$71.2 million. It then dropped 10 percent after Bush took office, Swartz
said. Copyright © 2003
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