Let’s Talk Prevention: Reducing Toxic Exposures

Let’s Talk Prevention: Reducing Toxic Exposures is an educational program that aims to increase discussions about environmental exposures between health professionals and patients by distributing and using a booklet for health professionals and brochure for patients. Reducing toxic exposures has implications for reducing the burden of all environmentally linked diseases, including breast cancer.

Living a healthy lifestyle through proper diet, exercise, and limiting alcohol and tobacco use is important but will not reduce the burden of environmentally linked diseases. Additional changes must be made to reduce exposure to chemicals linked with health consequences, including cancer, birth defects, reproductive problems, and more. Minimizing exposure to chemicals linked with negative health impacts can lessen the disease burden and improve public health.

Why Reduce Exposure?

Scientists are increasingly demonstrating links between environmental exposures and human health impacts. Known or suspected carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been detected in our air, water, soil, food, and consumer products. The CDC’s biomonitoring studies show hundreds of synthetic chemicals in the blood and urine of average American citizens,[i] while federal agency reports calculate that complete health screening data is available for only approximately 7% of over 84,000 chemicals currently registered for use.[ii]

The Program:

Let’s Talk Prevention Community Handouts: Learn essential steps to reduce toxic exposures, find tips for choosing safer alternatives to toxic products, and view or download the handout, available in 11 languages.

Let’s Talk Prevention: Actions You Can Take Student Modules: Our Let’s Talk Prevention: Actions You Can Take Student Modules are part of a free environmental education program that educators and students can use to encourage conversations around environmental exposures to toxins. The Student Modules use evidence-based research to create age-appropriate, fun, and educational activities for elementary, middle, high school, and homeschool students. We developed these Student Modules in partnership with Silent Spring Institute, supported with funding by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). 

Let’s Talk Prevention for Health Professionals: Read advice on discussing environmental exposures with patients and review a list of potential questions to ask in determining environmental exposure histories. Download the complete booklet for health professionals, which summarizes exposure sources, classifications, and scientific evidence linking exposure and effect for many common chemicals.

Program Informational in English and Spanish

Resources:

Common Chemicals of Concern: Browse common chemicals by name. Descriptions include sources of exposure and tips to avoid the most common chemicals.