{"id":12315,"date":"2020-10-29T19:01:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T19:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12315"},"modified":"2020-10-29T19:01:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T19:01:31","slug":"kids-advocates-its-time-to-prevent-childhood-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12315","title":{"rendered":"Kids\u2019 advocates: It\u2019s time to prevent childhood cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mortality rates are down, but cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in U.S. children ages 1-19.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Photo: unitypoint.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By ROZ BROWN<\/strong>
Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Cancer is the leading cause of death among children, despite advances in treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Levine, cofounder and president of the American Sustainable Business Council<\/a>, leads an effort to encourage policymakers to address the environmental causes of childhood cancers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said elected officials need to step up essential research, regulate toxic chemical pollution and incentivize the production and use of safer chemicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levine noted families living near areas of environmental pollution, such as the Houston Ship Channel, are more vulnerable to illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf one looks to the channel in Texas, that is a tremendous hot spot,\u201d Levine described. \u201cAnd the incidences of childhood cancer in those communities, communities of color, are much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows lower-income Americans are much more likely to live in highly polluted areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levine said since 1975, new childhood cancer cases climbed 34%. Last year, more than 16,000 children and teens were diagnosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan Parras, executive director for Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services<\/a> lives in Houston, home to multiple refineries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it\u2019s documented that more people are dying from COVID-19 in areas with heavy air pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s probably because their health is already compromised,\u201d Parras asserted. \u201cSo they may be more susceptible to the COVID crisis because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nse Witherspoon, executive director for the Children\u2019s Environmental Health Network<\/a>, said greater investment in research is needed to understand the role of environmental exposure, because childhood cancer is often preventable; not related to smoking or poor diet, as seen in adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising,\u201d Witherspoon lamented. \u201cBecause a lot of environmental exposure trends tend to almost be at the last tier of understanding, sadly; and maybe some of that is that resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Childhood Cancer Prevention Initiative, a coalition of science, health and business leaders, released the report, \u201cChildhood Cancer: Cross-Sector Strategies for Prevention<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Cancer is the leading cause of death among children, despite advances in treatment. David Levine, cofounder and president of the American Sustainable Business Council, leads an effort to encourage policymakers to address the environmental causes of childhood cancers. He said elected officials need to step up essential research, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12318,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315\/revisions\/12318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}