In October 2009, EPA announced the release of a companion report, Highlights of the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook to the technical report released in 2008. This highlights document provides introductory information about the handbook and presents a summary of the recommendations presented in the Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook (CSEFH).

Citation:

U.S. EPA. Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook (2008, Final Report). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-06/096F, 2008.

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The Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook provides a summary of statistical data on various exposure factors used in assessing children exposures. These factors include: drinking water consumption; soil ingestion and mouthing behavior; inhalation rates; dermal factors including skin surface area and soil adherence factors; consumption of retail and home-grown foods; breast milk intake; body weight; and activity pattern data.

Description:

The National Center for Environmental Assessment Staff (NCEA) have prepared this handbook to provide information on various physiological and behavioral factors commonly used in assessing children’s exposure to environmental chemicals. Children have different exposure circumstances than do adults. Understanding these differences is key for evaluating potential for environmental hazards from pollutants. They consume more of certain foods and water and have higher inhalation rates per unit of body weight than adults. Young children play close to the ground and come into contact with contaminated soil outdoors and with contaminated dust on surfaces and carpets indoors. Ingestion of human milk may be another potential pathway of exposure for infants and young children.

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