New Hampshire Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education

Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (NHCSP) is a grant-funded program to promote practices and policies to protect children from harmful chemicals in child care settings. Our goal is to help early care and education professionals, childcare licensing and inspection staff, local government officials, and environmental public health professionals work together to create best practices to ensure children are learning and growing in the safest places possible. CSP focuses on lowering the risk of exposure to naturally occurring contaminants like arsenic, uranium, manganese and radon, as well as manufactured contaminants such as lead, pesticides and other chemicals that can be found in air, water, soil and dust.

Specifically, NH CSP is working to protect children from harmful chemicals in child care facilities by:

• Identifying opportunities for professional development for child care providers to increase awareness of environmental health;
• Working with state child care licensing and child development agencies to identify best practices to improve the inspection and siting process;
• Connecting with local public health partners and health officers to identify gaps and opportunities in current processes and policies;
• Developing a free private well water testing initiative to promote well water testing and support well water treatment where necessary.

Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education is a part of the APPLETREE Program, implemented by the NH Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the NH Department of Environmental Services, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The APPLETREE Program is the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR’s) Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposures.