Cancer Panel: Babies Are Pre-Polluted By Chemical Exposure

A number of stories yesterday focused on an alarming report by a group of health experts that said Americans are at risk of cancer due to environmental chemical exposure that has been largely ignored by regulators.

The Washington Post reports that the expert panel that advises the president on cancer said that "Americans are facing 'grievous harm' from chemicals in the air, food, and water that have largely gone unregulated and ignored."

The report also addresses the unexplained rising rates of cancer in children, noting:

... recent studies that have found industrial chemicals in umbilical-cord blood, which supplies nutrients to developing fetuses.

“To a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted,’ ’’ the panel wrote, adding that health officials lack critical knowledge about the chemicals’ effect on fetuses and children.