Dr. Ruth Lunn, Director, Office of the Report on Carcinogens, National Toxicology Program; and Dr. Jeffrey Chiarenzelli, environmental scientist and member of the faculty of St. Lawrence University
A Public Forum on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Exposure Cancer
Risk and Exposure Reduction Education
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011, 7:00 PM
St. Lawrence County Human Services Building
Second Floor Conference Room
State Highway Route 310
Canton, NY
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are fat soluble environmental contaminants, many of which have been classified as known or suspected human carcinogens by government agencies, including: the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Toxicology Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds, including furans and certain PCBs are the most extensively studied POPs. Brominated flame retardants are an emerging group of chemicals within the POPs category. Population wide exposure to POPs during the course of the past seventy years appears to be a major contributor to currently existing cancers in the industrialized world. POPs exposure of several consecutive generations is a plausible explanation of the occurrence of breast cancer in the 14 to 19 year old age group living at this time.
POPs exposure reduction involves several areas of governmental activity. Food supply monitoring can detect accidental contamination incidents such as have recently taken place in Europe. The removal of excessively contaminated food from commerce is a highly important element of POPs exposure reduction. Increased monitoring of dioxin emission sources, including municipal and hazardous waste incinerators will provide data that is useful in reducing releases from these sources. Reducing open waste burning activity reduces POPs creation and thereby reduces POPs levels in food. Stopping the feeding of waste animal fat to food animals will lead to reduced levels of POPs in meats, eggs, fish and dairy products. Public education on the subject of POPs exposure cancer risk and exposure avoidance empowers individuals to make the decision to limit consumption of animal fat foods thereby reducing their POPs exposure.
In 2010, the United Nations (UN) Environment Program (UNEP) in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN commenced a campaign to educate the world's citizens upon the subject of toxic and hazardous chemical exposure disease outcome for the purpose of creating progress on the path of transition from careless and harmful activities involving use and disposal of toxic and hazardous chemicals to acting with responsibility. Several categories of toxic and hazardous chemicals are addressed: (1) hazardous chemicals that are purposefully used in economic activity, (2) hazardous chemicals that are by products of chemical reactions or are created by industrial processes including, primary metals production, paper manufacturing and combustion of mixed solid wastes of which plastics are a component and (3) the chemicals listed in the Rotterdam, Basel and Stockholm Conventions. This campaign is aptly called Safe Planet. The campaign currently consists of an outreach on POPs body burden. Safe Planet additionally addresses right to know with regards to trans boundary movements of hazardous substances. Creating widespread awareness of the body burden problem is a highly important step toward full utilization of existing scientific knowledge to reduce POPs exposure disease outcome.
Safe Planet is a wonderful example of government provided public educational outreach on POPs and metals exposure disease outcome and exposure reduction. In hopes of creating more such educational outreach programs within governments at the county, state and federal level, Cancer Action NY conducts a vigorous advocacy effort centered in the St. Lawrence River Valley and Northern Adirondack Mountains region of New York State. Our public forum constitutes an important element of both our advocacy work and our public education outreach program on POPs exposure reduction.
Ruth Lunn, PhD, Director of the Office of the Report on Carcinogens housed in the National Toxicology Program gave a PowerPoint presentation covering the "Report on Carcinogens" (ROC), including: history of the ROC, process for classifying carcinogenic chemicals and the classification of several POPs, including, dioxin, PCBs, DDT, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane, chlordane, Mirex and Toxaphene.
Dr. Jeffrey Chiarenzelli, environmental scientist and professor at St. Lawrence University, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the movement of PCBs from river/lake sediments to the atmosphere. This is an important part of the environmental science of POPs contamination of animal fat because it explains how PCBs, and other POPs including Mirex, which were released largely as constituents of industrial waste water have come to exist in the terrestrial part of the environment, contaminating forage crops and accumulating in the bodies of herbivores. Carnivores then consume the herbivores, which leads to accumulation of POPs at higher levels in the carnivores.
The Cancer Action NY Public Forum was conducted for the purpose of educating the general public as well as policy makers on the subject of the cancer risk reduction benefits of POPs exposure reduction. The forum was one more step on the path of creating educational outreach programs within federal, state and county government health agencies that address the matter of POPs exposure reduction for the explicit purpose of cancer prevention.
Cancer Action NYs Cancer Action News Network Donald L. Hassig, Producer
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