EPA Assessment Finds Most Americans At Cancer Risk

Date: May 30, 2002

Source: News Room

Toxic chemicals pose an elevated cancer risk to two-thirds of Americans living in nearly every part of the country, says an assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency. A long-awaited study of health risks from 32 toxic chemicals concludes that 200 million people live in areas where the cancer risk from exposure to these substances is higher than what the EPA considers a minimum level of concern. The assessment, based on 1996 data, found that automobile and truck emissions are a major cause of exposure to the chemicals, with power plants and other industrial sources also involved.

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