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Today, Healthy Child is celebrating the landmark report released by The President’s Cancer Panel, detailing the exposure of harmful chemicals in our environment as an influential contributor to cancer and calling for action from our government. “It’s official: we can’t win the war on cancer until we get serious about chemicals,” said Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH, Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Panel, which reports directly to President Obama, said in its opening letter:

[T]he true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated. With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or under-studied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. . . . Most [Americans] are unaware that children are far more vulnerable to environmental toxins and radiation than adults. Efforts to inform the public of such harmful exposures and how to prevent them must be increased. All levels of government, from federal to local, must work to protect every American from needless disease through rigorous regulation of environmental pollutants.

What’s particularly exciting about this announcement is where it’s coming from. “It’s striking that this report emerges not from the fringe but from the mission control of mainstream scientific and medical thinking, the President’s Cancer Panel,” says Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. This elite panel is made up of three people, two of which were appointed by George W. Bush (the third seat is currently vacant) and their recommendations have the power to create a bipartisan, cultural shift – this time, towards living less toxic.

These new recommendations come at a crucial time. According to Jeanne Rizzo, President of the Breast Cancer Fund, “[a]fter 40 years of war on cancer, this year more than half a million Americans are expected to die from cancer - about 1,500 a day - and nearly 1.5 million new cases will be diagnosed. That doesn't sound like success on the battlefield. But today, with the release of the President's Cancer Panel report…we may see a fundamental shift toward a winning strategy.”

The report’s authors pay particular attention to special vulnerabilities of children and developing fetuses saying “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted,’” and “both mothers and fathers should avoid exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals and known or suspected carcinogens prior to child’s conception and throughout pregnancy and early life, when risk of damage is greatest.” Around 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, and Leukemia, brain cancer, and other childhood cancers have increased more than 20% since 1975. This extraordinary document sheds light on the dangers of approaching chemical safety regulations without factoring in the heightened risks a chemical may pose to our children.

It also offers recommendations on how to create a healthy environment for yourself and your children, many of which reflect our 5 Easy Steps program. The report says, “[t]o the extent possible, parents and child care providers should choose foods, house and garden products, play spaces, toys, medical tests that will minimize children’s exposure to toxics.”

Rather than wait for more evidence linking cancer to toxic chemicals, the document encourages reform to begin immediately. Americans are now poised with an opportunity to rethink how we approach cancer and what preventative steps everyone should be taking.

Healthy Child is thrilled that such an influential panel is finally addressing the risks of harmful chemicals. The report gives long overdue criticism to weak laws, hodgepodge authority, and failed regulation. It could not come at a better time. Last month, both the House and Senate unveiled a massive revamp to the Toxic Substance Control Act, which has not been updated since it was first passed in 1976. The new “Safe Chemicals Act of 2010” requires safety testing of all industrial chemicals, and puts the burden on the industry to prove that chemicals are safe in order to stay on the market.

You can urge Congress to pass strong TSCA reform legislation. Click here to take action and visit Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families to learn more about this critical issue.

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