With regard to children’s health and the environment: (a) what action has the government undertaken to integrate children’s environmental health into existing public health programs; (b) what specific action is the government undertaking to advocate for the consideration and assessment of hazardous environmental influences on children’s health and development, (i) in Canada, (ii) internationally; (c) what specific action is the government undertaking to raise the political profile of children’s environmental health, (i) locally, (ii) regionally, (iii) nationally; (d) in relation to its contaminated sites, (i) what specific action is the government undertaking to raise awareness about children’s environmental health, (ii) what are all contaminated sites where action has been taken to raise awareness, (iii) what was the risk; (iv) what was the action taken; (e) what are all government activities focused on children’s environmental health; (f) what are all existing government activities focused on prevention of environmental exposures aimed at protecting children's health; (g) what governmental action has been undertaken to prevent (i) pre-conception, prenatal, and childhood exposures, (ii) air, consumer products, food, soil/dust, water, and other physical environmental exposures, (iii) biological, chemical, and physical hazards; (h) how has the government taken children's vulnerabilities into account in developing environmental and health policies, regulations, and standards; (i) what targeted environmental and health policies, regulations, and standards have already been put in place to protect children's health, and what policies, regulations, and standards are currently under consideration; (j) what action is being undertaken by the government to measure the extent to which pregnant women and their babies are exposed to common environmental chemicals, and what health risks, if any, are associated with the chemical levels measured; (k) what pregnancy health risks, if any, are associated with exposure to heavy metals, namely, arsenic, cadmium, lead, manganese, and mercury; (l) what pregnancy health risks, if any, are associated with exposure to bisphenol A, organochlorine pesticides, perfluorinated compounds, phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, polychlorinated biphenyls; (m) what are all federal government bio-monitoring studies to assess the presence of toxic chemicals in Canadians, and particularly, in children, and for each study, what are the details of (i) all baseline data, (ii) reference ranges for concentrations of chemicals in Canadians, (iii) comparisons of exposure levels in subpopulations in Canada, (iv) any trends of exposure levels in Canadians over time, (v) the efforts related to the management of toxic substances that are resulting in better health outcomes; (n) what is the risk management strategy, including, but not limited to, the strategies’ objectives, priorities, and systematic process for periodically assessing progress made in managing risks, for (i) lead, (ii) mercury; (o) what action, if any, has been taken to develop labels to inform consumers of chronic hazards that may result from multiple or long-term use of a product; and (p) what action has the government taken to educate healthcare workers, environment professionals, industry, non-governmental organizations, policy makers, and parents about children’s health and the environment?
In the House of Commons on October 30th, 2012. See this statement in context.