Children should not be included as volunteer workers to assist in clean up and restoration of disaster areas.  Unfortunately, lessons learned by U.S. and the world's government and community leaders about the potential for environmental and chemical exposure and injury to children are not shared with those who need it the most, the parents, schools, and child care providers.  Children's EPA hopes to fulfill that need by gathering and supplying information through news alerts and Community Forums to help prevent childhood environmental and chemical exposure and injuries and to promote healthy homes, schools, and play areas for children.

One lesson not learned by the U. S. government is that children under the age of 18 should be prohibited from participation in clean-up, restoration, and rebuilding.  In the aftermath of  9/11,  Hurricane Katrina, and during and after the Gulf of Mexico BP oil spill, well-meaning religious and civic groups encouraged youth groups and allowed children of families to volunteer to help in the clean up and restoration.  Months and sometimes years later, clean up and restoration adult volunteer workers reported injuries and illness from exposure to environmental and chemical hazards that caused cancer, lung and respiratory problems, and other serious diseases. 

Tragically,  in the wake of the April 2011 tornado in Alabama and the tornado in Joplin MO., the worst natural disasters since Hurricane Katrina, neither state nor federal government officials and health agencies have issued warnings to parents and child care workers for the potential for harm from environmental and chemical hazards present in disaster areas.  With the exception of WPMI Local 15 News at Noon account by Nancy Swan, there has been no information from the media, nor government or health agencies that volunteers in the tornado disaster area should not include children.  

The US EPA has recognized that children are more vulnerable to injury from hazardous substances and poor environmental conditions because children breathe more air, eat more food, and touch more contaminated surfaces than adults. A child's body and organs are still developing and can be more easily damaged by exposure from hazardous materials. 

• No agency in the United States regulates, monitors, nor investigates hazardous environmental and chemical exposures in schools. 
  
• No agency nor individual, including the President, is authorized to declare a disaster zone as "safe" for children or families.  Non the less, media reported President Obama allowed the First Family to dip into the Gulf of Mexico.  The President declared the waters and beaches of the Gulf as safe for families.  
  
• What is considered "safe" or "acceptable levels" by U. S. government and health agencies is based upon the height and weight of a grown male.  Hazardous environmental and chemical exposure, as with medicine dosage, considered safe for an adult can be deadly to an infant.