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Kids and Chemicals: ARE WE MAKING OUR CHILDREN SICK?
(Thursday, Dec. 26, 2002 -- CropChoice news) --
Coming up on NOW with Bill Moyers...
Friday, December 27, 2002 at 8:00 PM on PBS Channel 8
"Kids and Chemicals," a special one hour edition of NOW with Bill Moyers to
be broadcast on PBS, Friday, December 27 at 9 p.m. (ET), features medical
investigators and health officials engaged in the latest research on
links between childhood illness and environmental contamination. The
program looks at families around the country who are coping with the
consequences to their children of potentially toxic exposures. The
program features interviews with experts such as Dr. Phillip
Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; Dr.
Frederica Perera at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public
Health; and Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist at Cornell
University; to name just a few of the researchers who participate in
this documentary about the effects of everyday chemicals on the
health of our children.
It is a medical mystery marked "urgent." Across America growing numbers of
children are suffering from asthma, childhood cancers like
leukemia, as well as learning and behavioral disabilities.
Scientists are searching for clues to the causes of these illnesses,
and a growing body of research suggests that everyday environmental
toxins - what kids eat, drink, and breathe - may put them at risk.
Equipped with new technology and more sophisticated analysis, these
scientists are asking compelling questions about the health risks to
children growing up exposed to an ever-increasing number of untested
chemicals in our environment.
"Kids and Chemicals," a special edition of NOW with Bill Moyers to be
broadcast on PBS, Friday, December 27 at 8:00 PM, features
medical investigators and health officials engaged in the latest
research on links between childhood illness and environmental
contamination. The program looks at families around the country who
are coping with the consequences to their children of potentially
toxic exposures. "The disturbing increases in childhood illness in
America cannot be ignored," says Bill Moyers. "How does the exposure
affect children's health? The new research is studying how chemicals
enter the human body, and posing questions that they could never ask
before: Do chemicals affect children, babies and unborn fetuses more
than adults? What factors increase toxicity, and how can we protect
children from harm?"
Moyers also reports on a proposed new project called "The National
Children's Study," which will track 100,000 children from the womb to
age 18 if it receives full funding from Congress. This long-term
study may provide the definitive answers necessary for new
regulations and laws protecting children from exposure to toxins.
"Without conclusive science," Moyers says, "it is a constant fight to
protect children's health."
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