About this episode

Ken Cook discusses the health impacts of chemical mixtures with Dr. Jabeen Taiba, focusing on pediatric cancer risks associated with agrichemicals.

From the day we’re born, our bodies contain a constant mix of chemicals. But our regulatory system only targets these substances one at a time. Current policies don’t adequately account for the health threats of mixtures, when two or more chemicals combine inside us. In today’s episode, Ken talks about chemical mixtures with Dr. Jabeen Taiba, who recently published a study called, “Exploring the Joint Association Between Agrichemical Mixtures and Pediatric Cancer.” From the study: “We observed a statistically significant positive association between 32 agrichemicals,” which were all pesticides, “and overall pediatric cancer and subtypes, and the strength of the association was slightly stronger among brain and CNS cancers compared to overall cancer.” Dr. Taiba is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska’s Water, Climate, and Health program. She's trained as a multidisciplinary researcher, with a background in epidemiology, and has robust experience in clinical research, public health, and large data sets. She and Ken delve into what happens when chemicals mix and how this impacts our most vulnerable: children. EWG has been studying mixtures since the early…

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