Citation
Olshan, Andrew F. (2002). Pesticides and Childhood Brain Cancer: A Review and Perspective. (pp. 87-99). Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Abstract
During the late 1990s, perceived threats to children from pollutants in the ambient environment moved the U.S. Congress to legislate, President Clinton to issue an Executive Order, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a new office aimed at enhancing children’s environmental protections. In the107th Congress, legislative proposals have been introduced that would extend these protections. This report summarizes and analyzes the scientific basis for concerns about children’s environmental health risks from chemicals in the ambient environment, and discusses alternative federal policy responses that have been
proposed. At the request of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, CRS elicited expert assistance from scientists to consider the weight of scientific evidence regarding children’s environmental risks, and policy experts to propose possible federal policy options. CRS convened an all-day seminar on May 22, 2000 at which authors presented draft papers, and experts representing a wide range of viewpoints critiqued them, addressing scientific papers in the morning and policy papers in the afternoon. The seminar and the commissioned papers were supported, in part, by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Based on these papers and discussions, CRS constructed consensus statements and submitted them to participating experts for review and comment. This CRS report briefly summarizes the papers, lists the consensus statements, draws conclusions, and identifies issues for legislators.