Our Mission

The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology® at Hackensack University Medical Center represents one of the first hospital-based programs whose specific mission is to identify, control and ultimately prevent exposures to environmental factors that may cause adult, and especially pediatric cancer, as well as other health problems with our children.

The Center’s mission is twofold: to enhance health by educating our children, their parents and the public-at-large about the carcinogens and other environmental factors that occur all too commonly in our lives…and to serve as a voice that can realistically help shape policy decisions that impact the environment and our well being.

INTRODUCTION


The Deirdre Imus Environmental Center is part of Hackensack University Medical Center, a not-for-profit corporation. The Environmental Center is devoted to the health and well being of children, their parents and the general public through a program of education and action designed to identify and eliminate the carcinogens and environmental factors that assault and ravage our lives.

According, to the National Cancer Insitute about one in 300 boys and one in 333 girls will develop cancer before the age of 20.(1)  Collectively, fewer than 10 percent of all malignancies are thought to involve inherited mutations.(2) Today, most scientists believe that environmental factors cause or contribute to many cancers in children.(3) The environmental hazards include exposure to mercury, lead, pesticides, tobacco products, automotive and industrial emissions and even the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.

Environmental causes for childhood cancer are less well defined. Various small studies have implicated pesticides as a cause of leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and brain tumors.

Regrettably, it is children who are the most vulnerable to many environmental insults. In fact, studies have shown a 30 percent increase in various cancers in children resulting from exposure to toxins in our environment. For example, researchers have discovered a direct connection between the development of leukemia in children whose parents were exposed to various pesticide products. Similarly, studies have revealed a disturbing increase in the occurrence of brain tumors in children exposed to many common pesticides found in the home. In addition, asthma, blamed for six percent of school absenteeism and now the most common chronic childhood disorder, often has its roots in environmental agents.(4)

1. National Cancer Institute (http://seer.cancer.gov/publications/childhood/introduction.pdf
2. Natural Resources Defense Council,  www.nrdc.org/health/kids/kidscancer/kidscancer1.asp
3. NCI, Understanding Gene Testing, NIH Pub. 96-3905 (Bethesda, Md.: NCI, 1995. rev. 4.02)
4. Natural Resources Defense Council,  www.nrdc.org/health/kids/kidscancer/kidscancer5.asp

Updated 8-19-08