Doctors ‘identify the cause’ of rising rates of childhood cancers and autism cases as they issue urgent warning
Top doctors have called on the world to regulate toxic chemicals linked to a spike in childhood cancer and autism.
A group of scientists and doctors from 17 institutions in the US and Europe called for a crackdown on more than 350,000 synthetic chemicals and microplastics found in everything from clothing to cosmetics and food packaging.
The researchers said these chemicals have increased 50-fold worldwide since 1950 and are expected to triple by 2050.
Yet fewer than one in five substances are tested for toxicity, the team at the Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health wrote in a medical journal.
At the same time, there is an alarming trend: the number of cancer cases in children has increased by 35 percent over the past half century, despite the fact that the number of cancer cases in the elderly has decreased.
And the number of autism cases has tripled in the past decade.
The team also suggests that synthetic chemicals and microplastics may be responsible for a sharp increase in other diseases in children, such as asthma and obesity.
The researchers also called for stricter regulation of these chemicals and said manufacturers should be required to monitor their products, similar to prescription drugs, to detect long-term health problems.
The toxic chemicals have contaminated the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink and have been found in virtually every major human organ, including the brain, where they cause widespread inflammation.
A group of independent scientists called for stricter regulations on toxic chemicals linked to childhood cancer
The above graph from the Environmental Working Group shows a gradual increase in childhood cancers over the past few decades
Toxic chemicals such as BPA and PFAS, also called forever chemicals, have also been shown to disrupt the production of sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, leading to reproductive problems, potentially contributing to the fertility crisis in the West.
The authors wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine: ‘Protecting children from the dangers of chemicals requires a fundamental overhaul of current legislation and a restructuring of the chemical industry to prioritize children’s health.
‘Under the new laws, chemicals should not be considered harmless until they are proven to harm health.
‘Instead, chemicals and chemical-based products should only enter and remain on the market if their manufacturers can determine through rigorous, independent pre-market testing that they are not toxic at expected exposure levels .’
The researchers said toxic chemicals have been shown to cross the placenta, an organ that forms during pregnancy to provide nutrients and oxygen to the fetus.
They also noted that children are more vulnerable to permanent damage from synthetic toxins because their organs are not yet fully developed, making them less able to filter out toxins.
Younger children are also more likely to put toys and other objects laced with synthetic plastic in their mouths, increasing exposure.
Microplastics have also been found in mothers’ breast milk, making them more likely to be passed on to a child.
A research on children born in Sweden between 1960 and 2015, children whose mothers were exposed to heavy metal arsenic were found to be 38 percent more likely to develop childhood cancers such as lymphoma.
Furthermore, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that mothers exposed to PFAS during pregnancy had an increased risk of their children developing leukemia.
PFAS are microscopic substances that take thousands of years to break down in the environment or the human body, earning them the name “forever chemicals.”
Their main purpose is to repel water and oil, which makes nonstick cookware easier to clean and why certain jackets and tents can withstand rain.
The chemicals can seep into water during washing and end up in food if the packaging is made grease-proof or if the non-stick coating on pots and pans begins to deteriorate.
The team called for several measures to reduce children’s exposure to environmental toxins.
They proposed new laws that would require chemicals to be tested for safety and toxicity before being allowed on the market.
The team also called for mandatory chemical footprinting. Similar to calculating carbon footprint, this involves measuring the amount of chemicals produced by an individual or organization to help reduce exposure.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, lead author of the study and an epidemiologist at Boston College, said: ‘Pollution from synthetic chemicals and plastics is one of the great planetary challenges of our time.
‘It’s deteriorating quickly. The continued uncontrolled increase in the production of fossil carbon-based chemicals endangers the world’s children and threatens humanity’s reproductive capacity.”
The US also lags behind countries in Europe when it comes to regulating these chemicals.
For example, Europe has strict regulations against chemicals called phthalates, which are used in food packaging and cosmetic products.
The US still allows at least nine commercially used phthalates in cosmetic products, compared to just one in Europe.
Although Europe also regulates the levels of heavy metals such as lead in baby food, the FDA has no legally binding limits on this either.