Background
Childhood represents a vulnerable life stage. Because children’s neurological, immunological, digestive, and other bodily systems are still developing, exposures during childhood may have profound and long-term consequences that are not completely understood. Children eat more food, drink more fluids, and breathe more air in proportion to their body weight than adults. As children explore their environment, crawling and making hand-to-mouth contact, the risk of encountering harmful exposures is high. Children are also vulnerable due to their dependence on others for food, water, shelter, and safety. Such vulnerability is exacerbated in situations of public health emergencies and disasters. Furthermore, there are significant disparities in health outcomes across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic status. Some children, including those in racial and ethnic minority groups and those living in poverty, bear a disproportionate burden of exposures to environmental and other hazards that may negatively affect their health and wellbeing over the course of their lives.
In recognition of the imperative to protect children’s wellbeing by understanding and preserving a healthy environment, Executive Order 13045 was issued in 1997, calling for each federal agency to “ensure that its policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate risks to children that result from environmental health risks or safety risks.” EO13045 established the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children (Task Force) and named the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency as departmental co-chairs and named an original set of federal departments and agencies that should engage as members. This list has since grown to include additional departments and federal entities (See full list on the Task Force Leadership page). In 2015 and again in 2021, the principals of the Task Force member agencies convened and recommitted their support of the Task Force’s efforts.
President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children
An interdepartmental working group of senior staff was established to help guide and support the work of the Task Force. The Steering Committee serves as a source of information and provides a forum for government and non-government officials to interact. The Task Force operates through the in-kind engagement and support of its federal members.
In the nearly three decades of its existence, the Task Force has addressed issues such as childhood asthma, unintentional injuries, lead poisoning, developmental disorders, childhood cancer, and climate change. The Task Force recommended the initiation of a prospective cohort study, from birth to adulthood, to evaluate the effects of both environmental exposures on child health and human development. This effort became the National Children’s Study, which was then transformed into the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. The Task Force played a key role in identifying cross-agency biospecimen resources to support studies to measure children’s chemical exposures. In 2012, the Task Force issued a Coordinated Federal Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Asthma Disparities, an effort that continues. In 2015, the Task Force convened the first federal workshop on the impacts of climate change on children’s health, followed by the creation of a subcommittee to continue federal exploration of the topic. In 2020, this subcommittee was expanded to include public health emergencies and disasters. In 2018, the Task Force released the Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures and Associated Health Impacts, followed with the release of a Progress Report in 2024.
Despite these efforts and many others, considerable disparities in health outcomes persist among the nation’s children, and there remains a strong need for a coordinated federal effort to address these disparities. Through the Task Force, the federal government continues to work to protect current and future generations by improving our understanding of environmental health and safety threats and what it takes to prevent them, thereby helping to build children’s resilience and ensure the chance of healthier, happier lives.
