Environmental Protection Agency Honors UCSF

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection has named UCSF a recipient of the 2008 Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award. The award recognizes the outstanding commitment of institutions working to protect children from environmental health risks. UCSF’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) shared the award with UC Irvine in US EPA Region 9 for their accomplishments in educating the public about how wildfires affect children’s health. The PEHSU created fact sheets that were used by both the state and the federal government in response to recent California wildfires. UCSF is one of 12 honorees to receive the annual award. A special ceremony and reception were held on Oct. 22 in Washington, DC, to honor the recipients. This is the fourth year in which the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP) has given the Children’s Environmental Health Champion Award. The Environmental Protection Agency established the Office of Children’s Health Protection in May 1997 to make the protection of children’s health a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States. OCHP supports and facilitates agency efforts to protect children’s health from environmental threats.