Council Resolution: 10-02
Distribution: General
C/C.01/10/RES/02/Final
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
Guanajuato, 17 August 2010
Children’s Health and the Environment – Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units
THE COUNCIL:
RECOGNIZING there is abundant scientific evidence that children are particularly vulnerable to many environmental hazards in the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food they eat, and the environment in which they live, learn and play;
HAVING ADOPTED Council Resolutions 00-10 and 02-06, whereby the Parties recognized the particular vulnerabilities of children to environmental risks and agreed to collaborate on targeted programs to promote the protection of children’s health from environmental risks;
NOTING that governments, individuals, communities, industry, and nongovernmental environmental and health groups have roles to play in addressing children’s health issues;
RECOGNIZING that effective domestic and trilateral solutions to address children’s health and the environment require a solid knowledge base, education and outreach, and partnerships;
ENCOURAGED by the record of achievement of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) in environmental health-related issues, including its contribution to the elimination or reduction of harmful substances such as DDT, chlordane, and PCBs in North America, and in enhancing the public’s awareness and understanding of releases of pollutants to the environment;
MINDFUL of the work that has been completed to date on the CEC’s Cooperative Agenda for Children’s Health and the Environment in North America, such as the examination of a core set of children’s health indicators;
FURTHER NOTING the work under the North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment to identify and quantify contaminants, such as DDT, chlordane, and PCBs, in women of child-bearing age; and
FURTHER RECOGNIZING the Council’s commitment to work together as partners to advance specific actions in support of its strategic priority on Healthy Communities and Ecosystems;
HEREBY:
RESOLVES to support the development of the capacity of health professionals to address the inter-relation between health and environment, particularly for children and other communities at risk. Possible approaches could include leveraging existing North American networks of pediatric environmental health units, supporting training and virtual networks, and evaluating best practices.
FURTHER RESOLVES to strengthen strategic linkages with health organizations, including the trilateral network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs), to assist in the advancement of issues concerning children’s health in North America from 2010-2015; and
FURTHER DECIDES, as a first step, to support the establishment of a PEHSU in the Lake Chapala district of Jalisco, which is expected to include the undertaking of a series of community-based research projects addressing water pollution in the Lake Chapala watershed region as it relates to the potential health risk to children and pregnant women.
APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL:
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Jim Prentice
Government of Canada
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Juan Elvira Quesada
Government of the United Mexican States
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Lisa P. Jackson
Government of the United States of America
Children’s Health and the Environment – Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units