Textbook of Childrens Environmental Health Second Edition

Children are exquisitely sensitive to hazards in the environment. Even minute quantities of toxic chemicals can trigger cellular changes that result in disease and disability that affect children across their lifespan. New discoveries in children’s environmental health continue to elucidate the profound impacts of chemical, biological, physical and societal hazards on children’s health and guide effective intervention.

Textbook of Children’s Environmental Health is the landmark textbook channeling scientific findings into evidence-based strategies in children’s environmental health. Edited by two internationally recognized pioneers in environmental pediatrics, this second edition presents up-to-date information on the chemical, biological, physical, and societal hazards that confront children in today’s world. It presents carefully documented data on rising rates of disease in children with new or expanded chapters covering the climate crisis, biodiversity, racism and environmental injustice, chemicals in food, pesticides, indoor and outdoor air pollution, per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances, microplastics, lead, electromagnetic fields, and the built environment. The volume also offers a critical summary of new research linking pediatric disease with environmental exposures and explores the cellular, molecular, epigenetic, and societal mechanisms underlying diseases of environmental origin.

Authoritative and comprehensive, Textbook of Children’s Environmental Health, Second Edition is essential reading for pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners, public health workers, and environmental scientists concerned with prevention and control of the environmental hazards that cause disease in children.

Ruth A. Etzel, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized pediatrician, environmental epidemiologist, and preventive medicine specialist. Dr. Etzel is the founding editor of Pediatric Environmental Health, now in its fourth edition. She performed the first study documenting that children with secondhand exposure to tobacco smoke had measurable exposure to nicotine. Her pioneering work led to nationwide efforts to reduce indoor exposure to tobacco, including the ban on smoking in US airliners. She also produced the first research to show that exposure to toxigenic molds in the home could be dangerous to infants’ health. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Etzel led the World Health Organization’s activities to protect children from environmental hazards. She teaches at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, is a pediatrician and epidemiologist. His research examines the connections between toxic chemicals and children’s health. His studies of lead poisoning demonstrated that lead is toxic to children even at very low levels and contributed to the US government’s 1975 decision to remove lead from paint and gasoline, actions that reduced blood lead levels in the USA by 95% and increased children’s average IQ by 5 points. A study he led in the 1990’s at the National Academy of Sciences defined children’s unique susceptibilities to pesticides and catalyzed fundamental revamping of US pesticide policy. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Landrigan co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, and he led the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health from 2022 to 2023. Dr. Landrigan directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College.