[Sqg-program] KIDS AND CHEMICALS, A SPECIAL REPORT...
Perrigan, Glen
Glen.Perrigan@dep.state.fl.us
Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:59:19 -0400
KIDS AND CHEMICALS, A SPECIAL REPORT WITH BILL MOYERS=20
TRACKS THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR ANSWERS ABOUT
HOW ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS AFFECT AMERICA'S CHILDREN
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Premieres Friday, May 10 at 9:00 (ET) on PBS (check local listings)
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It is a medical mystery marked "urgent." Across America growing
numbers
of children are suffering from asthma, childhood cancers like
leukemia,
as well as learning and behavioral disabilities. Scientists are
searching for clues to the causes of these illnesses, and a growing
body
of research suggests that everyday environmental toxins-what kids
eat,
drink, and breathe-may put them at risk. Equipped with new technology
and more sophisticated analysis, these scientists are asking
compelling
questions about the health risks to children growing up exposed to an
ever-increasing number of untested chemicals in our environment.
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Kids and Chemicals, a special edition of NOW with Bill Moyers to be
broadcast on PBS, Friday, May 10 at 9 p.m. (ET), features medical
investigators and health officials engaged in the latest research on
links between childhood illness and environmental contamination. The
program looks at families around the country who are coping with the
consequences to their children of potentially toxic exposures.
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"The disturbing increases in childhood illness in America cannot be
ignored," says Bill Moyers. "How does the exposure affect children's
health? The new research is studying how chemicals enter the human
body,
and posing questions that they could never ask before: Do chemicals
affect children, babies and unborn fetuses more than adults? What
factors increase toxicity, and how can we protect children from
harm?"
Kids and Chemicals' producers Gail Ablow and Greg Henry go to Fallon,
Nevada, a small desert town that has had 15 recorded cases of
childhood
leukemia in just five years. Alarmed, Dr. Mary Guinan, who was one of
Nevada's top health officials, called in the Centers for Disease
Control
and Prevention to investigate the potential links between this
childhood
cancer and the environment. Could toxic substances in water, food,
air,
schools, homes or the ground in Fallon be responsible for this
"cancer
cluster"? If so, which chemicals? Without clear evidence of a
specific
cause, everything-from jet fuel emissions to pesticides to naturally
occuring arsenic in the water-is suspect.
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As Moyers and his team learn in Fallon, research on cancer
clusters once focused mainly on gathering environmental samples
because
investigators simply didn't have tools sensitive enough to measure
which
toxins had been absorbed into people. Dr. Richard Jackson, the
director
of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, explains how his laboratories are
using
the latest instruments. His research scientists are using
sophisticated
blood and urine analysis to test for minute traces of toxins in the
bodies of the sick children and their families in Fallon.
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This work is part of a larger movement in children's environmental
health unfolding nationwide. Dr. Phillip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine in New York City works with scientists around the
country to understand how kids are affected by exposure to chemicals.
"Of the 3000 high production volume chemicals in use in this country
today, only 43% have been even minimally tested," he tells Moyers.
"Only about 10% have been thoroughly tested to examine their
potential
effects on children's health and development."
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Speaking with Landrigan, Moyers learns that children are
potentially more vulnerable to chemicals than adults. "First of all
they're more heavily exposed pound for pound," says Landrigan. "They
eat more food, they drink more water, they breathe more air. Then, of
course, kids play on the ground. They live low, they put their hands
in
their mouth and so they transfer more toxic chemicals into their body
than we do."
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Traveling to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Moyers meets Dr.
Linda Sheldon of the Environmental Protection Agency's National
Exposure
Research Lab. Sheldon demonstrates how her team of scientists is
gathering evidence of exposure to everyday chemicals in nursery
schools,
homes and daycare centers.
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In New York City, a groundbreaking study led by Dr. Frederica
Perera at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health,
follows
more than 500 expectant mothers. These women are wearing air quality
monitors in backpacks to trap the environmental toxins they breathe.
As
their children are born and as they grow, Dr. Perera and her team
will
look for links between the chemicals that the mothers were exposed to
while their babies were developing in the womb and asthma, cancer
risk,
and learning disabilities.
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Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist at Cornell University, joins Dr.
Landrigan in asserting that exposure during pregnancy doesn't, by
itself, mean a child will get ill. What matters is the intensity of
the
exposure and when it occurs during fetal development. A chemical
exposure occurring early in pregnancy might cause a miscarriage,
argue
the researchers. If it occurs later on, it might cause physical birth
defects. Later still, it might damage brain cells. Scientists are
trying to precisely identify these "windows of vulnerability." Says
Dr.
Steingraber: "Maybe certain problems that we understand . . . as
attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, the inability to pay
attention, aggressive and violent behaviors, might have their origins
during those windows of vulnerability during pregnancy and these
questions are just being asked. Data is just beginning to come in."
Dr. Perera's team at Columbia is also studying the way that
chemicals can actually bind to human DNA in the womb and cause a
mutation called an "adduct." Work by Dr. Perera has shown that the
greater the number of adducts, the greater the risk for cancer. "And
that's the missing link in all of this," says Dr. Steingraber.
"That's
the link we're beginning to fill in."
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To place the current studies in a public health policy context,
Moyers revisits the firestorm over lead research; recalling the
revolutionary work of Dr. Herbert Needleman, who correlated low-level
lead exposure to lower IQ's in children in 1979. Twelve years later,
Needleman's work was attacked by the lead industry as it tried to
protect its economic stake in lead products. Ultimately, the validity
of
Dr. Needleman's work was fully vindicated, and new public policy
required unleaded gasoline and restrictions on lead paint. And many
scientists believe that, as a result, children's IQ scores have
risen,
on average, three points. Yet, as Moyers points out, lead remains the
number one environmental threat to children's health; many old houses
and even many school buildings are still testing positive for lead
today.
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In Herculaneum, Missouri, lead contamination is a very current
issue. The community is up in arms about the astonishingly high
levels
of lead to which their families have been exposed because the town's
primary industry, the Doe Run lead smelter, failed to comply with EPA
standards. "Doe Run played a really good game," Robyn Warden, a
mother,
tells Moyers. "They told people everything was under control and we
were safe. And people weren't educated enough to know any different.
It took people actually investigating lead to figure out that we were
being lied to."
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Dr. Steingraber knows the importance of informed parenting.
Even in a seemingly pristine environment in rural New York, she knows
there are possibilities of risk. "Just because there are no smoke
stacks visible around us, just because you live a long way from the
source of these chemicals, doesn't mean that nature won't bring them
to
you in some way," she says. A mother who breast feeds her infant son,
Dr. Steingraber also realizes that she passes toxins directly to her
baby every time she nurses. "No woman has uncontaminated breast milk
on
this planet," she states. Dr. Steingraber tries to reduce her
children's exposure at home by using non-toxic products. "But we
can't
shop our way out of our current situation," she warns. "We still need
to take action. It's time that our public policy takes action to get
our kids out of harm's way."
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There are unknown answers to many questions. Moyers reports on
a proposed new project called "The National Children's Study," which
will track 100,000 children from the womb to age 18 if it receives
full
funding from Congress. This long-term study may provide the
definitive
answers necessary for new regulations and laws protecting children
from
exposure to toxins. "Without conclusive science," Moyers says, "it is
a
constant fight to protect children's health."
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Find out more about how scientists are studying environmental
toxins and join the ongoing discussion about the critical issues
covered
in NOW online at www.PBS.org/now <http://www.pbs.org/now>.
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_______________________________________
Doug Woodard
Program Leader - Housing
Michigan State University Extension=20
Family and Consumer Sciences
240 Agriculture Hall, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1039
Telephone: 517.432.7686 / Fax: 517.353.4846
Email: woodardd@msue.msu.edu
MSU Extension - Bringing Knowledge to Life!
<http://www.msue.msu.edu/>
Glen Perrigan
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Hazardous Waste Management Section
2600 Blair Stone Road MS-4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
850-488-0300 Fax: 850-412-0528
E-mail: glen.perrigan@dep.state.fl.us
Website: www.dep.state.fl.us/waste