Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit: New England

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Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit: New England

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10/27/2026

It’s National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week! 🏡💛

Lead poisoning is preventable, and small everyday steps can protect kids. Our free video series shows you how.

🎥 6 short videos
🌎 In English and Spanish
✅ Free on our YouTube channel

What you’ll learn:
🔍 Common sources of lead at home
🥦 How good nutrition helps protect kids
🎨 What to do about peeling or chipping paint
🧽 Safe cleaning to reduce lead dust
🧼 Washing hands and toys
👟 Keeping lead from being tracked in from outside

No amount of lead is safe for children. Watch, learn, and share with a parent, caregiver, or anyone who works with families. 💬

Use the QR code to watch!

10/26/2026

Be a hero for the kids in your life! 🦸‍♀️💛

It’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, October 25 to 31. Three simple steps can help keep kids safe from lead:

✅ Get the facts
🩸 Get your child tested
🏠 Get your home tested

Lead poisoning is preventable. Ask your child’s doctor about a blood lead testing.

More information on our website under Patient Resources.

10/08/2026

Happy Children’s Environmental Health Day! 🌱

Today our team from the Pediatric Environmental Health Center and Region 1 PEHSU at Boston Children’s Hospital is spending the day in the Children’s Hospital Primary Care Clinic (CHPCC). We are talking with families about simple ways to lower everyday exposures at home and handing out goodies to the kiddos.

Remember, kids are not just small adults. They breathe more air and they spend a lot of time on the floor and with their hands in their mouths. That means what’s in our homes can affect them more.

The good news is that small steps really do add up. A few we’re sharing today:
🏠 Take shoes off at the door to keep contaminated dust and soil out
🧽 Dust and clean floors with a damp cloth or mop
🙌 Wash hands before eating and after playing outside
🍽️ Skip heating food in plastic and use glass or ceramic instead
🔍 Ask your child’s doctor about lead testing, especially if your home was built before 1978

A big thank you to CHPCC for welcoming us, and to every family who stopped by to chat.

Have questions about environmental health and your child? Visit
our website at www.childrenshospital.org/pehsu
to learn more.

09/15/2026

What if protecting children from climate change starts with the places where they learn, play, and grow? The Brazelton Touchpoints Center is bringing together people already doing this work at the National Summit for Children’s Health in a Changing Climate, and we’d love for you to be part of it.

The National Summit for Children’s Health in a Changing Climate will spotlight real-world examples of communities, early learning programs, healthcare providers, and local leaders working together to protect children’s health and build climate-resilient communities.

From air quality and extreme weather to climate-ready early learning spaces and Indigenous approaches to connecting children with the land, this summit is about moving from concern to action.

📅 Wednesday, October 21, 2026
🕛 12–5:30 pm ET / 9 am–2:30 pm PT
💻 Free & virtual
🇪🇸 Live Spanish translation + captioning available

Come learn what’s working—and leave with ideas you can bring back to your own community.

National Summit Registration https://www.brazeltontouchpoints.org/climate-summit/

09/15/2026

On October 7 at 7 PM ET, the Brazelton Touchpoints Center will have the privilege of screening the gorgeous and deeply moving documentary, Hollow Tree. Producer Chachi Disney Hauser will briefly introduce the film and take questions after the screening.

This film screening is free and virtual - all you have to do is register for free: https://lnkd.in/e54cjxCB

The 1-hour and 15-minute film follows three teenagers growing up in their sinking homeland of Louisiana. For the first time, they notice the Mississippi River’s engineering, stumps of cypress trees, and billowing smokestacks. Their different perspectives — as Indigenous, white, and Angolan young women — shape their coming-of-age stories on the shores of the Mississippi Delta’s climate crisis.

The organizers are hoping that once you watch this trailer you’ll decide to join them at the National Summit for Children’s Health in a Changing Climate: How Communities Are Protecting Children from Climate and Environmental Harms on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Learn more about this summit at https://www.brazeltontouchpoints.org/climate-summit/

09/04/2026

We’re excited to help spread the word about the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Community Health Equity Survey(CHES)!

CHES gives Massachusetts residents an opportunity to share what is helping or making it harder for them and their communities to be healthy. The survey asks about real-life experiences and needs, including housing, health care, employment, education, safety, mental health, and other factors that shape health.

The more people who participate, the better the data can reflect the needs and priorities of communities across Massachusetts. CHES results can help inform funding, programs, services, outreach, and policy, while giving community organizations data they can use to advocate for the resources their communities need.

If you are 12 or older and live in Massachusetts for some or all of the year, we encourage you to take the survey. Please also help us spread the word by sharing CHES with your family, friends, networks, and community members.

Take the 10–15-minute survey below and help ensure your community is represented!

https://www.mass.gov/community-health-equity-survey

09/04/2026

The Region 1 PEHSU is proud to announce a new topic added to The Environmental Health Hazard Learning series. This new learning module titled “Uranium in Well Water” is now included with four other environmental health hazards with modules on PCBs, PFAS, Heavy Metals in Baby Food and Formula, and Mercury in Locally Caught Fish.

Each module provides clinicians and public health professionals with the resources to identify at-risk populations, assess exposure and health risks, and provide guidance on how to minimize exposure. Each module is designed to be self-paced and should take learners 30 minutes to complete.

Register via then QR code or the links below.

The course is now available here: https://cecourses.childrenshospital.org/continuing-education/ce-courses/uranium-well-water/

Take the full series bundle here: https://cecourses.childrenshospital.org/continuing-education/ce-courses/environmental-health-hazards-bundle/

08/25/2026

Last month we completed our annual summer Environmental Justice Climate Change (EJCC) Scholar Program. Over the years, this has become a competitive application process with so many great candidates every year.

Our students leave our program with a greater appreciation for environmental medicine, social determinants of health, and the wide ranging contributions that so many talented people make in this field every day.

Looking back here are a few quotes from some of our first scholars:

“I wasn’t aware of the role the environment plays on medicine.”

“My experience as an EJCC Scholar has sparked an inner calling of protecting the planet, children’s health, and their futures.”

“It was interesting to consider the many connections medicine has with birdwatching.”

08/24/2026

Register now for the November virtual Pediatric Environmental Health Grand Rounds. Registration is free. CME/CEUs are available.

November 10th at 12pm (ET): Abby Fleisch, MD, MPH and Rachel Criswell, MD, MS will be presenting “From Sludge to Blood: Community-based Research and Clinical Care of Patients Impacted by PFAS Contamination in Maine”

Dr. Fleisch is a pediatric endocrinologist at Maine Medical Center, environmental health researcher at MaineHealth Institute for Research, and a Professor of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. She is also adjunct faculty in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Criswell is a full-spectrum family medicine physician and environmental health researcher practicing at the rural critical access facility Franklin Memorial Hospital in central Maine.
This talk will describe a community per and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination in central Maine from biosolids (treated sewage sludge) reused as fertilizer on farmland. Drs. Criswell and Fleisch will describe their formation of a community-academic partnership to identify exposure pathways and mental health impacts of PFAS-contaminated biosolids. Finally, they will describe their clinical care of patients affected by PFAS and use of the medication cholestyramine to reduce serum concentrations of PFAS.

Register here: https://cecourses.childrenshospital.org/continuing-education/ce-courses/live-event-healthy-homes-grand-rounds-november-10-2026/

08/21/2026

Register now for the October virtual Pediatric Environmental Health Grand Rounds. Registration is free. CME/CEUs are available.
October 13th at 12pm (ET): John W Scott will present “Growing Up in a Chemical World: Emerging Contaminants and Children’s Health”. Mr. Scott is the Illinois State Pollution Prevention Scientist at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

This presentation will provide an accessible overview of emerging contaminants, including PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals of concern, with a focus on children’s unique vulnerabilities, exposure pathways, and the current state of scientific understanding. The session will also explore how advances in biomonitoring and environmental measurement are improving our ability to identify chemical exposures and inform research, clinical practice, and public health.

Register here: https://cecourses.childrenshospital.org/continuing-education/ce-courses/live-event-healthy-homes-grand-rounds-october-13-2026/

Address

300 Longwood Ave
Boston, MA

Website

http://www.pehsu.net/region1

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