The Environment and Your Health: Strategies for Avoiding Harmful Environmental Exposures Before and During Pregnancy

The Environment and Your Health: Strategies for Avoiding Harmful Environmental Exposures Before and During Pregnancy

Childhood leukemia is increasing in California. Latino children in California have the highest incidence and the greatest rate of increase of leukemia. They are also more likely to live in communities with a disproportionately higher burden of exposure to pollution and other toxicants. This workshop will address environmental exposures of young adults and future parents during the preconception and prenatal periods that increase the risk of future children developing childhood leukemia and other non-infectious chronic diseases. This presentation is a project of the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Leukemia and the Environment (CIRCLE) at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Describe three reasons the fetus and the young child are both more exposed and more vulnerable than adults to environmental chemicals.
2. Identify three chemical exposures during preconception and pregnancy that are known to increase the risk of childhood leukemia.
3. Describe three things young adults can do to reduce the risk of leukemia and other chronic diseases in their unborn children.