Risk assessment for children and other sensitive populations
Risk assessment for children and other sensitive populations
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08073.x
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发表时间：
1999-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Landrigan, PJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Landrigan, PJ
儿童在人口中是一个独特的亚群，在风险评估中需要特别考虑。孩子不是小大人。它们的组织和器官迅速生长、发育和分化。这些开发过程为环境毒物造成了极大的脆弱性。此外，儿童接触环境化学品的模式与成人非常不同。传统的风险评估通常没有考虑到婴儿和儿童的特殊暴露和独特的易感性。如果要识别、了解、控制和预防有毒环境引起的儿童疾病，就有必要采用新的以儿童为中心的研究和风险评估议程。这一议程需要是多学科的。议程中的具体要求包括：(1)探索和量化儿童接触的独特模式；(2)采用新的、更敏感的方法来测试能够认识到发育早期接触的后果的化学品；(3)通过临床和流行病学研究，查明环境接触与儿科疾病之间的病因学联系；(4)在细胞和分子水平上阐明儿科环境疾病的致病机制。在美国，自1996年通过《食品质量保护法》以来，这一新议程的通过已经开始了一个重要的开始。颁布了一项关于儿童健康和环境的总统行政令。该命令要求所有联邦机构将保护儿童健康免受环境危害作为高度优先事项。美国环境保护局成立了一个新的儿童健康保护办公室。疾病控制和预防中心、有毒物质和疾病登记局和国家环境健康科学研究所都制定了儿童环境健康项目。一个由八个新的儿童环境健康研究和疾病预防中心组成的全国网络已经形成。这些进展将加强对以前未被充分研究的儿童环境健康问题的研究，并将为以儿童为中心的风险评估提供科学基础。
Children form a unique subgroup within the population who require special consideration in risk assessment. Children are not little adults. Their tissues and organs grow rapidly, developing and differentiating. These development processes create windows of great vulnerability to environmental toxicants. Furthermore, the exposure patterns of children to environmental chemicals are very different from those of adults. Traditional risk assessment has generally failed to consider the special exposures and the unique susceptibilities of infants and children. Adoption of a new child-centered agenda for research and risk assessment is necessary if disease in children of toxic environmental origin is to be identified, understood, controlled, and prevented. This agenda needs to be multidisciplinary. Specific requirements within the agenda include: (1) exploration and quantification of unique patterns of exposure for children; (2) adoption of new, more sensitive approaches to testing chemicals that can recognize the consequences of exposure during early development; (3) identification, through clinical and epidemiologic studies, of etiologic associations between environmental exposures and pediatric diseases; and (4) elucidation, at the cellular and molecular levels, of the pathogenetic mechanisms of pediatric environmental illness. In the United States, an important start toward adoption of this new agenda has occurred since passage of the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996. A Presidential Executive Order on Children's Health and the Environment has been promulgated. This Order requires all federal agencies to make protecting the health of children against environmental hazards a high priority. A new Office of Children's Health Protection has been established at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Programs in children's environmental health have been created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. A national network of eight new Children's Environmental Health Research and Disease Prevention Centers has been formed. These developments will enhance research on previously understudied issues in the environmental health of children and will provide a scientific basis for child-centered risk assessment.