Children's Hospital Medical Center has been awarded a five-year, $5 million federal grant to launch a “Children's Environmental Health Center” to expand research into the risks of lead poisoning and other toxic risks to children.

        The grant is expected to be announced today, along with three similar grants for other medical centers, by Christine Todd Whitman, chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

        The grants are co-funded by the EPA and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The other centers have not been identified.

        Children's Hospital plans to use its grant to focus on the risks found in the environment where young children spend most of their time — their homes. Such risks include brain development damage caused by exposure to lead paint dust, asthma risks posed by tobacco smoke, and exposure to backyard pesticides.

        “Children's health is inextricably linked with housing,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a lead-poisoning expert who will serve as director of the new environmental center. “Unfortunately, despite growing evidence that residential exposures (to toxic substances) have a dramatic impact on children's health, housing is largely ignored as a public health problem. Our research is aimed at making housing and the environment safe for children.”

        The grant will support five lead-related projects:

        • Further testing of cleanup procedures to protect children from lead paint.

        • Testing whether meconium, an infant's first bowel movement, can be used effectively to measure fetal exposure to toxins.

        • Launching a residential screening project to inform residents about housing risks.

        • Expanded study of the links between childhood lead exposure and anti-social behavior among adults.

        • Using MRI scans to measure how lead exposure affects brain function.

        In other studies not using the federal grant, the new environmental health center plans to research risks posed by tobacco smoke and pesticides, Dr. Lanphear said.

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