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Environmental
Exposures in Early
Childhood Education Environments
This page updated October 8, 2012
ARB Research Seminar
Wednesday,
October 24, 2012
10:30 am, PDT
Sierra Hearing Room, Second Floor
1001 "I" Street, Sacramento
This event is
being Webcast, click here to view
Webcast viewers: Please send your questions during broadcast to: sierrarm@calepa.ca.gov
Presentation will be available at this link:
Asa Bradman, Ph.D.
Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
In this presentation, Dr. Bradman will share the results of his study,
which examined environmental characteristics and contaminant levels in
air and dust in 40 California early childhood education (ECE)
facilities. This study is the first to provide a detailed
analysis of environmental contaminants and exposures for children in
daycare centers.
In the daycare centers that were examined, over 40 airborne volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) were detected. In most facilities,
levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, chloroform, benzene, or
ethylbenzene exceeded child-specific Safe Harbor Levels, as computed by
the report authors based on Proposition 65 guidelines for
carcinogens. Formaldehyde levels exceeded California health
guidelines in 87.5% of the facilities and acetaldehyde concentrations
were lower than the California health guidelines, but still exceeded
the U.S. EPA Reference Concentration in 30% of the
facilities. When chemical groups were compared, the two VOCs
having the highest concentration in the facilities were those commonly
found in cleaning and personal care products. However, for
these and most other VOCs, health-based dose or exposure benchmarks are
not available. Phthalates, flame retardants, pesticides,
perfluorinated compounds, and lead were also frequently detected in
dust and/or air, and Dr. Bradman will discuss child dose estimates from
the ingestion of dust containing these substances.
Additionally, the investigators examined exposure to particulate matter
and estimated that the PM10 concentration exceeded the level of the
24-hour California Ambient Air Quality Standard (CAAQS) in 46% of the
ECE facilities.
Overall, the findings suggest that ECE environments are similar to
other indoor environments such as schools and residences, but also
demonstrate the importance of taking further steps to reduce levels of
formaldehyde and some other VOCs in indoor environments. Dr.
Bradman will discuss mitigation strategies, which may be warranted to
reduce exposures to these VOCs.
Asa Bradman, Ph.D., is an environmental health
scientist and international expert in exposure assessment and
epidemiology focusing on pregnant women and children's exposures to
toxic substances. Dr. Bradman has worked for many
years with the California Department of Public Health and then
co-founded the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health
(CERCH) in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Dr.
Bradman has extensive experience supervising exposure, biomonitoring,
and epidemiological studies examining pesticides, flame retardants,
VOCs and other contaminants. Dr. Bradman has participated on several
advisory bodies at local, state, and national levels and was appointed
by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Biomonitoring Scientific Guidance
Panel.
For information on this
Seminar please contact:
Jeffrey Williams, Ph.D., at (916)
322-7145 or send email to: jwilliam@arb.ca.gov
For information on
this Series please contact:
Peter Mathews at (916)
323-8711 or send email to:
pmathews@arb.ca.gov
For
a complete listing of the ARB Research Seminars and the related
documentation
for the seminars please check this page
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Seminar Series Page
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