He is far more likely to contract certain cancers, including prostate and testicular cancer. The average woman today is twice as likely to contract breast cancer as her grandmother. The public's concern about cancer has guided policy decisions on pollutants, and to an extent, the resulting regulations have provided some protection from hormonal effects. The regulations are inadequate, however, because impacts on wildlife have been observed at levels of contamination far below those that cause cancer. The hormone-like potency of many of these contaminants is unknown.
Some solutions exist today.
We recommend in this report that federal environmental and food safety laws be revised to contend with sublethal effects of long-term exposures to combinations of chemicals that impair endocrine, immune and nervous systems. Regional programs, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Great Lakes Water Quality Initiative, can help lead the way. Recently, President Clinton, in his proposal for reauthorization of the Clean Water Act, recommended a study on reducing and eliminating chlorine in several industries. Fundamental changes far beyond anything being seriously contemplated by government regulators are needed in chemical use and management on farms, in industries and in homes. Bioassay tests that detect hormone-like characters of chemicals must be approved by federal agencies and adopted for everyday regulatory use.