Listen to the teleconference: Toxic Chemicals and The Rise of Childhood Cancer: What’s the Relationship?
Since 1975 cancer in American children has increased, especially childhood leukemia and brain cancer. Meanwhile, 80,000 chemicals have been produced in the U.S. to create commonly-used products, which include known carcinogens such as asbestos, formaldehyde, lead, cadmium, trichloroethylene, and vinyl chloride, with virtually no government oversight. The use of toxic chemicals has risen dramatically in the last 50 years to a point that they are now ubiquitous in human bodies and our environment. Although it is not clear exactly why these childhood cancers are on the rise, a substantial and growing body of evidence suggests that these chemicals may play a role.
Last year the President’s Cancer Panel report provided strong confirmation that exposure to toxic chemicals is an important and under-recognized risk factor for cancer, and recommended that the Government take immediate action to reverse this trend. In fact, the Panel highlighted the need for Congress to reform the failed 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), commenting that this law is “the most egregious example of ineffective regulation of chemical contaminants” and noting that weaknesses in the law have constrained the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from being able to properly regulate known and suspected carcinogens.
For further reading:
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Health Report: Cancer Section.
- President’s Cancer Panel 2010 Factsheet.
- Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families media advisory for the January 26, 2011 teleconference.
- Teleconference participant, Christine Brouwer’s blog about her daughter’s fight with cancer.
- Teleconference participant, Christine Brouwer’s talk about her daughter’s fight with cancer (PDF).
Comments
I just blogged on this very topic, calling it “Kids, Cancer and Cosmetics”. It is an absolute TRAVESTY that the FDA has not regulated our products all of these years and that manufacturers, especially for children’s “safe” products, “gentle” products…are willing to ignore the toxic products in their ingredients, regardless of regulation (or lack thereof!).
Everyone owes it to a child to take a stand to support the pending legislation you mentioned above as well as the “Kid’s Safe Chemical Act” proposed in 2009. Here is link to my blog post: http://verdemom.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/kids-cancer-and-cosmetics/
Thank you for this information.Honestly didn’t knew about this.This is kind of information is the kind of information that people should not miss..
This is pretty scary stuff to think about, and future generations are going to have be dealing with a lot of health issues if we don’t make some changes. There has been an increase in funding recently for clinical research trials on children’s cancer. For more information on cancer trials in the U.S. look at: http://www.clinicaltrialsgps.com/clinical-trials-indications/cancer/
the food industry, the medicial industry, the drug industry, and the petro-chemicial industry, and the alchohol industry all have cancer causing agents in there products, but due to there greed by certain public officials they are allowed
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