Cancer and your children!

[Guest guest]

" Orlando Sentinel Newspaper " March 04, 2003

 

Cancer and your children!

3/13/03

 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Proposes Cancer-risk

Guidelines for Kids.

" The government acknowledged that children face a greater risk than

adults from Carcinogens. "

 

By Stephanie Erickson

Sentinel Staff Writer

 

After years of study, the federal government has formally

acknowledged that children need extra protection from cancer-causing

chemicals found on everything from playground equipment to fruit.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed tougher

Environmental guidelines that take into account the risk children

face from certain carcinogens. The guidelines could be made final

later this year, bringing major changes in the regulations of

certain pollutants. The guidelines could also bring about strong

recommendations for parents when it comes to keeping their children

safe from certain chemicals.

 

Orlando-area physicians, along with the Environmental Working Group

a Washington-based research and advocacy organization, said Monday

that Parents can help protect their children by washing raw foods or

buying organic foods that have not been exposed to pesticides and

insecticides, and by washing the hands of children who have played

on wood products treated with arsenic.

 

Parents also should avoid giving children charbroiled meats, run tap

water through a filter to reduce levels of disinfectant byproducts

and avoid using household cleaners around children. While it is no

surprise to physicians that young children are more vulnerable than

adults, the EPA 's guidelines have never before differentiated

between the two groups when assessing the danger from chemicals. " I

think it is about time, " said Dr. Divya-Devi Joshi, an oncologist

with Nemours Children's Clinic in Orlando. " Too much information

available treats children as if they are little adults, and they are

not. "

 

According to the EPA review, gene-harming chemicals that cause

cancer are up to 65 times more potent when exposures occur during

childhood. The report also shows that babies and toddlers have a 10

times greater cancer risk than adults when exposed to certain gene-

damaging chemicals. The exposure to harmful pollutants is greater in

children in part, because relative to their size, children eat,

drink and breathe more than adults. " More importantly, the

metabolism in children is very different, " Joshi said. The main

organ for detoxification is the liver, and the livers in infants are

quite sluggish. "

 

For that reason, small amounts of harmful pollutants are likely to

affect children more than adults.