WASHINGTON - Today, September 18, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing a new tool called the “Kids and Climate Health Zone.” This Zone is a collection of stories and information about how the hazards of climate stressors are impacting different childhood life stages and regions in the United States and what people can do to protect their children and families. The tool uses the best available scientific information from the U.S. Global Change Research Program's Fifth National Climate Assessment and other published resources. 

“Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and we owe it to the next generation – our nation’s children – to take action now in the fight to protect our health and our planet,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “Raising awareness of the impacts of climate and environmental stressors on children and highlighting actions that we can all implement to mitigate the effects are critical for the protection of children’s health and are central to our mission at EPA and to the efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration.”  

Children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change due to a variety of physical, cognitive, behavioral and social factors. Climate change-related impacts in childhood can have lifelong consequences due to its effects on learning, physical health, chronic disease and other conditions. Changing climate conditions, public health emergencies, and disasters can compound and affect children’s environmental health and safety.  

It's important for kids, their parents and caregivers and the adults around them to be aware of these consequential impacts and get ideas on how to mitigate them before children’s environmental health gets negatively impacted. 

Check out the Zone to find information on how climate change can affect different climate stressors and life stages, and read stories about: 

• A toddler who is struggling with stress after his home is flooded and the steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks associated with flooding. 
• A teenager who is dealing with extreme heat during practice and what the teenager can do to stay healthy. 
• A pregnant woman who is exposed to wildfire smoke in her area and what resources she can use to keep herself and her baby safe. 

View all these stories and more at the Kids and Climate Zone. 

Learn more about EPA climate adaptation efforts.