The incidence of learning and developmental disabilities appears to be rising, affecting about one in six children in the U.S. under the age of 18, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control. Many factors - heredity, gene expression, social environment, nutrition and chemical contaminants - influence brain development in complex ways. Chemical contaminants, however, have historically been the least researched and are the most preventable.
Emerging science suggests that exposures to certain chemicals and heavy metals can contribute to various health concerns such as learning and developmental disabilities (LDDs), certain cancers, infertility and even neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. Scientific studies also show that the developing fetus and children are particularly vulnerable at certain developmental windows to environmental exposures. Given this, raising awareness about these issues, particularly among women of child-bearing age, and protecting children from exposures to environmental contaminants is an essential public health measure.
Historically most LDD groups have traditionally focused on identifying kids with LDDs and getting them services they need - something that is, of course, very important, but does not address the rising rates of LDDs. The Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI), conceived at the first meeting of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment in 2002, coalesced to encourage the LDD sector to look collectively upstream, and in addition to their other efforts, help prevent toxic threats to child development.
Elise Miller, M.Ed, is Director of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE), and international partnership of researchers, health professionals and environmental health and justice advocates working to mitigate environmental contributors to chronic disease and disability. As a co-founder of the Collaborative in 2002, Ms. Miller also coordinates CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative and co-chairs CHE's Parkinson's Disease and Environment Working Group.
In addition, Ms. Miller serves on the national board of directors of the Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHN) and The Endocrine Disruptor Exchange (TEDX) as well as on the professional advisory boards of five other nonprofits in the environmental health field nationally and regionally. She is also a member of the US EPA's Children's Health Advisory Committee (CHPAC).
In 1999, Ms. Miller founded the National Institute for Children's Environmental Health (ICEH) and served as its executive director for 10 years. The primary mission of the Institute is to foster collaborative initiatives among diverse sectors to reduce environmental exposures and other factors that can undermine children's healthy development.
From 1993-1998, Ms. Miller served as Executive Director of the Jennifer Altman Foundation, a private foundation in northern California with interests in sustainable development, environmental health, mind-body health, and issues affecting disadvantaged children. In 2001, she completed a three-year Fetzer Fellowship for her wok with emerging leaders on sustainable development and environmental health issues.
Ms. Miller has also been an editor, teacher, researcher, mental health counselor, journalist and community-based advocate. She has worked, studied and traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, and spent two years living in India, first as a journalist stringing for the Economist and the Christian Science Monitor, and later as a researcher for her graduate work on adolescent psychology at Harvard. She received her Masters Degree in Education from Harvard University in 1992 and her Bachelor's degree with high honors from Dartmouth College in 1985.
On a personal note, Ms. Miller and her husband recently completed building their home based on ecologically sustainable principles and adopted a boy from Nepal.
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