Children, Youth and Environments

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Child Poverty in the Developing World Dave Gordon, Shailen Nandy, Christina Pantazis, Simon Pemberton, and Peter Townsend Citation: Gordon, Dave et al. (2004). “Response to Review of Child Poverty in the Developing World.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). I agree with the reviewer's recommendation that any future edition should include a stronger focus on the built environment. The current edition does address the built environment as it relates to children's indoor exposures to metals, pesticides, radon, volatile chemicals and other pollutants in indoor air, tap water, furnishings, and dust. It also addresses the potential child health effects of power-frequency magnetic fields and radiofrequency radiation from residential proximity to transmission systems and indoor or other use of electrical/electronic devices. A broader discussion would indeed acknowledge the role of the built environment in physical activity, injuries, mental health, social capital, and environmental justice. The reviewer noted the website that I started to supplement and update material in the book. The website is a work in progress and includes much larger chapter bibliographies and summary tables of epidemiologic evidence for linkages between child health and development outcomes and environmental hazards. Wherever possible, I drew on peer-reviewed reports of expert panels or groups who have conducted systematic reviews of the relevant epidemiologic literature. When such reviews were not available, I used criteria (described in footnotes to Table 13.1 in the concluding chapter) to assign a tentative level of evidence. The book acknowledges various types of uncertainty surrounding child health and the environment and the need for improved research and exposure assessment (including the types of population biomonitoring recently developed by CDC) to address such knowledge gaps. 248 Donald T. Wigle studied medicine at the University of Western Ontario (MD, 1966), conducted doctoral studies in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia (Ph.D., 1970), undertook postdoctoral research in molecular biology in Denmark, and studied epidemiology at the University of California in Berkeley (MPH, 1974). During his 30 years with Health Canada, he developed or managed systems for national monitoring and research on birth defects, low birth weight, fetal deaths, pediatric and adult cancers, coronary heart disease, stroke, asthma and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Wigle is currently a free-lance epidemiologist with appointments at the University of Ottawa. His recent publications have addressed agricultural pesticide use and cancer, asthma deaths in young adults, serum iron and folate and coronary heart disease and drinking water disinfection by-products. Currently, his main research interest is synthesis of epidemiologic evidence for links between environmental contaminants and child health and development. ...