Two presidential cancer advisers serving on a panel issued a report last week urging the federal government to do far more to protect Americans from various environmental cancer risks.
Available at the following link, the report concludes that "the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated." One major area of concern cited was the tens of thousands of chemicals on the market in the United States that are carcinogenic. As an example, the report highlighted bisphenol A (BPA), which is found in many consumer products and remains unregulated in the United States, despite the growing link between BPA and various cancers.
Other common environmental carcinogens mentioned include naturally occurring radon, and manufacturing and combustion by-products such as formaldehyde and benzene.
Also cited as an increasing source of cancer-causing radiation was medical imaging, which now contributes 36 percent of the total radiation exposure of Americans.
