A Report from the President's Cancer Panel on Environmental Risks

I'm so excited about a report that was published this year titled, "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now".   A direct quote from the report that hits home for me is, "Children are at special risk for cancer due to environmental contaminants and should be protected."

I feel that this report legitimizes many of our concerns about environmental toxins.  It was published earlier this year (2010) by the President's Cancer Panel.  Both members of the panel, one medical doctor and one epidemiologist, were appointed by our former president George W. Bush.   Their progressive recommendations, which include to eat organic and be mindful of the use of plastics, will hopefully be better accepted by conservatives who are often less eco-conscious (please forgive me if you are conservative and eco-conscious, I know the combo does exist!)

The report incorporates at all the most up-to-date research on cancer and analyzes it all to make specific recommendations related to prevention.  I'm super excited about what this report may to do push everyone to be more concerned about what toxins in our environment are doing to our health.

Sometimes I get so frustrated that people are in the dark-ages when it comes to chemicals in our lives!  This report relieves some of that frustration for me :)

You can see the report in it's entirety at http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/annualReports/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_Report_08-09_508.pdf

A wonderful op-ed (much better than mine!) on this report was published in the NY Times back in May -- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=1

FYI:

The President’s Cancer Panel 

LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S., Chair 

Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery 

Howard University College of Medicine 

Washington, DC  20059 

Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D. 

Vivian L. Smith Chair and Professor Emerita 

The University of Texas  

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center 

Houston, TX  77030