Reducing Environmental Health Threats to Children in Artisanal Industry Communiti

描述（由申请人提供） 手工业社区是发展中国家重要的经济驱动力;然而，在从事危险活动的社区生活和工作的儿童可能会接触到危险程度的有毒污染物。例如，在非正式的铅酸电池回收社区，包括越南在内的一些国家的研究表明，儿童血液中的铅含量升高（有时是致命的）。越南正在加速解决电池回收和其他手工业社区中的儿童环境健康风险，并得到各级政府和社会的支持，目标日期为2018年，将最危险的活动从居民区转移到专门区域。 鉴于问题的严重性和越南政府提出的具体时间表，迫切需要分享关于评估和减少儿童接触铅和其他有毒物质的科学信息。建议于2014年11月在河内举办一次为期一天的互动式研讨会，由来自铁匠研究所（纽约）、环境与社区发展中心（河内）、国家职业与环境卫生研究所（河内）、西奈医学院（纽约）和华盛顿大学（西雅图）。讲习班的具体目标是帮助在手工业社区积极从事儿童环境健康工作的越南伙伴进行能力建设，以便：（1）在资源有限的情况下，将儿童有毒物质研究结果转化为行动，（2）让社区利益攸关方参与儿童接触和风险定性，（3）制定共同的儿童风险缓解目标/指标，以及4）让医疗和公共卫生界参与监测和后续行动。 一个长期目标是帮助为区域最佳实践交流奠定基础，以便邻国能够从越南的成功和经验教训中受益。研讨会及其预期的贡献将服务于NIEHS的核心使命，即推进环境健康科学，帮助解决关键的全球健康问题。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Artisanal industry communities are important economic drivers in developing countries; however children living and working in communities where hazardous activities are conducted can be exposed to dangerous levels of toxic contaminants. In informal lead-acid battery recycling communities, for example, studies from a number of countries, including Vietnam, show elevated (sometimes fatal) levels of lead in children's blood. Vietnam is on an accelerated schedule to address children's environmental health risks in battery recycling and other artisanal industry communities, with support at all levels of government and society, and a target date of 2018 for moving the most hazardous activities out of residential areas into specialized zones. Given the severity of the problem and the concrete timelines put forth by the Vietnamese Government, there is an urgent need for the sharing of scientific information on assessing and mitigating children's exposure to lead and other toxics. An interactive one-day workshop in Hanoi is proposed for November 2014, run by a collaborative team of researchers, clinicians, and technical experts from Blacksmith Institute (New York), the Centre for Environment and Community Development (Hanoi), the National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (Hanoi), Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (New York), and the University of Washington (Seattle). Specific aims of the workshop are to help build capacity of Vietnamese partners working actively on children's environmental health in artisanal industry communities to: 1) translate children's toxics research findings to action, given resource constraints, 2) involve community stakeholders in children's exposure and risk characterization, 3) develop shared children's risk mitigation objectives/indicators, and 4) engage the medical and public health communities in surveillance and follow-up. A longer-term objective is to help lay the groundwork for a regional best practices exchange, so that neighboring countries can benefit from Vietnam's successes and lessons learned. The workshop and its anticipated contributions would serve NIEHS's core mission of advancing environmental health science to help solve a critical global health problem.