Solomon is a physician and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She served as an advisor to the United States Environmental Protection Agency on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and has been involved in work on asthma, pesticide exposures among farm children, and environmental and occupational threats to reproductive health. She is also senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. For the most part, we see pieces of a jigsaw puzzle implicating the environment, but no clear picture. Animal studies also indicate that young animals are often more susceptible to cancers after exposures to certain pesticides or other chemicals than adults.
Many people are concerned about pollution.
Fortunately, childhood cancer is a rare disease. Though many people would consider even one preventable case to be too many. The result, according to authors in the journal Cancer, is that about 690 more childhood cancers will be diagnosed in the year 2000 than were diagnosed in the year 1991. There are no good, scientifically justifiable estimates out there. However, there are numerous studies indicating likely links between certain environmental exposures and childhood cancer.