Finally, the U.S. government’s talking prevention.
Real
prevention. Not a scan to detect a disease already growing in your body,
but rather, the idea of reducing exposure to environmental toxins—like
chemicals used in farming and in plastics—to reduce the risk of cancer.
The newly released
Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk, What We Can Do Now
report from the President’s Cancer Panel urges the public to eat foods
grown without chemical pesticides, fertilizers, hormones, and
antibiotics, while suggesting practical advice such as not heating
plastic in the microwave and not using water bottles that may contain BPA, or bisphenol A, a chemical linked to cancer, reproductive problems, and heart disease.

It’s likely industrial foodmakers, plastic makers, and biotech
companies aren’t happy about the report. In fact, there were rumors
flying just last week that the food industry threatened to block
legislation that would ban BPA from food packaging. But with this
report, for the first time in a long time, observers say it feels like
human health may come before corporate interests. “This is an enormously
important document from a highly credible source. For the past 30
years, there has been systematic effort in the U.S. to downplay the
importance of environmental factors in carcinogenesis,” says
internationally recognized public and preventive health expert Phil
Landrigan, MD, professor and chair of the department of community and
preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
“There has been disproportionate emphasis on lifestyle factors and on
cancer screening, and not enough attention paid to discovering and
controlling environmental exposures.”

THE DETAILS: The landmark report, issued by LaSalle
Leffall, Jr., MD, an oncologist and professor of surgery at Howard
University, and Margaret L. Kripke, MD, an immunologist at the M.D.
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston (both of these doctors were appointed
by former President George W. Bush,
New York Times columnist
Nicholas D. Kristof points out), states that the U.S. government has
grossly underestimated the number of cancers caused by environmental
toxins. “This is a groundbreaking report—and it’s about time,” says
Diana Zuckerman, PhD, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families and StopCancerFund.org. “It’s time to focus as much effort on preventing cancer as we do on trying to find a cure.”

The report also discussed the effect of exposure on unborn children,
who are “pre-polluted” with hundreds of chemicals before they even leave
the womb. Many scientists say exposure to harmful chemicals during this
period can set a child up for lifelong hormone disruption and other
health problems. In a letter to President Obama, the panel stated, “The
American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with
myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures. The Panel urges you
most strongly to 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.”