Medical experts emphasize the urgent need to restructure chemical regulations and prioritize children's health in the face of the growing threat posed by synthetic chemicals and the alarming rise in noncommunicable diseases among children.
A new call to action is urging for stronger regulations to protect children from the dangers of manufactured chemicals. Medical experts from the Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health, in a perspective piece published in The New England Journal of Medicine, emphasize the urgent need to restructure current laws and prioritize children's health in the face of the growing threat posed by synthetic chemicals.
They highlight the alarming rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) among children over the past five decades, with significant increases in childhood cancers, male reproductive congenital disabilities, and pediatric obesity. These experts point to a massive scale of exposure, with over 350,000 synthetic chemicals and plastics globally listed, production increasing by 3% annually, and projections to triple by 2050. This exponential growth exacerbates health risks, particularly for children, who are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of toxic exposures. Research consistently links many pediatric NCDs to synthetic chemicals. Historical tragedies like the thalidomide, Minamata disease, and diethylstilbestrol (DES) exposure incidents underscore the long-term consequences of toxic exposures during pregnancy. These events, affecting tens of thousands of children worldwide, revealed that toxic chemicals can cross the placenta, making children more susceptible to harm than adults.The experts call for a paradigm shift in chemical regulation, emphasizing that current laws, like the United States Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1977, have largely failed to protect children. TSCA places the burden on the EPA to identify hazards and assess risks, often leading to minimal restrictions on harmful chemicals. Fewer than 20% of manufactured chemicals have been tested for toxicity, and even fewer have undergone evaluations specific to infants and children. This lack of preemptive action allows potentially dangerous chemicals to enter the market without thorough safety assessments. The authors advocate for stronger regulations that prioritize children's health, demanding pre-market toxicity testing and long-term safety monitoring for new chemicals. They also call for increased transparency in the chemical industry, urging the government to reduce subsidies and protections for trade secrets, ensuring that crucial information about chemical safety and composition is readily available to the public
CHEMICALS CHILDREN's HEALTH ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES REGULATION TOXIC EXPOSURE
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