Americans are being “bombarded” with chemicals, gases and radiation that can cause cancer, and the federal government must do far more to protect them, presidential cancer advisers said on Thursday.
Although most experts agree that as many as two-thirds of cancer cases are caused by lifestyle choices like smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise, the two-member panel said many avoidable cancers were also caused by pollution, radon gas from the soil and medical imaging scans.
My God! Pollution, toxic chemicals and…I’m shocked…tobacco smoke cause cancer! No WAY!
The report “urges” the President “most strongly to use the power of your office”.
Hurry! HURRY Mr. President! The public is being poisoned! You neeeeeeed to protect them! NOW!
So basically what we have here is 2 unelected doctors influencing major domestic policy in the direction of larger, more authoritarian government.
Don’t get me wrong, toxic pollutants in our environment that can cause cancer are bad. We should avoid them. Most people who are, you know, awake know these things already. For the people who don’t already know, go on TV and educate them (remember public service announcements? what happened to them?). Should there be fines/imprisonment for companies that are knowingly polluting the environment? Of course.
But that’s not what this is about. This is about politics.
Obama has been in trouble with his liberal base in recent months. They passed healthcare, but without the liberal-Holy Grail public option. Plus, his decision to allow new exploration for off-shore oil drilling (now compounded by the awful spill in the Gulf) has put him in the enviro-radicals doghouse.
As the article mentions, “the report has already delighted environmental groups”. The reason why is because this will now give the President cover to give even more unchecked power to the unelected behemoth bureaucracy known as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA employs over 17,000 people and has an annual budget of over 10 billion. They enact, oversee and enforce a slew of programs that never get reported on, despite having an enduring reputation of being run be regulation-happy extremists. The EPA is without question the embodiment of radical, statist authoritarianism in our government.
Because just as in the debate on global warming / climate change / carbon emission / cap-and-trade, enviro-radicals think as long as they yell “science” loud enough, no one will bat an eye-lash. Of course the left has the market cornered on science, the right is full of religious, science-doubting lunatics!
Bull. In the article, Michael Thun, MD (Vice President of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research at the American Cancer Society), notes that the report ” restates hypotheses as if they were established facts” and that “its conclusion that ‘the true burden of environmentally (pollution) induced cancer has been grossly underestimated’ does not represent scientific consensus.”
Again, those who pollute with toxic chemicals and waste should be dealt with. However, this should be a law-enforcement issue, not a political one. We need to get away from the mindset that the federal government, particularly the Executive office, has to constantly do more in the name of protecting the public. That has its place on a limited scale, but as you know, “all power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.
Posted by Chris James 
The Enlightened Pig 