MSU professor advises federal panel on children's health issues

11/02/2001 BOZEMAN -- Children are not little adults and should be considered separately in determining health risks. That's the message Montana State University nursing professor Patricia Butterfield brings from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

      Butterfield has recently been named to the EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee. The group is a body of researchers, academicians, health care providers, environmentalists, children's advocates, professionals, government employees and members of the public who advise EPA on regulations, research and communication issues relevant to children. Butterfield is the only nurse sitting on the committee

      The EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection (OCHP) notes that pound-for-pound children breathe more air, drink more water and eat more food than adults. Children play, crawl and put things in their mouths, all things that could increase their exposure to potential pollutants.

      Because children's body systems are still developing, they're less able to metabolize, detoxify and excrete pollutants compared to adults, so they're more vulnerable to many toxic environmental pollutants, the OCHP further notes.

      Butterfield sits on the committee's work group that is studying data needs in children's health.

      "The goal is to come up with better measures of children's health," said Butterfield. "There are so many things we don't know because they're not reportable conditions. We don't know if there's an epidemic of asthma in children, or what the prevalence is of attention deficient disorder or autism. If we don't have the data, sound decisions can't be made when it comes to environmental health."

      The advisory group of 30 makes recommendations on specific children's health issues to Christine Todd Whitman head of the EPA.  Whitman has made children's environmental health a priority.

      "The group speaks with a single voice," Butterfield notes. "If we can't agree. We don't make the recommendation."

      As a nurse, Butterfield brings a public health communications perspective to the group.

      "People want to know what they can do to protect their health and the health of their children," she said. "A lot of the information has been out of the reach of families because it's not easy to understand."

      Butterfield emphasized that public health nurses are valuable, because when they go on home visits they can cover environmental issues and education. They can ask about water quality, wood stoves, how old the home is, where chemicals are stored. They can see whether the family lives near industrial sites, or power lines and note environmental risk factors.

      "Nurses can get the information out to the public," she said. "There are 2.6 million registered nurses in the United States. They're everywhere. They are the most powerful public health asset and the sentinels for environmental health."

      Butterfield will sit on the advisory committee until 2003.

Send questions or comments to Brenda McDonald: bmcdonal@montana.edu. Or you can send letters to Brenda McDonald, MSU Communications Services, 416 Culbertson Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717.

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