Children’s Environmental Health Promotion Program

The Children's Environmental Health Promotion Program promotes conditions optimal for children's health and development.

New threshold levels to define lead-contaminated dust went into effect on January 6, 2020.

Principal Activities and Services

Promote healthy neighborhoods, homes, child care and schools so that children can reach their full potential.

• Lead - hazard education and environmental inspections, in locations where children younger than six years of age live and spend time, to enforce Health Code requirements for lead hazard prevention.  Case management support is available to families of lead-exposed children.
• Asthma - education and environmental screening in homes of asthma patients (adults and children) referred by their health care provider.
• Healthy Homes - education and environmental evaluation in homes of Women Infant & Children Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC)-enrolled families upon request.

Information, Education, Reports and Training

Please contact our program staff if you are interested in learning more or if you would like to request a customized training for the topics listed below. These topics can be presented in English, Spanish, or Cantonese.

Lead

• Lead health effects and exposure prevention for pregnant women and children
• Lead-safe homes, child care, and workplaces
• Medical management of lead exposed children for health care providers

Asthma

• Asthma management and prevention: asthma-safe homes, child care, schools and work-places

Healthy Homes

• Healthy housing concepts and solutions
• Habitable housing rights and resources
• Less toxic housecleaning
• Less toxic pest control

16 Steps to a Healthy Home - English | Spanish | Chinese

Children's Environmental Health Promotion Program and the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section issued the report on Staff Vicarious Trauma from Family Housing Insecurity in July 2019 to bring awareness to the vicarious trauma endured by public health staff who conduct home visits to San Francisco families with young children and pregnant women.

Children's Environmental Health Promotion Program and the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Section issued the report San Francisco Department of Public Health Brief: Health Impacts of Family Housing Insecurity in February 2019 to bring awareness and advocate for system change to reduce the health impacts of housing insecurity faced by pregnant women and families with young children.

Children's Environmental Health collaborated with DPH Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health Section and the Mission Economic Development Agency to create a website documenting the Community Assessment for Safe & Affordable Housing in San Francisco.

Our 2017 report "Promoting Housing Security and Healthy Homes for Families Served by Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Programs" provides findings of Children's Environmental Health Promotion Program's comprehensive home environmental assessments and social determinants of health surveys for 173 families enrolled in the DPH Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC).

Related Agencies and Organizations

Environmental Health Apartment Inspection Program and Environmental Health Hotel and Emergency Shelter Program: These programs enforce all sanitation and pest control requirements of the SF Health Code in all types of housing.

Mayor's Office of Housing: Provides grants for lead hazard remediation for multi-unit and single family properties.

Department of Building Inspection (Housing Inspection Services): Enforces lead-safe work practices on pre-1979 structures.