Environmental Cancer Risks

President Barack Obama recently released  a report on chemicals and cancer, putting this quote by Sandra Steingraber in bold type: 

 “I believe it is time for a new human experiment. The old experiment is that we have sprayed pesticides which are inherent poisons . . . throughout our shared environment. They’re in our amniotic fluid . . .They’re in our mothers’ milk. What is the burden of cancer that we can attribute to these poisons in our agricultural system? We won’t really know the answer until we do the other experiment, which is to take the poisons out of our food chain, embrace a different kind of agriculture, and see what happens.”

Following the report’s release, new agencies have been covering the report and its suggestions. Listen to Sandra Steingraber discuss the President’s bold move forward on NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook here.  

[Photo is a page from the 2008-2009 annual report of the President’s Cancer Panel]