Goals
Here are the big ideas you will learn about in this lesson:

• Your environment is everything around you, including water, soil, air, sunlight, buildings, and anything that you breathe, touch, or swallow.
• Things in your environment affect your health in ways that can be helpful or sometimes harmful.
• You can do things to protect your own health.

We want our homes to be safe from health hazards—things that could hurt us or make us sick. By learning what these hazards are, we can take steps to avoid them.

Most homes have some health hazards. Sometimes hazards are easy to find. For example, cleaning products that contain toxic, or poisonous, chemicals usually have warning labels. But sometimes the hazards are not so easy to see. There may be toxic chemicals in plant sprays, light bulbs, batteries, glue, or even paint.

Click "View" on the left to play an interactive activity about chemical hazards that can be found in homes.

Which of these hazards have you seen in your home? Write your answer in the box below.

You are exposed to a health hazard when you touch, swallow, or breathe it in. For example, standing near someone who is smoking a cigarette exposes you to secondhand smoke because you are breathing in the smoky air.

Click "View" on the left to watch a video about how you might protect yourself from secondhand smoke.

Choose a health hazard that you might find in your home. Write one sentence that explains how you might be exposed to that hazard. Then write another sentence to explain how you could avoid exposure to it.

Outdoor play is usually healthy, but there can be health hazards outdoors too. For example, too much sunlight can be harmful. A sunburn can make your skin red and painful, and too many sunburns can lead to skin cancer. You can protect yourself by limiting your exposure to sunlight with clothing, shade, or sunscreen.

Chemicals from factories and cars make the air less clean. This pollution, known as smog, can make it hard to breathe and can lead to serious health problems. If you hear that the air in your neighborhood is very polluted, stay indoors until you hear the air is safe again.

Pesticides are often used on gardens and lawns to control weeds and insects. But pesticides contain toxic chemicals that can irritate your skin and cause other health problems. Click "View" on the left to watch a video about how to protect yourself from exposure to pesticides.

As you have seen, there are things you can do to help stay healthy. For example:

• Stay away from people who are smoking cigarettes, to avoid breathing in secondhand smoke.
• Wear protective clothing and use sunscreen to protect your skin when spending time outdoors.
• If you live in an area with smog, do not play outdoors on days with high levels of air pollution.
• Wash your skin and clothing if they come in contact with pesticides.

Here are some other ways to protect your health:

• If your house has heaters or appliances that burn fuels such as natural gas, oil, coal, or wood, make sure you have carbon monoxide detectors.
• Do not pick at peeling paint or eat paint chips—some paints contain lead or other toxins.
• Wash your hands with soap (especially before eating).
• Vacuum, sweep, or mop regularly to reduce the amount of particles and pollutants (such as pollen and dust) in your house.
• If you find a hazard, such as spilled cleaning products or mold, don't touch it. Ask an adult for help.

You can take action to stay healthy in both indoor and outdoor environments. When you learn which things are dangerous, you can keep your exposure to them as low as possible. You can protect yourself from natural health hazards (such as sunlight, insect bites, germs, and mold) and from health hazards that are made by humans (such as toxic chemicals in cleaning products, air pollution, and lead paint).

Think about how specific actions—such as vacuuming regularly, washing your hands, wearing sunscreen, or asking a grown-up to clean up a hazard—can help you stay healthy. Do you feel like you have control over your own health? Why or why not? Write your answer in two to three sentences in the box below.

In this lesson you learned about how your environment can affect your health. You also saw ways that you can try to protect yourself from hazards in your environment. You will now do a final project to show what you have learned.

Begin by reviewing your notes. Click "review my work" above and view or print out the screen that pops up.

Then choose and complete one of these final projects:

• Teach other kids about an environmental health hazard. You can make a poster or write a script for a TV commercial. Make sure you explain what the hazard is and what they can do to avoid exposure to it.
• Write a letter to your family to tell them about an environmental health hazard in your home. Explain what the hazard is and what the family can do to make the house safer.