Appendix E: Environmental Hazards Summary Sheets

Overview 

How to Use These Summary Sheets

The top text on each page provides a very brief overview of how the environmental health hazard may specifically affect children due to their physical size and developing bodies.

Discussion Prompts for Children's Programs

These prompts are designed to help guide a conversation, not to serve as a checklist. Use them to start open-ended discussions and follow up with deeper questions based on what the program leader shares. 
The questions aim to help you understand:

• Which environmental health hazards the children's program has seen or heard concerns about.

• Whether any children have shown symptoms that may be related to those hazards.

• What public information or education efforts are reaching families and staff.

• What steps the children's program is taking to reduce risks and protect children. 

You don't need to be an environmental health expert. Your role is to surface important concerns and help connect the right experts and resources. Ask open-ended follow-ups to better understand specific situations and any unmet needs.

Ideas for Mitigation & Intervention

The examples on this page illustrate potential activities that a children's program or a state, local, or tribal public health agency might implement to help reduce children's risk from specific environmental health hazards. They are designed to be practical, low- or no-cost actions that could be adapted for use in diverse settings, including urban areas, suburban neighborhoods, rural communities, and tribal lands. 
These are fictional scenarios provided for discussion and planning purposes only. They are not meant to prescribe specific actions, but to spark ideas and support locally driven solutions. 
 

Cultivating Allies 

Allies and partners at the local, state, federal, and non-governmental levels all play important roles in disaster recovery. Recovery is locally led, state-managed, and federally supported with non-governmental organizations contributing critical expertise, services, and resources.

To support an effective assessment and future recovery actions, it is important to understand which partners have roles, authority, expertise, or programs related to each environmental hazard. The following key tasks are designed to help identify and connect with partners across different levels of government and sectors.

Key Words

These are common words and phrases you may hear during conversations about each environmental health hazard. If you come across a word or phrase you're unfamiliar with, it may be helpful to look it up before beginning the assessment interview.

Please note that these lists are not exhaustive.

Educational Resources

Each Environmental Health Summary Sheet includes an Educational Resources section that provides links to high-quality materials related to the specific hazard. These resources are intended to support assessment team members by offering foundational information, practical guidance, and ready-to-share materials. 
Assessment team members should use these resources to:

• Increase their understanding of the environmental health hazard, including its sources, health impacts, and relevance in post-disaster settings.

• Identify existing tools, guidance, and technical assistance programs from trusted organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others.

• Share credible, accessible information with state, tribal, territorial, and local (STTL) partners and children's programs, particularly when requested or when concerns about the hazard are identified during engagements.

When appropriate, resources may be copied and pasted into follow-up communications, presentations, or planning materials. While not all were created specifically for disaster recovery, many offer practical actions or frameworks that can be adapted to meet local needs. Some resources appear under multiple environmental hazards when they are broadly relevant across different situations.

All links were active when this guide was published, but they may change over time. If a link is broken or you need more information, try using a web search to find the most current resources.