Prenatal Environmental Health Education (PEHE) Forum

The PEHE forum was held November 20-21, 2014 at the University of Ottawa, and Dr. Lynn Marshall presented on a panel about existing efforts to integrate environmental health education into clinical practice. The Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment (CPCHE) was highly involved in organizing the Forum, along with many other collaborators. The event was well-attended, bringing in over 100 people from diverse health fields (physicians, obstetricians, midwives, nurses, researchers, professors, students, policy makers etc.). Dr. Bruce Lanphear gave the keynote speech on Little Things Matter, and launched his video of the same name (https://www/youtube.com/watch?v=E6KoMAbz1Bw), which will soon be available on the Environmental Health Atlas (www.ehatlas.ca). His presentation opened discussion on upstream methods of managing chemicals versus expecting parents to take total responsibility for exposure reduction. There was also much discussion about the need for better information in medical schools and in clinical settings, especially in preconception and prenatal care. Participants also thought that early education about health-environment connections (e.g. in elementary and high schools) would be advisable as well.