Confronting the Toxics that Cause Childhood Illnesses in Tucson and Nationally
Tucson, Ariz., May 20, 2010. One out of three American children suffers from a serious chronic illness, harmed by the inescapable toxins in our everyday lives, and the incidence continues to climb. This extraordinary statistic comes from the just-released book Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins Are Making Our Children Chronically Ill, written by renowned investigative journalist, Alice Shabecoff and her husband Philip. A leading cause of this epidemic, the Shabecoffs point out, are the toxins in the 27 trillion pounds of chemicals our country makes or imports every year.
Earlier this week the presidential advisory panel on cancer released a report finding that cancers from environmental exposures have been “grossly underestimated.”
The good news: Congress has just begun work on a milestone new bill to test and get rid of the harmful chemicals found in our food, water, air and household products.
The National Disease Clusters Alliance, in collaboration with Families Against Cancer & Toxics, will convene a unique Tucson-based event on June 7th to present information about the extent and causes of clusters of childhood diseases, from leukemia to autism, birth defects, and asthma. It will investigate both the national evidence linking environmental hazards to epidemic of children’s diseases, and of local evidence from Tucson and other community clusters. ‘Clusters’ are significantly higher than expected cases of a disease in a geographic area. Adding to this exploration, scientists Mark Witten and Paul Sheppard, from the University of Arizona, will discuss their unique research into a nationally-significant example of a cluster of leukemia among children and brain cancer among adults in Fallon, Nevada.
The Safe Chemicals Bill now under Congressional discussion is critical to this discussion because it will identify areas that are environmental “hot spots” bearing a disproportion burden of exposure to disease-causing agents. This bill charges EPA to identify and respond.
Cancer, once unheard of in childhood, has leapt 67% over just the past two generations. Autism has skyrocketed by 300% and asthma is up 141% since 1980, the Shabecoffs found through their seven years of research. The National Academy of Sciences recently said that one out of two pregnancies will end either in fetal death or a less than healthy child.
“You don’t have to look far for the culprit,” Alice Shabecoff says. “Look at the hormone disruptors in our skin cream, the formaldehyde in the baby’s crib, the radioactive waste in the water our kids drink, the arsenic in their chicken nuggets, the haze in the air. This generation is the first to be raised in a truly toxified world, exposed before conception, in the womb, and every day since.”
Poisoned for Profit asserts that corporations often knowingly pollute, then hide the evidence with the collusion of scientists-for-hire, p.r. companies, and lawyers, while the government looks the other way. They frame their book as a crime story. “Companies that pollute literally get away with murder,” they conclude.
“More than just an immediate threat to today’s children, the toxification of the environment is as urgent a threat to the future of humanity as global warming, though it’s as yet mostly gone unnoticed,” Shabecoff concludes.
The National Disease Clusters Alliance (NDCA) was formed in 2005 out of the urgent need to identify and respond to emerging disease clusters. NDCA, headquartered in Tucson, is made up of a unique cross-section of representatives across the country from non-profit organizations, community activists, scientists and academia. Currently, there are no government agencies that either track or respond sufficiently to disease clusters in communities.
Trevor Schaefer, a cancer survivor and the NDCA Youth Ambassador, will discuss the need for societal action to not merely treat childhood cancer, but to prevent it. He and his mother Charlie Smith and Dr. Mark Witten met with Sen. Barbara Boxer and EPA Chief Lisa Jackson last Summer to describe the current failures to prevent and respond to disease clusters. This meeting was instrumental in inspiring language authorizing the EPA to identify and assist areas that are suffer “hot spots” of disease.
“We are suffering an epidemic of epidemics, with an almost constant drumbeat of alarming health reports.” NDCA executive director Terry Nordbrock explains. “The time is right for us to join together and demand strong precautionary action to protect children’s health.”
If you go:
Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins Are Making Our Children Chemically Ill
Book party and fundraiser
Sponsored by the National Disease Clusters Alliance
Monday June 7, 2010 6:30-8:30pm
At the Friends Meetinghouse 931 N 5th Ave, Tucson AZ
• Keynote speaker Alice Shabecoff, New York Times journalist and renowned author
• Terry Nordbrock, MPH, NDCA Executive Director
• Dr. Mark Witten, pediatric toxicologist
• Dr. Paul Sheppard, dendrochronologist (tree ring expert)
• Trevor Schaefer, childhood cancer survivor
No charge to attend.
Wine & Hors D’Oeuvres
Silent auction, book sales and call for donations to benefit NDCA.
For more details call 877-676-NDCA (6322)
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