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Staffed by pediatricians, medical toxicologists, and resource specialists, the Pediatric Environmental Health Center at Boston Children's Hospital coordinates the care of children and adolescents exposed to a wide range of environmental hazards, including including lead, arsenic, mercury, pesticides, and indoor air pollutants such as carbon monoxide.

Our expertise

The Pediatric Environmental Health Center provides comprehensive, coordinated services for children exposed to environmental toxins.

  • Patient evaluation: complete history and physical exam
  • Laboratory testing: testing for toxic exposures
  • Environmental assessments: assistance with arranging for environmental assessments as well as with interpreting results of such assessments
  • Treatment provided by experienced pediatric environmental medicine toxicologists
  • Prevention: guidance and practical advice for reducing and eliminating exposures
  • Telephone and/or written consultations to treating primary care providers
  • 24-hour telephone access: 1-888-Child14

In addition to providing clinical services, our staff and affiliated staff are doing research to answer important questions in pediatric environmental health, including:

  • How do lead and mercury affect children of different ages?
  • What’s the best way to treat children with lead and mercury poisoning? When should medications that bind metals be used?
  • For adolescents that work: what type of toxic exposures do they have, and how can overexposures be prevented?
  • What do other health professionals, such as pediatric primary care providers, need to know about pediatric environmental health?
  • What are the best ways to promote education about pediatric environmental health issues?

Our mission

The Pediatric Environmental Health Center aims to improve children’s and reproductive health by leading the integration of environmental health into clinical care and public health while supporting communities to address historical injustices and ongoing environmental racism and address the existential threat of climate change. This effort is carried out in the following five domains:

  • Pediatric Environmental Health Clinic and consultations
  • Clinical innovations and integration
  • Research
  • Public health and community engagement
  • Healthcare professional education and training