Welcome to the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) at the University of California, Irvine. We are one of thirteen PEHSU's located throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In conjunction with the University of California, San Francisco, we provide a variety of services to the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii. Our mission is to 1) improve the health of children with respect to environmental exposures, and 2) educate individual families, health care providers, and the general public regarding children's environmental health.

The establishment of PEHSU's was an important step towards addressing the environmental health concerns of our nation's children. There are many hazardous substances in our environment that may affect the health and development of children in our country. Exposure to these environmental hazards may result in health effects such as learning disabilities, respiratory diseases, damage to the nervous system, and cancer.

Disclaimer/Acknowledgment

This UC PEHSU website was prepared by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC) and funded (in part) by the cooperative agreement award number 1U61TS000118-01 from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

Acknowledgement: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supports the PEHSU by providing funds to ATSDR under Inter-Agency Agreement number DW-75-92301301-0. Neither EPA nor ATSDR endorse the purchase of any commercial products or services mentioned in PEHSU publications.