Somewhat lost in the media spotlight, due to the horrific situation in the Gulf of Mexico, has been the 2008–2009 Annual Report from the President’s Cancer Panel, REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL CANCER RISK What We Can Do Now, published by Suzanne H. Reuben in April 2010 in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute.
According to the report, the entire U.S. population is exposed on a daily basis to numerous agricultural chemicals, some of which also are used in residential and commercial landscaping. Many of these chemicals have known or suspected carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting properties. Pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides) approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contain nearly 900 active ingredients, many of which are toxic. Many of the solvents, fillers, and other chemicals listed as inert ingredients on pesticide labels also are toxic, but are not required to be tested for their potential to cause chronic diseases such as cancer. In addition to pesticides, agricultural fertilizers and veterinary pharmaceuticals are major contributors to water pollution, both directly and as a result of chemical processes that form toxic by-products when these substances enter the water supply.
According to the report, the entire U.S. population is exposed on a daily basis to numerous agricultural chemicals, some of which also are used in residential and commercial landscaping. Many of these chemicals have known or suspected carcinogenic or endocrine-disrupting properties. Pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides) approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contain nearly 900 active ingredients, many of which are toxic. Many of the solvents, fillers, and other chemicals listed as inert ingredients on pesticide labels also are toxic, but are not required to be tested for their potential to cause chronic diseases such as cancer. In addition to pesticides, agricultural fertilizers and veterinary pharmaceuticals are major contributors to water pollution, both directly and as a result of chemical processes that form toxic by-products when these substances enter the water supply.
Opportunities for eliminating or minimizing cancer-causing and cancer-promoting environmental exposures must be acted upon to protect all Americans, but especially children. They are at special risk due to their smaller body mass and rapid physical development, both of which magnify their vulnerability to known or suspected carcinogens, including radiation. Numerous environmental contaminants can cross the placental barrier; to a disturbing extent, babies are born “pre-polluted.” Children also can be harmed by genetic or other damage resulting from environmental exposures sustained by the mother (and in some cases, the father).
This is where we, as a people, need to not wait for the government or corporate America to save us, we need to work diligently to save ourselves AND our children. The fact that the government is recognizing these issues and presenting them to the President to open national debate is a step in the right direction. The panel recognizes the burgeoning number and complexity of known or suspected environmental carcinogens compel them to act to protect public health, and recognize that even though they may lack irrefutable proof of harm, action is possible.
Possible? Yes. Quick? Doubtful. For decades environmental health, including cancer risk, has been largely excluded from overall national policy on protecting and improving the health of Americans. And while there are many opportunities for harmful environmental exposures, ample opportunities also exist for intervention, change, and prevention to protect the health of current and future generations and reduce the national burden of cancer. It just isn't happening quickly. And it might not happen at all.
Personal responsibility is key, choose what you will and will not allow into your home and into your body, and just keep hoping that maybe, just maybe some of these known carcinogenic agricultural chemicals and pesticides can someday be completely removed from our experience, here in the U.S., and around the world.
Posts
To expand a little on what Melissa is saying here, the chemical toxins these studies are referring to are in literally every breath we take, and every bite of food we eat, and off gassing from all the plastics we have in our home, even most carpets and clothing if they contain anything synthetic. We store our food in plastic, not to mention the pollution from factory farms, industry and utilities.
ReplyDeleteWe are literally swimming in a sea of free estrogen, and the effects are staggering, and further reaching than most are willing to even think about. And in a very real sense we have made this chemical bed, and now we are having to lay in it.
These chemicals regardless of what their origin, mostly all mimic the action of free estrogen once inside the body, and this is what they mean when they say" endocrine disruption". These xeno-estrogens disrupt the delicate balance of progesterone to estrogen, the two hormones that control the endocrine system.
The myriad problems this imbalance creates is the subject of books not blog comments but the one sentence version is that the body was never designed to make enough progesterone to balance that much estrogen. This is the core of the situation we find ourselves in.
Look at infertility rates, miscarriage rats, the ratio of people today with gender confusion verses even 20-30 years ago, and these are all tied to the BPA and thousands of other endocrine disrupting chemicals we are exposed to without knowing it everyday.
I too pray that one day enough of us wake up and change this, but I also know that we can make a difference where we live, every day, It starts with you and me, in the example we set when we say, no, it stops here today with me. I will not buy plastics when I can avoid it. I will not put chemicals on my body, or in it. We can change the world by changing our response to it. When we do this we speak with our dollars. If no one is buying the toxic crap, they will stop making it. It's about education. If the masses are aware they are being poisoned, they will make moves to reduce their exposure, which will reduce all of our exposure. See it's about all of us, together being the changes we wish to see.
The rule of thumb for me is, if I won't eat it, I won't put it on my skin either. Pretty simple rule, but sometimes a challenge in application. For more info on how to avoid chemical exposure, and detoxify the ones you already have, see my nutrition coaching page for the different programs I offer.
I saw this right after I wrote this comment, and thought it sums it all up.
ReplyDelete"You must take personal responsibility.
You cannot change the circumstances,
the seasons, or the wind, but
you can change yourself"
- Jim Rohn