Did you know early childhood exposures to air pollutants can have lifelong effects?
Our research team is helping child care facilities monitor the air quality in their play spaces.
Review the resources below to learn more about this study.
About Clean Air for Carolina Kids
We partner with child care facilities to monitor trends in air pollution to protect children's health.
Many children spend substantial portions of their days in caregiving environments outside the home. The first few years of life are a sensitive period of growth and development, during which young children have greater susceptibility to adverse effects associated with airborne pollutants because of their ongoing physical and neurological development, relative body and organ sizes, higher breathing rates, and outdoor activity levels.
Our team is working to improve understanding of air pollution trends associated with adverse health outcomes in underserved childcare settings and build a network of informed childcare facilities and childcare advocates stewarding and monitoring their air quality to continue supporting healthy, thriving children.
This study is a partnership between RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, and NC Central University, a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). Our Community Advisors include NC Choose Safe Places Advisory Committee and the NC Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Environmental Health Unit. It is funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Underserved Child care Facilities in North Carolina grant.