New Study Indicates Los Angeles Air Pollution Poses Twice the Cancer Risk to Children than Adults. - Report Shows Infants Receive Lifetime Exposure Limit in Two Months

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Subject:  Cancer risk..............
 Date:     Sat, 9 Feb 2002 11:00:47 -0500
From:      Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

cc:    Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov

New Study Indicates Los Angeles Air Pollution Poses Twice the Cancer Risk to Children than Adults. http://environet.policy.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=24514

Report Shows Infants Receive Lifetime Exposure Limit in Two Months http://environet.policy.net/health/toxic_beginnings.pdf

Los Angeles -- The National Environmental Trust, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and California 's Coalition for Clean Air, released a new analysis today showing that children face twice the cancer risk from air pollution that adults do and that both groups greatly exceed the EPA's recommended cancer risk level. The report, Toxic Beginnings, A Lifetime of Exposure in the First Year highlights children's special vulnerability to pollution and the failure of government policy to account for it.

"Children in Los Angeles face an unacceptable cancer risk from toxic air pollution," said Philip Clapp, President of the National Environmental Trust. "We cannot afford to wait any longer to clean up cars, off-road vehicles and industries to protect children from toxic hazards."

The report follows up on a 1999 report by Representative Henry Waxman (D-LA) which found that the levels of ten toxic chemicals in LA air posed a cancer risk over 400 times greater than the level considered acceptable by the EPA. The National Environmental Trust has updated Congressman Waxman's analysis with new data and taken it a step further to determine how much of that risk is concentrated in the early years. NET found:

The lifetime cancer risk accumulated by a child in his or her first year of life in Los Angeles is at least twice the average lifetime risk accumulated by an adult over a one-year period.

This means, in only two months a child born and living in Los Angeles will accumulate the lifetime acceptable cancer risk just by breathing. By their first birthday they will be more than six times over the limit.

Even if the carcinogens in LA's air were cleaned up to the EPA's goal for lifetime acceptable cancer risk from air pollution, a child would still exceed that level by age four. A person who moved to LA as an adult would exceed this acceptable level after seven years. This is because EPA's cancer risk goal does not take into account children's special vulnerability to air pollution and the cumulative effects of being exposed to several carcinogens at the same time.

Most of the additional cancer risk came from three chemicals: 1,3 butadiene, benzene, and formaldehyde. The majority of emissions of the chemicals come from "mobile sources" such as cars, boats, and construction equipment.

"This report adds to the growing body of evidence over the link between serious illness and our air quality. To protect public health and limit health care costs, we should be developing policies that move us away from the use of fossil fuels and toward sustainable environmental practices," said Martha Dina Arguello, Environmental Health Coordinator of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles.

"We would not tolerate sprinkling carcinogens on our children's breakfast cereal," said Dr. Harvey Karp. "Nor should we tolerate the addition of carcinogens to every breath they take. Only the government, not parents, can effectively address the source of this problem." Dr. Karp is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics of the UCLA School of Medicine and chairs the Environmental Health Committee of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"The evidence is mounting that urban pollution poses a real health risk to America 's children and other sensitive members of our society," said Todd Campbell, Policy Director of California 's Coalition for Clean Air. "This report highlights the seriousness of the cancer risk now present in our cities' air and why it is so important for the US Environmental Protection Agency to act aggressively toward reducing dangerous emissions from cars, trucks and off road construction equipment," Campbell said.

The public health advocates recommended several actions that federal and state officials should take to protect children from air toxics. They criticized the Bush Administration for effectively postponing new controls on toxics from mobile sources until 2004 and urged the agency to settle a lawsuit filed during the summer of 2001 that seeks stricter controls sooner. In addition, the groups called on the state to revise the standards for 1,3 butadiene, benzene, and formaldehyde to make them protective of children under a 1999 state law. Finally, they called on the state to press forward with the Zero and Low Emission Vehicle programs and other emission control efforts.

Related Documents:

Toxic Beginnings: A Lifetime of Exposure in the First Year: http://environet.policy.net/relatives/3181.pdf

Dear Mr. Helliker,  No one bothered to look at the synergistic and/or compounded health effects your "registered" POISONS play in the cancer scenario.  Anaïs Nin once wrote: "When you make a world tolerable for yourself, you make a world tolerable for others." Let us try to make a tolerable world....please let us try.

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten

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