Pediatric environmental health

Pediatric environmental health is a specialty area of pediatrics that focuses on the influence of environmental exposures on health, development, and disease among children. The specialty focuses on exposures in early life, with particular emphasis on prenatal exposures. The "environment" is defined broadly and considers chemical, biological, nutritional, and social factors. Specialists in pediatric environmental health explore associations between environmental exposures and diseases in childhood, but also study the influence of early environmental exposures on disease incidence in adult life. Pediatric environmental health is based on the recognition that children are not “little adults.” Infants and children have unique patterns of exposure and vulnerabilities. Environmental risks of infants and children are qualitatively and quantitatively different from those of adults.

Pediatric environmental health is highly interdisciplinary. It spans and brings together general pediatrics and numerous pediatric subspecialties as well as epidemiology, occupational and environmental medicine, medical toxicology, industrial hygiene, and exposure science.