FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Department for Public Health, an agency of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, in collaboration with the Kentucky Population Institute, is hosting the fifth annual Children’s Environmental Health Summit. Due to concerns regarding COVID-19, this year’s conference will be a series of webinars. The webinars are free of charge and will offer free continuing educations hours for many disciplines, including nursing, education and registered sanitarians.
These webinars will provide an overview of issues affecting children’s health in Kentucky. They will spotlight ongoing efforts to protect young people.
“The importance of remaining aware of environmental factors that can compromise the health of children in Kentucky cannot be overstated,” said Cabinet Secretary Eric Friedlander. “We are pleased to partner with the Kentucky Population Institute on this summit. This intersection of impact of environment and health was a vital aspect of my work as the Chief Resilience Officer for Louisville Metro Government.”
Topics to be addressed during the summit series include environmental impacts on children’s health; water quality and safety of Kentucky families residing in and outside of Appalachia; ACEs; radon; health equity and lead. This year’s keynote speaker will feature Louise Chawla, from the University of Colorado, who will speak on the topic of “Nature for Children’s Health and Wellbeing.” This webinar will take place Oct. 8, which is National Children’s Environmental Health Day. Governor Andy Beshear plans to proclaim Oct. 8 as Children’s Environmental Health Day in Kentucky.
Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky commissioner for public health, commented that, “The health of our environment directly affects the health of our children and communities. Air pollution, second-hand smoke, pesticides, lead contamination, and inadequate sanitation are just a few examples of environmental exposures that lead to poor health. It has never been more crucial than now that we focus on creating and sustaining a clean environment to support safe and healthy communities that enable our children to grow into healthy adults and lead full and productive lives.”
“As we continue to tackle our environmental challenges in Kentucky, it is clear that we have to continue to educate our citizens. Change will come from Kentuckians across the state who take steps in their own homes and their own communities to make environments safe for children,” said Shelly Canada, communications and outreach coordinator for the Kentucky Environmental Public Health Tracking Program. “Our program brings health and environmental data together in one place. Users of EnviroHealthLink can now look more closely at possible links between environmental problems like air quality and asthma.”
EnviroHealthLink, a web-based data query system, works closely with multiple public health programs and initiatives to provide information and data about how the environment affects human health. Kentucky joins the national network of 25 states and one city that tracks information on various topics including air quality, drinking water, asthma and cancer. Follow EnvirohealthLink on Twitter at @EnviroHealthKy.
For more information on the Kentucky Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, visit https://kyibis.mc.uky.edu/ehl/
Registration for the webinar series is free of charge and will be archived at https://www.train.org/ky/home for those who cannot participate in the live event. Environmental health professionals, health care practitioners, public health specialists, school personnel and representatives from child health organizations are encouraged to attend. Continuing education credit is available. Register at https://drive.google.com/file/d/17_nh5o6LLoUYWCKNGGC7LhoHFbINTwI1/view?usp=sharing
Additional information is available at https://chfs.ky.gov