The high cost of toxic stress in children

As much as asthma is the number-one health cause of school absenteeism, and the incidence of asthma and high levels of lead in children’s bloodstreams can be mapped by town and legislative district in Rhode Island, the actual number of poor children in Rhode Island who live in unsafe, unhealthy homes has not yet been quantified. It is not yet part of the Rhode Island Kids Count briefing paper on child poverty in Rhode Island. But Ruth Ann Norton, the president and CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, and her new point person in Rhode Island, Betsy Stubblefield-Loucks, have plans to bring the issue to the forefront.

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