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Tyler Children's Health Unit Receives National Award

Release Date: 4/19/2005
Contact Information: For more information contact the Office of External Affairs at (214) 665-2200.

     The Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health (the Center) in Tyler, Texas, is a winner in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) first annual Children's Environmental Health Excellence Award program, EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene announced today.  The Center will be honored April 21 at an award ceremony in Washington, D.C.

     "Children are our most precious natural resource - and the most vulnerable to pollution," Greene said.  "I am proud of the Center's accomplishments in reducing environmental health threats to children, improving access to expertise in pediatric environmental medicine and strengthening public health capacity."

     The Center is located in the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler. It provides innovative programs to focus on specific groups that are most at risk, including pregnant women and unborn children.  The Center participated in over 40 presentations and Environmental Health Symposiums, and established the first bilingual call center on the Mexican border for calls from concerned parents and health care providers.

     "This award recognizes the exceptional work being done to help protect children's health by our University of Texas Health Center at Tyler team. My congratulations to the Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health," University of Texas Health Center at Tyler President  Dr. Kirk A. Calhoun said.

     The Center is one of 13 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units in the United States, Canada and Mexico. These units provide a unique forum for collaboration between occupational/ environmental clinics and academic pediatric programs.  Pediatricians and environmental health specialists combine their expertise to address children's environmental exposures and diseases of suspected environmental origin.

      The Children's Environmental Health Awards are designed to increase awareness, stimulate activity and recognize efforts that protect children from environmental health risks at the local, regional, national, and international level.  EPA received 85 applications for the Excellence Award. The top 15 applicants were selected to receive the award and may use EPA's Children's Environmental Health Award logo.  

     More information about the Center is available at http://www.swcpeh.org/.  More information about EPA's children's health protection program and the Children's Environmental Health Awards is available at https://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/homepage.