Mother Earth Journal

The latest report by the President’s Cancer Panel that landed directly on President Obama’s desk urged, “use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.”

The Panel advised Obama that the American people are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of dangerous environmental chemicals, even before they are born.

“The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated,” they  said in their 240-page report, Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now, issued May 6. A lot of those cancer cases, they said, “could have been prevented though appropriate national action.”

The Panel used some strong language.

One excerpt reads, “With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market … many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are … largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. One such ubiquitous chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), is still found in many consumer products and remains unregulated in the United States, despite the growing link between BPA and several diseases, including various cancers.”

Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety.

Children are especially vulnerable, the report says.

The Panel monitors the multi-billion-dollar National Cancer Program and reports  directly to the President each year. This year is their first to emphasize the environmental causes of cancer. It warns of “grievous harm” from chemicals and other hazards, and “a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer.”

The American Cancer Society took a more conservative approach to suspected environmental factors.

Dr. Michael Thun, MD, vice president emeritus of Epidemiology & Surveillance Research reviewed the report and told the Society that elements of the report were consistent with the Society’s recently published American Cancer Society Perspective on Environmental Factors and Cancer.

Both reports, Dr. Thun said, highlighted many of the same issues. “Unfortunately, the perspective of the (president’s) report is unbalanced by its implication that pollution is the major cause of cancer, and by its dismissal of cancer prevention efforts aimed at the major known causes of cancer (tobacco, obesity, alcohol, infections, hormones, sunlight) as ‘focused narrowly.’”

Dr. Thun said the report restates hypotheses as if they were established facts, and reflects one side of a scientific debate that has continued for almost 30 years.

Some of that debate revolves around the precautionary principal that means when an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment action should be taken to prevent or minimize such harm, even in the absence of scientific certainty.

The prevailing regulatory approach in the United States is reactionary rather than precautionary, the Panel said.  Industry or other proponents of specific chemicals, devices, or activities do not have to prove their safety, and the public bears the burden of proving that a given environmental exposure is harmful.

There is no doubt that environmental pollution is critically important to the health of humans and the planet, Dr. Thun wrote. “However, it would be unfortunate if the effect of this report were to trivialize the importance of other modifiable risk factors that, at present, offer the greatest opportunity in preventing cancer.”

Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall Jr. of Howard University, chairman of the president’s panel told reporters the panel stood by the report. He said it was an evenhanded approach, and an evenhanded report. He said the panel didn’t make statements that shouldn’t be made.

The Panel’s report was heralded by environmental groups like Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families. For decades, these organizations have worked to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Some are proponents of a new bill called the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act.

The federal government’s Office of Minority Health states American Indian/Alaska Native men and women generally have lower cancer rates than the white populations. However, disparities exist in certain types of cancer.

From 2002-2006, American Indian/Alaska Native men were 60 percent more likely to have liver & IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) cancer as White men.

American Indian/Alaska Native men are 1.6 times as likely to have stomach cancer as White men, and are over twice as likely to die from the same disease.

American Indian/Alaska Native women are 2.5 times more likely to have, and to die from, liver & IBD cancer, as compared to White women.

American Indian/Alaska Native women are 40 percent more likely to have kidney/renal pelvis cancer as White women.

The Cancer Panel’s report also advises a public largely unaware of the dangers of the steps they can take in their own lives to reduce their exposure to potentially harmful substances like plastic food containers, pesticides, medical X-rays like CT scans, vehicle exhaust, industrial chemicals, and too much sun.

The use of cell phones and other wireless technology is of great concern. Cell phone use is relatively recent. There is no research to support a link between cell phones and cancer, but the research on cancer and other disease risk from contemporary wireless devices is extremely limited. The panel urged additional research on the possible links between electromagnetic fields and cancer, and identifying those mechanisms.

They recommend filtering tap water, and storing water in stainless steel, glass or other containers to avoid exposure to BPA and other plastic components that some studies have linked to health problems; buying meat free of antibiotics and added hormones, avoiding processed, charred and well-done meat; and buying produce grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, or washing it thoroughly to remove them.

Adults and children can reduce their exposure to electromagnetic energy by wearing a headset when using a cell phone, texting instead of talking, and keeping calls brief.

The Panel places a special emphasis on children who are “far more susceptible to damage from environmental carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting compounds than adults.” It recommends choosing foods, house and garden products, play spaces, toys, medicines, and medical tests that will minimize children’s exposure to toxics. Mothers and fathers should avoid exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and known or suspected carcinogens prior to a child’s conception and throughout pregnancy and early life, when risk of damage is greatest.

To download the report visit http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_Report_08-09_508.pdf.

Mother Earth Journal is a news project of environmental journalist Terri Hansen. Why don’t you follow Terri on Twitter? She’s on Facebook too.

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