Environmental Health

NCSL Environment and Natural Resources

On the National Conference of State Legislatures website, you'll find information on new or proposed environment and natural resources legislation, including consumer laws. Topics include climate change and air quality, water, land use, waste, environmental health, healthy communities, federal issues, and much more.

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Emergency Responder Health: What Have We Learned from Past Disasters?

"As the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico, public health practitioners are having a sinking déjà vu feeling. Once again, environmental disaster has struck, and tens of thousands of emergency responders -- some professionals, but many more volunteers -- have swung into action, potentially risking their health as they work to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Veterans of similar disasters are wondering if historical lessons learned can help keep the ?damage to a bare minimum. But a paucity of ?hard data on emergency responder health makes it difficult even to ask the right questions."

Source: EHP, 08/06/2010

Air Pollutants May Damage IQs Before Baby's First Breath

"In a sweltering summer in New York City back in 1999, Yolanda Baldwin was eight months pregnant with her first child. She lived across the street from a busy intersection and often wondered what the fumes might be doing to her unborn child. Now Baldwin and several hundred other mothers whose sons and daughters have been monitored for a decade have an answer: Before children even take their first breath, common air pollutants breathed by their mothers may reduce their IQs."

Source: EHN, 07/26/2010

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