breathing this toxic air pollution are compounded in many areas of the country by unhealthful levels of ozone smog, to which over 100 million Americans are subjected.

Indoor air is also an important source of exposure to toxic air pollutants for children. As many as twenty to 150 hazardous chemicals can be found in typical American homes, often in much higher concentrations than those found in outside (ambient) air. We spend over ninety percent of our time inside, seventy percent in the home; some infants and young children may spend virtually all of their time indoors. EPA recently reported to Congress that indoor air pollution (excluding exposure to radon) may cause as many as 6,000 excess (lung) cancer deaths annually."

Many family homes and other buildings occupied by children are contaminated with toxic substances, particularly carcinogens. According to EPA, as many as one in five houses may have unsafe levels of radon, a naturally occurring cancer-causing gas. EPA estimates that exposure to radon alone could cause up to 20,000 excess lung cancers per year. In addition, up to 700,000 public and commercial buildings and 44,000 schools contain cancer-causing asbestos that may require removal.

14

15

Depletion of the earth's protective stratospheric ozone

layer, caused by emissions to the air of chlorofluorocarbons and

13 EPA, Report to Congress on Indoor Air (1989).

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

other ozone-depleting compounds, is proceeding at a rapid rate; according to EPA, between 163 million and 308 million excess cancers could occur in people alive today or born before the year 2075 in the United States alone if nothing is done to halt ozone depletion. About 3.5 to 6.5 million of these cases would be fatal. More UV radiation would also cause an estimated 19 to 29 million additional cases of cataracts in this population. could also be sharp increases in the number and variety of serious immunological disorders.

There

III. Why Children are at Greatest Risk

17

of all members of society, children are most at risk from the harmful effects of this ambient pollution. Children's greater exposure than adults to disease-causing toxic substances is vividly illustrated by statistics on their differential exposure to cancer-causing and neurotoxic pesticides studied by NRDC in Intolerable Risk. NRDC found that children (ages 1-5) received up to twelve times greater exposure than women (ages 2230) to certain pesticide residues found on fruits and vegetables. This is because children typically consume substantially more produce than their mothers proportional to their body weight for certain fruit juices, as much as 18 times more. Intolerable

80

16 EPA, Costs and Benefits of Phasing Out Production of crc's am Halong in the United States, Exhibit 5-1 and 5-1(b), pp. 5-8, 59 (Review Draft, Nov. 3, 1987).

17 NRDC, Intolerable Risk: Pesticides in our Children's Food (1989).

Risk further documented children's greater susceptibility to the effects of certain carcinogenic and neurotoxic substances due to the immaturities in their developing systems. NRDC estimated that as many as 5,500 to 6,200 of the nation's preschoolers may develop cancer sometime during their lives solely as a result of preschooler exposure to eight pesticides or metabolites at levels commonly found in fruits and vegetables. In addition, NRDC

predicted that at least 3 million of today's preschool children may be receiving exposures to neurotoxic insecticides at levels above those the federal government considers safe.

The greater exposure of children to toxic substances is further exemplified by current widespread exposures to lead and other heavy metals. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently estimated that despite dramatic reductions in lead in certain environmental media, notably air, 17% of metropolitan children are being exposed to harmful lead levels." Although many poor, inner-city children are at high risk, the problem affects large numbers of more affluent children as well. The largest single source of this exposure is peculiar to children alone: young children ingest lead in chipping interior paint, which is found in an estimated 21 million homes nationwide. 19 As a result of their potential exposure to lead in paint alone, an estimated 12 million young children could suffer

18 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, The Nature and Extent of Lead Poisoning in Children in the United States: Report to Congress (July 1988).

19 Ibid.

diminished intellectual capacity, behavioral problems and variety of other serious mental deficiencies.20 In addition, prenatal exposures to low levels of lead, primarily through contamination of drinking water, could endanger the normal development of over 400,000 fetuses each year."

Major changes affecting the global environment, such as stratospheric ozone depletion, may also disproportionately affect children. For instance, the young are likely to be at greater risk of developing skin cancers later in life from increased exposure during childhood to radiation penetrating the thinning ozone layer."2 The impacts of global warming will also

disproportionately affect the children of today

10

and their children but for a different reason: the worst effects are expected to be felt after the turn of the century.

Children are at greater risk from the harmful effects of ambient pollutants both because they receive greater exposures to many environmental contaminants and also because physiological immaturities in their developing system can render them

especially susceptible to the toxic effects of this exposure. Children receive greater exposure to ambient pollutants simply

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma of the skin and malignant melanoma have all been associated with excessive sun exposure with exposures during childhood and adolescence of particular concern. William, M.L. and R.W. Sagebiel, M.D., "Sunburns, Melanoma, and the Pediatrician, Commentaries," Pediatrics, 84:381-382 (1989).

because proportionate to their size they eat more food, breathe more air, and drink more water.

The young, for example, have twice the caloric needs of
adults and relative to their weight, eat more of most
foods, particularly fruit. This greater consumption rate
results in greater exposure to contaminants in food. EPA
has estimated, for example, that dietary exposure to
pesticide residueg are invariably highest in the infant and
child subgroups. "<

Children also ingest more drinking water. Infants (<1 year) and children (ages 1-6) are estimated to ingest approximately five and three times, respectively, as much total water and approximately twice as much tap water as adults relative to weight. The young, therefore, receive proportionably greater exposure to drinking water contaminants.

The young also have higher breathing rates. Approximately twice as much air passes through the lungs of a resting infant compared to a resting adult. As a result, twice as much of any chemical in the atmosphere reaches the lungs of the infant. Children are also much more active than adults,

23 Beheman, R.E., M.D. and V.C. Baugham, III, M.D., Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 12th Edition, W.B. Saunders, Co., 1983. 24 NRDC, Intolerable Risk, supra, note 17.

National Academy of Sciences, Regulating Pesticides in Food: The Delaney Paradox, Appendix B, Washington, D.C. 1987.

25 Saunders, S., Briefing Paper on the Tolerance Assessment System for Presentation To The FIFRA Science Advisory Panel, EPA, Office of Pesticide Programs, p. 32 (February 1987).

26 Ershow, A.G. and K.P. Cantor, Total Water and Tapwater Intake In the United States: Population-Based Estimates of Quantities and Sources, National Cancer Institute, Order #263-MD 810264 (May 1989). Total water includes both tapwater and intrinsic water contained in foods and beverages at the time of purchase. Tapwater includes water consumed directly as beverage and also added to food and beverages during preparation.

27 World Health Organization, Environmental Health Criteria 59. Principles for Evaluating Health Risks from Chemicals During Infancy and Early Childhood: The Need for a Special Approach, Geneva (1986).