A landmark report says the government has been grossly underestimating the effect of environmental toxins on our cancer risk.
By Leah Zerbe
Eat pesticide-free organic food, drink from stainless steel or glass containers, and never heat plastic in the microwave or dishwasher.
RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—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."
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