A number of recent developments have underscored the importance of children's environmental health issues as a necessary and critical part of the environmental journalist's beat.

For instance, although it's just getting started, the National Children's Study, a sweeping research effort authorized by Congress in 2000, is already generating news coverage, such as a recent article that appeared in Newsday.

Centers that will carry out the study are being established this year, although full funding for its implementation has not yet been budgeted. The study will "examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from birth until age 21." Details are available at the study's website.

Two recent actions by the Environmental Protection Agency generated extensive coverage, illustrating the connections of children's health to other environmental issues.

In one prominent action, the new EPA administrator, Steve Johnson, canceled a controversial study that had threatened his confirmation by the Senate. The proposed study, partly funded by the American Chemistry Council, the main chemical industry trade group, would have paid low-income Floridians to record how their home use of pesticides affected their children.

In addition, the EPA issued new guidelines for assessing potentially cancer-causing chemicals. For the first time, these guidelines will consider the likelihood that children are more vulnerable to these chemicals than adults. Environmental Science & Technology reported that the change could significantly affect water-quality regulations.

News about children's environmental health issues frequently occurs at the local level, as a recent article in the Los Angeles Times showed. The article reported on a study that found children who ride school buses "inhale as much, or more, bus exhaust than the rest of the city's population" because of fumes that leak into bus cabins.

The Commercial Appeal in Memphis reported on a study [Note: you'll need to sign up for this] there, which is examining whether environmental exposure is a possible factor in the city's high incidence of low-birth-weight infants.

Here are some reporting resources for journalists interested in finding and following such stories:

A couple of major journal articles, both published in recent years, can provide a valuable overview of many aspects of environmental issues in the field of pediatric health.

A 2004 article by Lynn Goldman and others in the journal Pediatrics provides a summary of the history of scientific work on subjects related to children's environmental health and government responses.

A 2002 article in Environmental Health Perspectives, authored by Philip Landrigan and others, presented a study that estimated "the contribution of environmental pollutants to the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and costs of pediatric disease in American children."

The EPA maintains a web portal to a wide variety of its own, and other, internet-posted information related to children's health.

The Toxicity and Exposure for Children's Health (TEACH) page is one example of what can be found through the EPA portal. It provides a searchable database and other links to overviews of scientific literature in the field.

Another valuable web page is maintained by the Children's Environmental Health Network, "a national multidisciplinary project" composed of experts in medicine, nursing, research and policy, who represent a wide array of professional, advocacy, government and other organizations. An important feature of the website is a Resource Guide on Children's Environmental Health with many useful links.

A database particularly helpful for reporters can be searched through the archives page of the private Environmental Health Sciences' Environmental Health News website. Hundreds of articles and reports are available by selecting "Children's Health" under the "Current Issues" heading on the left side of the archives page. Users can refine their searches by selecting other categories, such as article type and contaminant.

Other possible sources of news and background information for reporters include the network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units, established at ten locations around the country by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics. The Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and EPA are also involved in the project. Links and contact information for the different units can be found at ATSDR's website.

For example, the Chicago-based unit for the Great Lakes region maintains a web page about ongoing research there.

Other online resources can be found at the websites of the Institute for Children's Environmental Health, a nonprofit education organization that works to "foster collaborative initiatives" and the Partnership for Children's Health and the Environment, a coalition of individuals representing government, academic, medical and community organizations.