Ten years of addressing children's health through regulatory policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In 1997 President Clinton signed Executive Order (EO) 13045, Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks (Clinton 1997). This order directs each federal agency to “make it a high priority to identify and assess environmental health risks and safety risks that may disproportionately affect children” and to “ensure that its policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate risks to children that result from environmental health risks or safety risks” (Clinton 1997). That same year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Office of Children’s Health Protection to support its implementation of the Executive Order and its National Agenda to Protect Children’s Health from Environmental Threats (U.S. EPA 1996). Finally, U.S. EPA created the Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) in 1997, which is an independent body that advises U.S. EPA on regulations, research, and communication issues relevant to children. These actions were taken in direct response to the growing body of scientific knowledge that demonstrated that children may suffer disproportionately from environmental health and safety risks [National Research Council (NRC) 1993, 1994]. Disproportionate risks to or impacts on children may occur when children are more sensitive to, are more likely to be exposed to, or are likely to be exposed to higher levels of a particular pollutant or agent being considered in the rulemaking than adults are (U.S. EPA 2006c). Although EO 13045 has been pointed to as a model policy because it specifically addresses children and directs federal agencies to deliberately consider disproportionate risks to children (Fischer 2007), others say that the impact of EO has waned over the years (Carlson 2005; Spady 2006). The U.S. EPA recently marked the tenth anniversary of EO 13045, and CHPAC concluded that children’s environmental health considerations are still not explicitly addressed in U.S. EPA decisions, policies, and programs and urged renewed commitment to EO 13045 (Johnson 2007; Marty 2007). In this article we review U.S. EPA regulatory actions to evaluate applicability of EO 13045 and consideration of children’s health issues in U.S. EPA rulemakings.