Children’s Environmental Health Symposium
On March 11, 2017, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health and the Western States Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU), along with their partners the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, and the UHM John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Department of Pediatrics, sponsored a free one-day symposium focusing on children’s environmental health risks. The symposium increased knowledge of:
- environmental burdens commonly found in children;
- how these burdens can impact children’s health; and
- what local professionals can do to address children’s environmental health problems in the communities they work with.
The target audiences for this symposium included: healthcare professionals (i.e., physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners), public health practitioners, and health educators. The symposium increased the capacity of healthcare practitioners to recognize and address environmental hazards that may affect children’s health.
Symposium Goals
- increase confidence in addressing environmental exposure in schools and child care.
- increase the capacity of healthcare professionals, public health practitioners and health educators to identify children at risk from exposure to heavy metals.
- be able to identify several environmental exposures associated with adverse health outcomes in children.
- be able to assess respiratory symptoms related to vog.
Accreditation
The Hawaiʻi Consortium for Continuing Medical Education (HCCME) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. HHCME approved this activity for 6 CME credits.