More than 11 million children under age five are in child care where they spend an average of 40 hours per week, most of it indoors.  Indoor air pollution levels can be 2-5 times greater than outdoor levels.  Exposure to lead, certain chemicals in cleaning products, furniture and toys, radon, mold, pests and improperly applied pesticides can pose immediate and long-term risks for children’s health and development.

There are no universal standards for environmental health for child-care facilities, although increasingly, states and local governments are setting standards to reduce exposure to some environmental contaminants. National resources such as Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance StandardsExit have been updated to establish comprehensive guidelines for reducing exposure to environmental contaminants in child-care settings.  This page provides resources that government agencies, including child-care licensing authorities, can use to address environmental exposures in child-care settings.

Below is information about training, webinars and other resources to help government agencies promote health child care facilities.

Training

• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Training in 10 modules
  • Module 1 - Introduction
  • Module 2 - for Child Care Center Directors
  • Module 3 - for Child Care Center Maintenance Staff
  • Module 4 - for Child Care Center Teachers and Caregivers
  • Module 5 - Mice and Rats
  • Module 6 - Cockroaches
  • Module 7 - Bed Bugs
  • Module 8 - Flies
  • Module 9 - Ants
  • Module 10 - Head Lice

Webinars

• Bed Bugs Go To School
• See additional Healthy Child Care Webinars, including: 
  • Creating Healthy Indoor Environments in Child Care Settings
  • Green Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Disinfecting: A Toolkit for Early Care and Education
  • Integrated Pest Management in Child Care Centers: Protecting Our Children From Pests and Pesticides
  • Small Steps to Improve Children's Environmental Health in Your Early Childhood Program: Common Practices to Keep Your Kids Safer
  • Lead
  • Protecting Children's Environmental Health Child Care Settings

Additional Resources

• America's Children and the Environment, Third Edition(504 pp, 12.5 MB, About PDF) from U.S. EPA
• Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public HealthExit
• Advancing Environmental Health in Child Care Settings: A Checklist for Child Care Practitioners and Public Health Inspectors (70 pp, 1.3 MB, About PDF)  from the Canadian Partnership for Children's Environmental HealthExit
• Eco-Healthy Child Care® from the Children's Environmental Health NetworkExit
• Environmental Exposures in the Context of Child Care from Environmental Health Perspectives (U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the U.S. National Institute of Health)
• First National Environmental Health Survey of Child Care Centers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Stepping Stones to Caring for Our Children, Third Edition, from the National Resources Center for Health and SafetyExit