Sadhbh Walshe
Modern life is saturated with carcinogenic chemicals. But without regulation, just how are we supposed to avoid them?
Healthful or hateful? Apples can contain any of 42 pesticides, including cancer-causing chemicals. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
I used to be under the impression that you had a reasonable chance of avoiding debilitating and potentially fatal diseases like cancer if you just took a few simple precautions: ate plenty of fruit and vegetables, gave up smoking, drank in moderation and did a bit of exercise. It’s since become apparent that the world we live in is so overrun with environmental pollutants that it is next to impossible to keep oneself truly healthy.
A report released in the US earlier this year by the President’s Cancer Panel concluded that the risk of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated; that exposure to potential carcinogens is widespread; that the 80,000 or so chemicals used by millions of Americans in their daily lives (mostly inadvertently) are largely unregulated and that, to a “disturbing extent”, babies are being born “pre-polluted”.
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