CHEMICALS AND CHILDRENS ENVIRONMENT - WHAT WE DONT KNOW ABOUT RISKS

Although we know that certain types of childhood cancers are increasin g, we do not know why. With few exceptions, we know little about the r ole of environmental carcinogens in childhood cancer. Generally, we ha ve adequate information to screen chemicals for potential hazard for o nly certain categories of chemicals-drugs, food additives, and pestici des. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is implementi ng the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, which provides added protecti ons against pesticide risks, especially for children. But the situatio n is quite different for many industrial chemicals. We lack even basic toxicity data for a majority of the U.S. EPA's list of approximately 3000 nonpolymeric high-production-volume industrial chemicals being pr oduced in the United States each year that are found in consumer produ cts and the workplace. We know even less about the remaining 70,000 ch emicals on the U.S. EPA inventory. The U.S. EPA has initiatives underw ay to address the risks posed by some of these commercial chemicals, i ncluding efforts to reduce risks posed by indoor air pollutants and ho usehold products. These initiatives specifically address children's ri sks. We are supporting toxicity screening of high-volume industrial ch emicals on a cooperative international basis through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Until more information is a vailable, it is difficult to assess the possible role of these chemica ls in childhood cancer and to take steps to reduce exposure to childre n.