Joint Letter to Congress on Funding National Children's Study on Health and Environment, January 8, 2007

Joint Letter to Congress on Funding National Children's Study on Health and Environment, January 8, 2007, signed by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Chairman, Committee on Domestic Policy, Rev. Larry Snyder, President, Catholic Charities USA, Sr. Carol Keehan, President & CEO, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Kevin E. Lofton, President & CEO, Catholic Health Initiatives, Shelly Schlenker, Vice President, Public Policy and Advocacy, Catholic Healthcare West, Jerald D. Freewalt, Chair, National Catholic Partnership on Disability, Brother David G. Andrews, Executive Director, National Catholic Rural Life Conference, and Sheila McCarron, Executive Director, National Council of Catholic Women 

"On behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the undersigned members of the Catholic Coalition for Children and a Safe Environment, we write to express our support for an appropriation of $69 million in new funding for the continuation of the National Longitudinal Cohort Study of American Children (National Children’s Study), authorized in the Children’s Health Act of 2000.  

We applaud the Senate and House Appropriations Committees for expressing their support for the continuation of the National Children’s Study, which will provide critical information about environmental links to diseases affecting children from before birth into adulthood, including such chronic conditions as asthma, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and learning and other developmental disabilities.

As Catholics, we are called to participate in sustaining God’s creation by caring for our children and their physical environment.  A mother’s womb is a child’s first environment; yet from conception, unborn children face a disproportionate threat to their development from exposures to toxins about which we know very little.  Without information about how we can protect children, born and unborn, from environmental hazards, children’s future and their ability to fulfill their God-given potential will continue to be undermined."

joint-letters-to-congress-on-funding-for-national-childrens-study-2007-01-08.pdf