WASHINGTON (Oct. 16, 2023) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $3,798,738 in grant funding to two institutions to establish research centers to address children’s cumulative health impacts from agricultural and non-chemical exposures.

Children in underserved, rural agricultural communities face increased health risks due to the combination of agricultural pollutants in air, water, and soil, as well as non-chemical stressors such as poverty and limited access to services. There is an urgent need to investigate the cumulative health impacts of chemical and non-chemical exposures for children in these communities to help inform better health outcomes for them as they grow.

“Children are especially vulnerable to pollutants due to how fast they grow and how they play and interact with their environment,” said Chris Frey, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “EPA is funding these research centers to identify effective, science-based options aimed at reducing early childhood health disparities in agricultural communities, and as part of our broader commitment to developing the science needed to protect children where they live and play.”

The research centers will investigate the cumulative health impacts of early lifestage (prenatal and from childhood up to adolescence) exposures to pollutants and the added effect of non-chemical stressors among children in these communities across the United States. The research announced today is part of EPA’s larger effort to advance children’s environmental health and environmental justice by effectively reducing early childhood and lifetime health disparities in these communities.

The following institutions are receiving awards:

• Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla., to use multi-disciplinary approaches to evaluate chemical and psychosocial stressors and promote children’s cumulative health in rural and agricultural communities such as Immokalee, Fla.

• University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Okla., to mitigate the chemical and non-chemical stressors that affect school absenteeism caused by gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in Texas and Oklahoma