Why you should Adopt the Precautionary Principle at home (Abridged from an Article : Time to Heed the Evidence By Sean Palfrey, MD) We can work on and pass meaningful Safe Chemical Act reform and build in proactive responses to new evidence of medical danger whenever it appears which can stop jeopardizing the health of our children’s grandchildren. Abridged from an Article : Time to Heed the Evidence By Sean Palfrey, MDTwo generations ago, Rachel Carson woke us up, and her book and others sounded a clarion call that should have changed the country’s laissez faire attitude about inventing, using, and discarding chemicals into our air, water, and soil before we studied them to reassure ourselves that they were harmless
A policy paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics explains that there the risks of different chemicals to children, and that the government should intervene to keep dangerous chemicals off the market. Writes Dr. Jerome Paulson, part of the AAP’s Council on Environmental Health.”Children are not little adults,” Paulson, of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., told Reuters Health. “Their bodies are different and their behaviors are different. That means that their exposures to chemicals in the environment are different, and the way their bodies (break down) those chemicals are different.” Kids may be especially vulnerable to chemicals during important periods in development, when their brains and bodies are changing quickly,” Paulson added.
Last spring, the at the National Cancer Institute President’s Cancer Panel, a group of expert physicians, public health and policy experts, released a report entitled Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk which stridently warned that the scientific and regulatory communities in this country were underestimating the number of environmentally-induced cancers caused by industrial and commercial chemicals. Of the 80,000 chemicals now in industrial use in the US only about 200 have been studied for carcinogenicity. Few studies relate in any way to humans, and none to fetuses, infants, and children, the highest risk populations. Because few have been peer reviewed and many have been performed under conditions where potential conflicts of interest exist, there is much controversy over the accuracy and relevance of the data.
Studies have shown that all newborn infants’ cord bloods appear to contain measurable levels of many industrial chemicals previously taken in by their mothers. Some countries, and groups like the EU, have espoused the “precautionary principle,” requiring manufacturers and industries to show that new chemicals they want to use are generally harmless before they incorporate them into products or spill them out into the environment. But, just as it took the US 50-100 years to ban lead in house paint, it is taking many decades for our commerce-driven society to respond to warning signs that we might be poisoning ourselves in the relentless pursuit of profit.
We should be concerned that environmental toxins may be causing the increased incidence of asthma, autism, ADHD, and other diseases that seem to be rising more rapidly than we can be explain on the basis of infectious diseases, behavioral changes, or parenting patterns. These chemicals enter our bodies through our skin, our lungs, and our gastrointestinal tract. We then pass them on to our children and they, too, build up levels because the chemicals cannot be metabolized or excreted.
Therefore we can petition our government to adopt the precautionary principle the way the EU and Canada are doing and require at least rudimentary safety studies on new chemicals, especially pesticides, before they are allowed to enter our environment.
As well as Sarasota County, the USCJ, Temple Beth Sholom, City of Sarasota Government have all adopted the Precautionary Principle. Sarasota County Government decided that citizens should be advised how to make best management decisions based on the precautionary approach when using chemicals around children. Citizens can determine the “relative safety” of chemicals by requesting the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) of each pesticide before approving the use of the chemical.
We can work on and pass meaningful Safe Chemical Act reform and build in proactive responses to new evidence of medical danger whenever it appears which can stop jeopardizing the health of our children’s grandchildren. Abridged from an Article : Time to Heed the Evidence By Sean Palfrey, MD
For more information visit the educational website for APP Advocating Precautionary Principle https://appprecautionaryprinciple.wordpress.com
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