The following is a condensed and re-edited version of the transcript of the PBS TV-program "NOW", segment: Kids and Chemicals, presented by Bill Moyer and aired on May 10, 2002.
A new era of scientific research has dawned that will take 15 - 20 years to complete. Researchers are concerned about a constantly growing number of children being diagnosed with diseases uncommon for their age. The idea is to prepare a new report on the search for everyday chemicals that may be harming our kids.
Researchers are saying :"There are alarming signals that something is going wrong. They are like fingerprints at the scene of a crime."
What Are The Clues?
- The terrible increase in the incidence of childhood cancers.
- The growing incidence of asthma in more and more children.
- The rising incidence of children with brain and developmental disorders.
What Are The Signals?
Right now (May 2002) there's a medical mystery going on in Fallon, Nevada. It's a
cancer epidemic on children, ...a cancer cluster. No one knows what caused it. Whatever it was left no visible tracks to follow, but
...it resulted in Leukemia (blood cancer). In 20 years the county of 24,000 people had recorded only one case of childhood
leukemia. Now, they've had 15 in just 5 years! ...Alarming. The environmental health division researching this phenomenon hadn't taken on a
cancer cluster in 20 years! The team consists of top health researchers, medical groups,
patients, families, community activists, residents as study subjects. Among them are:
What Are The Big Questions?
A Medical Mystery
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ERLA'S NOTE:
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Approaches
Environmental epidemiology (the investigation of epidemic factors in the environment) is a
very slow process. It's much more difficult than investigating infectuous diseases. With
environmental exposures, it takes a long time before the symptoms are felt or become visible.
Many people I talk to have the false impression that if they don't feel sick that the toxins in our air, food and water supplies aren't harming them. "It doesn't affect me," they say.
...If only they knew...
According to scientists, the most important clues are hiding in the kids' bodies. And there is a lack of good measuring standards about what is in people.
They plan to focus on finding out how much environmental toxins are present in the body at any given time. Medical researchers had never taken this approach before.
In the past, they looked at what's in the air, what's in the food and in the water, because the ability to actually look at chemicals in a human-being is a much more complex science.
Most people have no clue they've been involutarily exposed to seriously harmful and potentially life-threatening chemicals.
Researchers are now gathering data from hundreds of children where traces of chemicals are routinely present -- the home, the classroom and the play-ground. They are trying to understand what chemicals children are exposed to, how much they are exposed to, and how that exposure occurs.
Medical scientists today are focusing on all areas of involuntary exposure, things that they or the public don't have any control over.
Until Now, What Facts Have Actually Been Found...If Any?
In the last 40 years, more than 75,000 synthetic chemicals and metals have been put to use in the US. Chemicals that were intended to make our lives easier and better. They kill insects and weeds, clean clothes and carpets, unclog our drains, create produce and lawns pretty as a picture.
But most of these chemicals have never been tested for their toxic effects on children. And scientist are concerned that recent increases in childhood illnesses like asthma and cancer, as well as learning disabilities, may be related to the environment -- to what kids eat, drink and breathe.
As a partner in the Neways mission, I've found out that there are tons of independant studies from private sources available on this issue. And Neways and Dr. Epstein (who's also the founder and the Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition) have gone even further to study -- and do something about -- the harm caused by overexposure to harmful chemicals in everyday personal care and cosmetic products.
- There's been a broad increase in the incidence of various forms of childhood cancer in America -- leukemia among them -- that has been going on for the past 25 - 30 years.
- 50 - 60 years ago, the major diseases in children in this country were infectuous diseases. Today the major causes of illness in kids are chronic diseases.
- Today, asthma is the leading cause of admission of children to hospitals and it's the leading cause of school absenteeism.
- Today, cancer -- second to injuries -- is the leading killer of children in the United States.
- Today, developmental and learning disabilities are becoming much too common (ADD, dyslexia, autism, etc.)
- Of the 3,000 or so high production volume chemicals in this country today, only 43% have been even minimally tested. Of these, only about 10% have been thoroughly tested to examine their potential effects on children's health and development.
- Kids are more heavily exposed pound for pound. Their bodies are smaller but they are exposed to the same amount of chemicals adults are. Some-times more. In addition, developing fetus and young children are particularly sensitive to a variety of toxic chemicals.
- So far, research on pregnant women have revealed that every woman has been exposed to carcinogens that come from burning fuels (smoke, fumes from trucks, etc.), but also -- may I add -- from carcinogens that come from daily use household, personal care and beauty products (cleaners, toilet sprays, soaps, shampoo's, toothpaste, make-up, etc.). Dr. Sam Epstein, from the Cancer Prevention Coalition, published in 2001 a book dealing with carcinogens from cosmetic sources, it's titled: "Unreasonable Risk".
- The fetus does not have the same mature defense mechanism that adults have and their systems and organs are developing very rapidly. So they're more vulnerable.
- Scientists already know certain chemicals can cross the placenta and reach the developing fetus. If the child's exposure occurs at a critical window in early development, even a relatively small exposure can have devastating long-term consequences (miscarriages, birthdefects, brain function disorders and behavioral problems).
- Many children being studied today, from their birth, seem to have some either mild or severe developmental delay.
- Even today, lead remains the #1 environmental threat to children's health.
- Around 35% of the schools test positive for lead. A lot of lead can make you retarded. "Just some lead" can make you dumb! Lead can leave its marks on a child's brain, even before there are obvious symptoms or signs (ADHD, violence, aggression, learning disabilities, etc.)
- There are no laws to protect citizens from the chemical industry. The Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency don't have any authority to do anything to the company if they're out of compliance.
- Don't be fooled, just because there are no smoke stacks visible around us, or because you live a long way away from the source of these chemicals, doesn't mean that nature won't bring them to you in some way. When a close look is taken at what's in people's blood, what's in breast milk, what's in the urine, the residues can be found.
- Today, no woman has uncontaminated breast milk on this planet. E.g. our food contains trace amounts of PCBs (a chemical banned long ago), pesticides, antibiotics, dioxins, methylmercury. Also, carcinogens and toxins in our everyday personal care and beauty products access the body through the skin and build up in precious and vital body tissues. And breast milk, which is nourishment distilled from all that we ingest or absorb, will contain levels of toxic chemicals several-fold higher per ounce than was present during ingestion or absorption. These are chemicals that accumulate in all of us, in today's increasingly toxic world.
- The more investigators look, the more they're finding traces of dangerous chemicals everywhere. They are in our homes and in our children. And there's still a lot these experts of traditional medicine don't know.
- Scientists suspect that children exposed to pesticides, etc. are at greater risk of childhood cancer than other children.
- Experience has taught us that even when the science is sound and the laws are in place, it is up to the community to get results that will lead to improved health standards.
Mainstream medical doctors may not be aware of the full-range of dangers connected to exposure to everyday chemicals in our environment. They hardly have enough time to catch up on all the research.
As to breast feeding -- in spite of the concentrated levels of toxins -- it is still absolutely the very best source of nutrition for a human infant. Why? Because it has factors that can't possibly be replaced by formula or cow's milk (which, by the way, is also contaminated anyway).
Hopefully, 10 or 20 years from now, we'll have a cleaner, healthier, environment in which children are safer.
Now What?... 10 to 20 Years is a Long Time to Wait!
Scientists agree that -- in our American society -- we have to drastically reduce the use of
toxic chemicals that have the potential to accumulate in the body and in breast milk. Also, we
have to do our best to reduce our children's exposure at home.
ADVICE from the researchers:
- Eliminate products with harmful ingredients from the home as much as you can.
- Buy organic foods and milk, and support farmers who don't use pesticides.
- Take action: check out what kind of chemicals are being used in day care centers and schools.
Read the full transcript of this PBS "Kids and Chemicals" segment.
Learn what you can do today to protect your child from toxic invasion... Believe it or not, Change starts in your bathroom!
Check out the most common harmful ingredients you need to beware of in everyday personal care products.
And, use products that help you:
- detoxify your body from the terribly harmful toxins that are increasingly present in our food, air and water supplies
- supercharge the immune system to fight toxin related diseases
- promote cellular regeneration and slow down the aging process
my Neways store (click on the "Products" icon)
...and especially check out the product D-Toxarate, listed under the heading Nutritionals, under the subtitle "Anti-Aging."
Hope you've appreciated reading this research and that it helps you to make better choices.
Erla Charles
erla@non-toxic-n-natural.com