{"id":555,"date":"2010-05-06T07:22:46","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T12:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=555"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:00:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:00:55","slug":"yes-virginia-and-all-49-other-states-chemicals-do-cause-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2010\/05\/06\/yes-virginia-and-all-49-other-states-chemicals-do-cause-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Virginia (and all 49 other states), chemicals do cause cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please help me welcome to\u00a0the true mainstream of scientific and medical thought the seemingly radical yet commonsense notion that chemical exposures are a significant contributor to cancer, many types of which are rising in incidence even as overall rates decline.<\/p>\n

This morning, the President’s Cancer Panel released its 2010 report [available here<\/a>].\u00a0 The report is\u00a0remarkable not so much for its core finding that chemical exposures are a major factor in human cancer, but rather because of its source —\u00a0an authoritative and bipartisan body — and because of the strong linkages it makes to our failed chemicals policies.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Failed chemicals policies<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can’t say it any better than has Nicholas Kristof in this morning’s New York Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The report blames weak laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority, as well as the existing regulatory presumption that chemicals are safe unless strong evidence emerges to the contrary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety,\u201d the report says. It adds: \u201cMany known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those arguments should sound very familiar to readers of this blog, but are all the more notable coming from a panel whose members were appointed by President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n

The report paves the way to accelerate the shift in the way we think about and try to address cancers, from one that has focused almost exclusively on better diagnosis and treatment, to one that seeks to reduce and prevent <\/em>cancer from developing in the first place.<\/p>\n

From every possible perspective — including reducing human pain and trauma and reducing the burgeoning costs of health care — seeking to reduce the preventable contributors to cancer, chemical exposures among them, \u00a0is the most prudent course.<\/p>\n

With certain cancers — most notably childhood leukemias and brain cancer —\u00a0rising at rates over the last several decades that cannot be explained by genetics (humans don’t evolve that fast) or better diagnosis, it is time we turned our chemicals policies on their heads:<\/p>\n