U.S. Environmental Report on Cancer Decries Unrecognized Burden of Chemicals

The effects of environmental contaminants on cancer risk and mortality is greatly underestimated, concludes a 2008-2009 annual report by the President’s Cancer Panel.

“The panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated,” the panel stated in a report titled, “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now. “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 understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread.”

In the report, the authors gave bisphenol A (BPA) as an example of an ubiquitous chemical found in many consumer products that remains unregulated despite the growing link between BPA and several diseases, including various cancers.

“While BPA has received considerable media coverage, the public remains unaware of many common environmental carcinogens such as naturally occurring radon and manufacturing and combustion by-products such as formaldehyde and benzene. Most also are unaware that children are far more vulnerable to environmental toxins and radiation than adults,” stated the authors.

The low priority placed on this issue, along with inadequate funding for research has led to a serious dearth of data on environmental causes of cancer, the panel contends.

“There is a lack of emphasis on environmental research as a route to primary cancer prevention, particularly compared with research emphases on genetic and molecular mechanisms in cancer. At the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 budget for occupational and environmental carcinogenesis and environmental epidemiology (intramural and extramural combined) comprised no more than 14 percent of NCI’s nearly $4.83 billion budget.”

The panel urged President Obama and lawmakers to increase public awareness on harmful environmental exposures and how to prevent them.

“All levels of government, from federal to local, must work to protect every American from needless disease through rigorous regulation of environmental pollutants.

Environmental exposures that increase the national cancer burden do not represent a new front in the ongoing war on cancer. However, the grievous harm from this group of carcinogens has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program. The American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures.”

The report can be downloaded at http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_Report_08-09_508.pdf.