In June 1998, the EPA released its Children's Environmental Health Yearbook. Go to http://www.epa.gov:80/children/document/yearbook/ochpyearbook.pdf for a PDF file of the report.
Chapter 3 of the report states "... the overall incidence rate of new cancers in children has increased [by about 12 percent from 1973 to 1994 in the U.S.]" And of course, the EPA concluded "The trends in some cancer types suggest the need for a closer examination of the underlying factors leading to [cancer] in children. This includes determining whether environmental contaminants play a role in causing the disease."
Perhaps the EPA can now abort this futile, if not exploitative, effort.
A new study in the journal Cancer (11/15) co-authored by Dimitrious Trichopoulos -- a Harvard epidemiologist holding the EPA's seal-of-approval -- debunks the EPA's claims.
In his study "Trends in Childhood Cancer Mortality as Indicators of the Quality of Medical Care in the Developed World," Trichopoulos writes "Since the early 1960s, the incidence of childhood cancers, and in particular childhood leukemia has remained relatively stable, or if anything has risen in geographic areas where there are adequate cancer registration systems."
So much for the EPA's claim that childhood cancer is on the rise.
And as far as the EPA trying to do something about childhood cancer, Trichopoulos writes "The data presented in this article further document the major successes of therapeutic medicine over childhood malignancies and, in particular, childhood leukemia. These favorable trends spring directly from treatment innovations and their rapid and widespread application across populations groups. In contrast, preventative measures have made minimal, if any, contributions toward the control of these diseases. It is remarkable that the decline in mortality has occurred earlier and has been more pronounced in North America, which points to earlier introduction and more widespread availability of effective treatment for childhood cancer in North America than in other economically developed populations of the world."
So much for the EPA thinking it can doing anything about childhood cancer -- and that's from a friend of the EPA.
EPA administrator Carol Browner exploits children's health to further her own ambitions. Not only does this exploitation provide false hope, but it also diverts precious public resources away from useful medical research to EPA junk science.
It makes you wonder how the National Mother's Day Committee awarded Browner -- the mother of a nine year-old boy -- its "Outstanding Mother of the Year Award" in 1997.
Comments on this posting?
Click here to post a public comment on the Trash Talk Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private comment to the Junkman.
Copyright © 1998 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved on original material. Material copyrighted by others is used either with permission or under a claim of "fair use." Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of Steven J. Milloy.