Executive Summary

Children are exposed to a wide range of toxic chemicals on a daily basis that their developing bodies are particularly ill-equipped to manage. Surprisingly little is known about the health effects of the vast majority of the chemicals that currently exist in the environment, and even less is known about the unique susceptibility of children. The changing pattern of childhood illnesses represents a shift from infectious diseases and genetic abnormalities to those of potentially preventable origin. Childhood diseases are now more often the result of a combination of factors, including both environmental triggers and genetic susceptibility. Maine children are no exception to what has been called the “new pediatric morbidity, ” and suffer from comparatively high rates of asthma and cancer. Maine children are also at an increased risk of lead poisoning due to the aging housing stock and historical industrial activities. In order to understand the economic impact of environmentally-related childhood diseases in Maine, this report provides a detailed estimate of the annual cost in four broad illness categories: lead poisoning, asthma, childhood cancer, and neurobehavioral disorders. Building upon previous scientific evidence in the health sciences and using state-specific data where available, this report estimates both the number of children suffering from environmentally attributable diseases in th