‘Grave Concern’: Chronic Diseases Are Killing Kids — and Exposure to Chemicals Is Driving the Epidemic

A paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that chronic diseases are the main cause of illness and death for children in the U.S. and Europe.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Chronic diseases are the main cause of illness and death for children in the U.S. and Europe, and exposure to chemicals is driving the epidemic, according to a paper published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The authors — 25 scientists, economists and legal scholars representing 17 U.S. and European Union (EU) institutions — called for new laws and regulations governing chemicals that, according to their data analyses, are largely responsible for the chronic disease epidemic in children.

“An estimated 350,000 manufactured chemicals, chemical mixtures, and plastics” listed in global inventories are “subject to few legal or policy constraints,” the paper stated.

Less than 20% of these chemicals were tested for toxicity, particularly in infants and children.

Production of these chemicals has increased 50-fold since 1950 and is projected to triple from current levels by 2050, according to the authors, who published their collective work under the Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health.

According to the paper:

“Unlike pharmaceuticals, synthetic chemicals are brought to market with little prior assessment of their health impacts and almost no post-marketing surveillance for longer-term adverse health effects. …

“A large body of evidence links multiple pediatric NCDs [non-communicable diseases] to synthetic chemicals …

“Two key lessons emerged from these cases: toxic chemicals can cross the placenta, and children are far more vulnerable to toxic chemicals than adults.”

Non-communicable diseases are the principal causes of illness and death in children today and their incidence and prevalence are on the rise, the paper stated.

The paper cited data indicating that in the last 50 years, there have been significant increases in cancer rates, autism diagnoses and neurodevelopmental disorders, reproductive defects, obesity, asthma and other health conditions in children.

Associations between widely used chemicals and disease in children “continue to be discovered with distressing frequency,’ and it is likely that there are “additional, still unknown” links, the paper said.

“Children’s Health Defense (CHD) has worked to end the childhood chronic disease epidemic for nearly two decades,” said CHD CEO Mary Holland. “Kudos to this team of scientists for documenting the connection between chemicals and childhood disease and for joining the call to protect children from toxic exposures. There is no more important work than protecting today’s and future generations of children.”

‘A vast toxicologic experiment’

Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, professor of biology at Boston College, was one of the paper’s co-authors. He told The Defender the authors wrote the paper because of their “grave concern” over the increases in non-communicable diseases among children.

Landrigran said:

“At present, we are conducting a vast toxicologic experiment in the United States in which our children and grandchildren are the unwitting and consenting subjects as they are exposed daily to hundreds of manufactured chemicals. We think that this is fundamentally unethical and immoral, and that it must change.

“Chemicals are by no means the only cause of rising rates of chronic disease in American children, but they are an important and insufficiently addressed cause. It was against this background that we brought together a group of authors of multiple disciplines, including physicians, toxicologists, lawyers, and policy experts to write this paper.”

Landrigan said that, with the Trump administration set to take office later this month, now is an opportune time to raise awareness about the risks of toxic chemicals.

“We think it is very important to put this information out in the public space in the hopes that people of conscience in the new federal administration will recognize that it is simply not ethical to continue to produce and use untested chemicals that have potential to cause disease in children,” Landrigan said.

He suggested that in addition to influencing federal policymakers, the paper may also encourage state lawmakers to take action.

“We are well aware that not all power in the United States is centered in Washington, and that there is also much power in the states,” Landrigan said. “We are hoping that some states might decide on the basis of our findings to take action to reduce children’s exposure to some of the most toxic chemicals currently on markets.”

Zen Honeycutt, founding executive director of Moms Across America, welcomed the NEJM paper and its calls for more regulation and testing of chemicals.

“Moms Across America applauds the herculean feat of 25 international scientists coming together to improve the health of our children,” Honeycutt said. “If they can do this, surely our politicians can implement the essential policy changes to prevent another generation of children from declining in health and instead reduce childhood chronic illness for generations to come.”

Kids disproportionately affected by chemical exposure

The paper cited:

• A 35% increase in the incidence of childhood cancer in the U.S.

• The quadrupling of pediatric obesity and a significant increase in Type 2 diabetes among children and teenagers.

• The tripling of pediatric asthma cases in the U.S.

• The doubling of male reproductive birth defects across Western countries, including a 59.3% reduction in sperm count.

The study notes that 1 in 36 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder today, up from 1 in 150 in the year 2000, while 1 in 6 U.S. children have a neurodevelopmental disorder. In the EU, 0.2% of children were diagnosed with autism in the 1990s — but that figure has increased to 1.4% today.

Neurodevelopmental disorders have resulted in IQ reductions in children, the authors said, and in economic damage totaling $340 billion annually in the U.S. and $209 billion in the EU.

Children are disproportionately affected by exposure to toxic chemicals. During the same 50-year period, “illness, disability, and death due to cardiovascular disease, stroke, and many cancers have decreased” in adults, the authors said.

Reversing this trend and protecting children from the dangers of exposure to toxic chemicals will require fundamental changes to current law, policy and regulations governing the chemical industry — and to the chemical industry itself.

“The largest gap in current policies and legislation and countries such as the U.S. is the fact that chemicals are presumed innocent before they come to market and that no pre-market toxicity testing of chemicals is required,” Landrigan said.

The paper cites several examples of U.S. laws that it argues are deficient and in need of change. For instance, the Toxic Substances Control Act, “is based on a statutory promise to ‘protect public health and the environment’ from ‘unreasonable risks’ posed by chemicals.”

However, the law failed to give the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “the authority required to fulfill this promise.” Calling it “broken legislation,” the study argues that the law “effectively encourages unfettered chemical production at the expense of children’s health.”

The paper also highlights “multibillion-dollar subsidies” to U.S. chemical and plastic manufacturers from the U.S. government and trade secret “protections allowing them to claim that virtually all information pertaining to a chemical or plastic product is secret.”

These subsidies and rules enable chemical manufacturers to conceal evidence about their chemicals’ toxicity, “further tipping the scales toward unconstrained production” of chemicals, the study said.

Even in the EU, where chemical legislation is “ostensibly more rigorous,” the study noted that, in practice, existing legislation “fails to constrain chemical production” as it relies on toxicity data self-reported by the manufacturers. These data “are accepted with few quality controls.”

As in the U.S., “aggressive trade-secret laws” in the EU “provide still further shielding.”

Chemical-related policies in the U.S. and EU also consider the hazards of exposure to only one chemical at a time. This “ignores the reality that children are exposed daily to mixtures of multiple manufactured chemicals that may have cumulative or synergistic effects.”

Most countries’ laws and policies also “don’t generally consider children’s particular sensitivities,” the study said.

‘Inaction on chemicals is no longer an option’

The study’s authors argue that “shifting chemical law to a more precautionary approach prioritizing health protection over unconstrained production of chemicals and plastics” is required to safeguard children’s health and reduce the incidence of chronic health conditions.

Chemicals should no longer be presumed harmless until proven otherwise, the authors said. Instead, chemicals and chemical-based products should be allowed to enter and remain on markets only if their manufacturers can establish, by rigorous, independent testing, that they are not toxic at anticipated levels of exposure.

Chemical manufacturers and brands marketing chemical products should also be required to conduct postmarketing surveillance for longer-term adverse effects, especially in pediatric populations, the study suggests. Testing would be conducted by independent bodies and not the manufacturers themselves.

The study also calls for mandated chemical footprinting to monitor chemical products once they enter the supply chain, similar to monitoring prescription drugs. And the authors propose a legally binding global chemicals treaty to replace the “voluntary, multistakeholder policy framework” currently in place.

“We think that it is important to have both vigorous premarket toxicity testing, as well as postmarket surveillance of all chemicals on the market, most especially those chemicals that come into contact with children,” Landrigan said.

Landrigan predicted that pushback from some industries, including arguments that implementing these changes would have an adverse financial impact on consumers.

“The most powerful counter we can offer … is the fact that current lax regulation is costing consumers millions of dollars in the form of illness and injury caused to children by toxic chemicals in consumer products,” Landrigan said.

“A key element will be partnerships between citizens of all political persuasions, physicians and legislators,” Landrigan added. “Protecting children’s health against toxic chemicals is not a political issue. It is an issue on which we can all come together for the good of our country.”

“Inaction on chemicals is no longer an option,” the paper concluded.