Children are suffering and dying from diseases that emerging scientific research has linked to exposure to chemicals, findings that require an urgent revamp of laws around the world, according to a new report. New paper Published on Wednesday in New England Journal of Medicine (star).
The research, by more than 20 leading public health researchers, including one from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and one from the United Nations, establishes a “large body of evidence” linking multiple childhood illnesses to synthetic chemicals, and recommends a series of Of evidence. From aggressive measures to try to better protect children.
Linda Birnbaum, former director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the study, said this study is a “call to arms” to formulate “a real commitment to the health of our children.”
In conjunction with the paper’s release, some of the study’s authors are helping with the launch Institute of Preventive Health To support the recommendations contained in the paper and to help finance the implementation of reforms. The key player in launching the institute is Anne Robertsonvice president of Robertson Stephens Wealth Management and a member of the family that built RJ Reynolds Tobacco.
The research points to data showing the global stock of approximately 350,000 industrial chemicals, chemical mixtures, and plastics, most of which are derived from fossil fuels. Production has expanded 50-fold since 1950, and is currently increasing by about 3% per year — and is expected to triple by 2050, the paper notes.
Meanwhile, noncommunicable diseases, including many that research shows can be caused by synthetic chemicals, are on the rise among children and have become the leading cause of death and illness among children, the authors write.
Despite the links, which the authors say “continue to be discovered with alarming frequency,” there are very few restrictions on such chemicals, and there is no post-marketing surveillance for long-term adverse health effects.
“The evidence is so overwhelming and the effects of synthetic chemicals are so devastating for children that inaction is no longer an option,” said Daniele Mandrioli, co-author of the study and director of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center in Ramazzini. Institute in Italy. “Our article highlights the need for a paradigm shift in chemical testing and regulation to protect children’s health.”
The paper notes that such a transition would require changes in laws, restructuring the chemical industry and redirecting financial investments similar to what has been undertaken in efforts to transition to clean energy.
The paper identifies several troubling data points for trend lines over the past 50 years. They include a 35% rise in childhood cancer rates, a doubling of male reproductive birth defects, and neurodevelopmental disorders affecting one in six children. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in 1 in 36 children, the prevalence of childhood asthma has tripled, and the prevalence of childhood obesity has nearly quadrupled, leading to a “sharp increase in type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents.” .
“Children’s health is declining as a priority,” he said. Tracy Woodruffco-author of the paper and director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. “We have slowly neglected this. The clinical and public health community and the government have failed them.”
The authors cite research documenting how “even brief, low-level exposure to toxic chemicals during early vulnerable periods” in a child’s development can cause illness and disability. The paper states that prenatal exposure is particularly dangerous.
“Illnesses resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals in childhood can lead to enormous economic losses, including health care expenses and productivity losses resulting from decreased cognitive function, physical disabilities, and premature death,” the study notes. “The chemical industry largely shifts these costs offshore and imposes them on governments and taxpayers.”
This paper challenges the U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1977 and its amendments, arguing that although the law was enacted to protect the public health from “unreasonable risks” posed by chemicals, it does not provide EPA with With the necessary powers to actually fulfill this obligation.
Instead, the way the law is implemented assumes that all manufactured chemicals are harmless and beneficial and burdens government regulatory agencies with identifying and evaluating chemicals.
“Identified risks are often ignored or downplayed, and the chemicals responsible are allowed to remain in use with no or limited restrictions,” the document states. “In the nearly 50 years since TSCA was passed, only a few chemicals have been banned or restricted in U.S. markets.”
Chemical control is more stringent in the EU, but still fails to provide adequate protection, relies heavily on test data provided by the chemical industry and provides multiple exceptions, the paper says.
The paper’s authors describe a new global “precautionary” approach that would allow chemical products to be brought to market only if their manufacturers can prove through independent testing that the chemicals are not toxic at expected exposure levels.
“The core of our recommendation is that chemicals should be tested before they are put on the market, and should not be presumed innocent and then discovered to be harmful years and decades later,” said the co-author who runs the program for a global audience. Health and Public Welfare at Boston College. “Every chemical must be tested before it is put on the market.”
In addition, companies will be required to conduct post-marketing surveillance to look for long-term adverse effects of their products.
This could include biomonitoring for chemical exposures that are more prevalent in the general population, Mandrioli said. Disease registries will play another essential role, but these approaches must be integrated with toxicity studies that can “predict and rapidly anticipate effects that might have a very long response time in humans, such as cancer,” he said. He said that population groups with increased incidence of cancer, especially when they are children, should trigger immediate preventive action.
The key to achieving all of this, the research suggests, is a legally binding global chemicals treaty, which falls under the auspices of the United Nations and requires a “permanent, independent scientific political body to provide expert guidance.”
The paper recommends requiring chemical companies and consumer product companies to disclose information about the potential risks of the chemicals used and to report on the inventory and use of chemicals of “high concern.”
“Pollution by synthetic chemicals and plastics represents a major planetary challenge that is rapidly worsening,” the study said. “Continued, uncontrolled increases in the production of fossil carbon-based chemicals are endangering the world’s children and humanity’s ability to reproduce. Inaction on chemicals is no longer an option.”
Landrigan said he knows the effort faces difficulties and may be especially difficult given the incoming Trump administration, which is widely expected to favor deregulatory policies.
“This is a difficult subject. It’s an elephant,” he said. “But it’s what has to be done.”
This story was published in association with New LEDa journalism project for the Environmental Working Group