The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is committed to promoting a safe and healthy environment for children through regulations, standards, policies, and risk assessments that consider special childhood vulnerabilities to environmental agents (EPA 1996a). Many environmental health threats to children may not be recognized because we do not have a complete understanding of when and why children's exposures and responses differ from those of adults. This may affect EPA's ability to identify environmental hazards, assess risks, and act to protect children. This strategy groups its research priorities into the following five areas: (1) development of data for risk assessment, (2) development of risk assessment methods and models, (3) experimental methods development, (4) risk management and risk communication, and (5) cross-cutting issues including variation in susceptibility and cumulative risk. This research strategy is an important planning tool because it makes clear the rationale for, and the intended products of, EPA's research on children's environmental health and helps EPA effectively communicate its program to clients, stakeholders, and the public. This research strategy is also an important accountability tool, enabling EPA to clearly track progress toward achieving its research goals as required by the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act.

"EPA/600/R-00/068, October 2000." Includes bibliographical references.