We Treat Cancer and Overlook the Damage to Others: Why Childhood Cancer and Autism Are Rising and What We Must Do Now |
I have been in the hazardous waste business for more than three decades, and I have seen chemical revolutions before. But nothing I have encountered prepares me for the convergence of two alarming trends: rising rates of birth-defect disorders like autism (it's not Tylenol), and a steadily increasing incidence of childhood cancer. What remains hidden is how the very treatments we use, cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs, can excrete from the patient into our families, our caregivers, our environment, and from there into the next generation. We must face this fact: unless we act, the off-gassing of human waste from cancer patients is fueling a broader chemical threat to children and families.
When I started this mission, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was unheard of. In the United States, it now affects around 1 in 31 children according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And childhood cancer is no longer the rare anomaly it once was; incidence has increased from roughly 14.2 per 100,000 children in 1975-79 to nearly 18.9 per 100,000 in 2010-19. These statistics should mark a generational alarm. If autism is a genetic disorder that is not hereditary, then it is an environmental effect. An environmental effect is a chemical. There is only one class of chemicals designed to alter human genetics, and that is chemotherapy.
Many cancer treatments alter human genetics. They are also known carcinogens and mutagens, and........