The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education Disaster Recovery Supplement

Abstract

During disaster recovery, affected communities might be at risk for exposure to harmful chemicals. Children are especially vulnerable. A child’s environment has direct consequences on their health and well-being. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (CSPECE) Disaster Recovery Supplement can help environmental and public health professionals protect children from environmental exposures after a disaster. The supplement builds on concepts from ATSDR’s CSPECE Guidance Manual. The supplement •defines places, in addition to early care, where children spend time, •describes how to apply CSPECE elements to places where children spend time, •identifies likely environmental hazards after a disaster and potential effects on children, and •compiles resources for more information on each environmental hazard or topic.The CSPECE Disaster Recovery Supplement helps public health professionals begin to consider potential environmental hazards unique to disasters and provides resources for addressing those hazards. The target audience for the CSPECE Disaster Recovery Supplement is environmental public health professionals. Many environmental public health professionals at the state level have limited interaction with early care and education (ECE) facilities or systems. This Disaster Recovery Supplement is a tool that public health professionals can use to consider the intersection of environmental hazards and places children spend time. Local decision makers, recovery specialists, ECE professionals, and even ECE providers may find the information in the CSPECE Disaster Recovery Supplement helpful as they plan for, or work towards, disaster recovery.