Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment

We all know about childproofing our home when the little ones start to toddle - such as my 9 month old, who currently finds herself unsteadily pulling herself up on every table with a sharp edge, it seems. We close off our electrical outlets and tie our cupboards shut and put bumper pads on every corner. But when it comes to kids' health, there's more to think about than just falling down - there's also the environment of your home to consider. With toxins, cleaning products, air pollutants and so much more surrounding us, it's hard to know how best to give our children the healthiest start.

This is where the Canadian Partnership for Children's Health and Environment - also known as CPCHE - comes in. The aim of the CPCHE is to encourage everyone, from parents to service provider organizations to the public in general to take in to account the way children interact with their environment and what we can do to make those environments as healthy as possible. To that end, they've put together a series of informational brochures detailing how kids interact with their environment, what their risk factors are and what you can do to help their surroundings be as healthy as possible.  One of these excellent publications is the Playing it Safe:  Childproofing for Environmental Health. This brochure outlines the many simple ways in which we can protect our children from environmental pollutants, from conception to birth and afterwards. 

For a more in-depth look at the CPCHE, take a look at the brochure The First Steps in Lifelong Health: A Vision and Strategy for Children's health and environment in Canada which details their entire vision for children's health, the current state of children's health today in Canada, their strategy and priorities and their way forward.