From Henry Rowlands at The Detox Project:

Press release:

CONTACT: Ed Hayward
Office of University Communications
617-922-8024 (not for publication)
[email protected]

Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health scientists find few standards apply to the world’s 350,000 chemicals and chemical products

Chestnut Hill, Mass (01/08/2025) – Nations must start testing and regulating chemicals and chemical products as closely as the current systems that safeguard prescription drugs or risk rising rates of chronic illnesses among children, according to a New England Journal of Medicine report by a group of experts writing as the Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health.

Global chemical inventories contain an estimated 350,000 products – such as manufactured chemicals, chemical mixtures, and plastics. Despite the risks of environmental pollution and human exposure, the manufacture of
synthetic chemicals and plastics is subject to insufficient legal or policy constraints. That regulatory vacuum must be replaced by new laws that prioritize health protection over the rampant production of chemicals and plastics, according to the co-authors, who include Boston College epidemiologist Philip Landrigan, MD, environmental law scholar David Wirth, biologist Thomas Chiles, and epidemiologist Kurt Straif.

“Under new laws, chemicals should not be presumed harmless until they are proven to damage health,” the authors said. “Instead, chemicals and chemical-based products should be allowed to enter markets and remain on markets only if their manufacturers can establish through rigorous, independent, premarket testing that they are not toxic at anticipated levels
of exposure.”

In addition, the authors say chemical manufacturers and brands that market chemical products should be required to monitor their products after they have been released to the market in the same way that prescription drugs are monitored in order to evaluate any long-term negative health effects.

The call to action is the result of a two-year project by the group of the world’s most trusted independent scientists from 17 high profile scientific institutions in the U.S. and Europe. The report was developed to enable a coordinated approach to reduce the ever-increasing levels of chronic disease being faced by children around the world.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the principal causes of morbidity and mortality in children today, the authors note. Their incidence and prevalence are on the rise. Emerging research links multiple NCDs in children to manufactured synthetic chemicals.

In the past half century, NCDs in children have risen sharply:

• Incidence of childhood cancer has increased by 35 percent
• Male reproductive birth defects have doubled in frequency
• Neurodevelopmental disorders now affect one child in 6, and autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in one child of 36
• Pediatric asthma has tripled in prevalence
• Prevalence of pediatric obesity has nearly quadrupled and driven a sharp increase in type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents
• Certain chemicals have led to a reduction in IQ and thus massive economic damage

Most synthetic chemicals and related products are produced from fossil fuels– gas, oil, and coal. Production has expanded 50-fold since 1950, and is projected to triple again by 2050. Environmental pollution and human exposure are widespread.

Yet manufacture of synthetic chemicals and plastics is subject to few legal or policy constraints. 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.

Fewer than 20 percent of these chemicals have been tested for toxicity, and fewer still for toxic effects in infants and 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.

• Protecting children from chemicals’ dangers will require fundamental revamping of current law and restructuring of the chemical industry, the co-authors write.
• Safeguarding children’s health against manufactured synthetic chemicals will require a fundamental shift in chemical law that takes a more precautionary approach and prioritizes health protection over the unconstrained production of synthetic chemicals and plastics, specifically:
• New laws that require chemicals to be tested for safety and toxicity before they are allowed to enter markets
• Mandated chemical footprinting, which operates much like its better-known cousin carbon footprinting
• Safer chemicals, reducing reliance on fossil carbon feedstocks, developing a diverse set of safer, more sustainable molecules and manufacturing processes
• Policy reform, create a new legal paradigm for chemical management at a national level and a new global chemicals treaty

“Pollution by synthetic chemicals and plastics is one of the great planetary challenges of our time,” said lead author Landrigan, the director of Boston College’s Observatory on Planetary Health. “It is worsening rapidly. Continued unchecked increases in the production of chemicals based on fossil carbon endangers the world’s children and threatens humanity’s capacity for reproduction.”

# # #

Main Talking Points:

New England Journal of Medicine:
Manufactured Chemicals and Children’s Health:
The Need for New Law

‘Seminal Paper with Blueprint on How to Protect Children’s Health from Toxic Chemicals’

Today noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), otherwise known as chronic diseases, are the main causes of illness and death in children in the United States and Europe.

Powerful Study in World’s Leading Medical Journal:

A seminal peer-reviewed paper published on 1月 8 (5 PM ET) in the world’s leading medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), authored by a team of 25 scientists, economists and legal experts from 17 leading institutions in the U.S. and EU, who have studied the
growing chronic health crisis linked to unregulated chemical exposures and are calling for a series of common-sense regulatory and scientific solutions to protect children’s health.

Key Statistics on Childhood Disease in the NEJM Paper and EU comparison papers:

Key Childhood Disease Statistics Over the Past 50 years:

• Childhood cancer: Up 35% in the U.S. and roughly 0.5%-1% per year in EU.^{1 2 3}
• Male reproductive birth defects: Have doubled across western countries (EU, U.S.,Japan)⁴
• Neurodevelopmental disorders now affect 1 child in 6 in the U.S.⁵
• Autism spectrum disorder: 1 in 36 children now affected in the U.S. (roughly 3% of children), with 1 in 150 in the year 2000 (0.75%).⁶ Autism levels have also increased in the EU: 0.2% in 1990 to 1.4% of children in the EU.⁷
• Pediatric asthma: Have tripled in the U.S. (now roughly 6% of children)8 In the EU the levels of asthma have risen to 9.4% of children from 3.6% in the 1970s.⁹
• Pediatric obesity: Have quadrupled, driving type 2 diabetes in youth.¹⁰
• Reduced fertility and altered sexual development (59.3% reduction in sperm count).¹¹
• IQ reductions being a major cause of over $340 Billion a year in economic damage just in the U.S. and $209 Billion a year in the EU from endocrine disrupting chemicals.^{12 13 14}

Independent science now shows that one of the main causes of this dramatic spike in chronic childhood disease is the pervasive exposure of our children to modern synthetic chemicals in our food, water, and the environment that continue to be manufactured with little or no safety testing or
proper oversight.

Key Statistics from NEJM Paper on Chemical Production and Lack of Testing

Current Chemical Production Trends:

• 350,000+ synthetic chemicals and plastics listed globally.
• Production has grown 50-fold since 1950 and is projected to triple by 2050.
• Less than 20% of chemicals have been tested for toxicity, especially for infants and children.

Key Solutions Outlined in Roadmap for Protecting Children’s Health in NEJM Paper

1. Stronger Laws:
   • Require rigorous pre-market safety testing for all synthetic chemicals.
   • Implement rigorous post-market health monitoring for long-term risks.
     
     
2. Independent Safety Proof:
   • Shift from presuming that synthetic chemicals are harmless to requiring proof of their long-term safety for children and infants.
   • Implement independent safety testing and biomonitoring structures.
     
     
3. Chemical Footprinting:
   • Track and reduce reliance on harmful chemicals in supply chains, similar to carbon footprinting.
     
     
4. Safer Alternatives:
   • Invest in and promote safer molecules, formulations, and eco-friendly manufacturing.
     
     
5. Global Policy Reform:
   • Enact a Global Treaty and National Legal Frameworks for protecting children’s health from the harm being caused by toxic chemicals.

Relevant Papers and Peer-Reviewed Studies

1. National Cancer Institute. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. Cancer Stat Facts. Available at: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/. Accessed: 7月 13, 2024.
2. European Commission, Childhood cancers: Every child and adolescent deserves an equal chance, European Cancer Inequalities Registry, 12月 2023. https://cancer-inequalities.jrc.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ECIR-inequalities-factsheet-childhood-cancer-Dec2023.pdf.
3. Steliarova-Foucher, Eva et al., Trends in childhood cancer incidence in Europe, 1970–99, The Lancet, Volume 365, Issue 9477, 2088 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(05)66728-1/fulltext.
4. Skakkebaek NE, Rajpert-De Meyts E, Buck Louis GM, Toppari J, Andersson AM, Eisenberg ML, Jensen TK, Jørgensen N, Swan SH, Sapra KJ, Ziebe S, Priskorn L, Juul A. Male Reproductive Disorders and Fertility Trends: Influences of Environment and Genetic Susceptibility. Physiol Rev. 2016 Jan;96(1):55-97. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00017.2015.
5. Maenner MJ, Warren Z, Williams AR, et al. Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2020. MMWR Surveill Summ 2023; 72(No. SS-2):1–14. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7202a1.
6. Ibid.
7. Sacco, Rosemarie, Nigel Camilleri, Judith Eberhardt, Katja Umla-Runge, and Dorothy Newbury-Birch. 2023. ‘The Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Europe’. Autism Spectrum Disorders - Recent Advances and New Perspectives. IntechOpen. doi:10.5772/intechopen.108123.
8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Asthma Surveillance in the United States Available at:https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/Asthma-Prevalence-US-2023-508.pdf. Accessed 7月 13, 2024.
9. Selroos O, Kupczyk M, Kuna P. National and regional asthma programmes in Europe. European Respiratory Review 2015 24(137): 474-483; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1183/16000617.00008114.
10. Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among children and adolescents aged 2–19 years: United States, 1963–1965 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health EStats. 2020. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/obesitychild.htm. Accessed: 7月 13, 2024.
11. Levine H, Jørgensen N, Martino-Andrade A, Mendiola J, Weksler-Derri D, Mindlis I, Pinotti R, Swann SH. Temporal trends in sperm count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis. Hum Reprod Update. 2017 11月 1;23(6):646-659. doi:10.1093/humupd/dmx022.
12. Grosse, S.D.; Matte, T.D.; Schwartz, J.; Jackson, R.J. Economic gains resulting from the reduction in children’s exposure to lead in the United States. Environ. Health Perspect. 2002, 110, 563–569.
13. Attina, TM, Hauser R, Sathyanarayana S, et al. Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the USA: a population-based disease burden and cost analysis, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Volume 4, Issue 12, 996 - 1003. 14 Trasande L, et al. Estimating burden and disease costs of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the European Union. J.Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 100, 1245-1255 (2015).

New England Journal of Medicine:

Manufactured Chemicals and Children’s Health: The Need for New Law

Authors and Academic Institutions

Complete List of Paper Authors:

1. Wirth, David; Boston College, Law School
2. Cropper, Maureen; University of Maryland, Economics
3. Axelrad, Daniel; US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development
4. Bald, Caroline; Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Global Observatory on Planetary Health
5. Bhatnagar, Aruni; University of Louisville, Environmental Cardiology
6. Birnbaum, Linda; Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment
7. Burke, Thomas; Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Policy
8. Chiles, Thomas; Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Biology
9. Geiser, Ken; University of Massachusetts Lowell College of Health Sciences, Public Health
10. Griffin, Carly; Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Global Observatory on Planetary Health
11. Kumar, Pushpam; United Nations Environment Programme
12. Mandrioli, Daniele; Ramazzini Institute, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Centre
13. Park, Yongjoon; University of Massachusetts Amherst, Resource Economics
14. Roger, Apolline; ClientEarth, Innovation Lab
15. Smith, Ted; University of Louisville School of Medicine, Medicine;
16. States, J.; University of Louisville School of Medicine, Pharmacology and Toxicology
17. Straif, Kurt; Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Global Observatory on Planetary health
18. Tickner, Joel; University of Massachusetts Lowell College of Arts and Sciences, Public Health
19. Wagner, Wendy; The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Environmental Law
20. Wang, Zhanyun; Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Technology & Society Laboratory
21. Whitman, Ella; Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Global Observatory on Planetary Health
22. Woodruff, Tracey; University of California San Francisco, UCSF Dept. of OB/GYN & RS Yousuf, Aroub; Harvard Medical School Landrigan, Philip; Boston College, Global Observatory on Planetary Health; Centre
    Scientifique de Monaco
23. Raps, Hervé: Centre Scientifique de Monaco

Authors from following Academic Institutions:

1. Boston College, Law School
2. University of Maryland, Economics
3. US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development
4. Boston College Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Global Observatory on Planetary Health
5. Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment
6. Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Policy
7. University of Massachusetts Lowell, College of Health Sciences, Public Health
8. United Nations Environment Programme
9. Ramazzini Institute, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Centre
10. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Resource Economics
11. ClientEarth, Innovation Lab
12. University of Louisville School of Medicine, Medicine
13. The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Environmental Law
14. Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Technology & Society Laboratory
15. University of California San Francisco, UCSF Dept. of OB/GYN & RS
16. Harvard Medical School
17. Centre Scientifique de Monaco