P H Y S I C I A N S F O R S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
Emerging Links between
Chronic Disease and
Environmental
Exposure
P H Y S I C I A N S F O R S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y
Emerging Links between
Chronic Disease and
Environmental
Exposure
Non-Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma
NON-HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA
3
Introduction
AS OUR KNOWLEDGE about the etiology of disease progresses, the evidence for environmental
contributions to disease grows. There is a need to evaluate the findings from this research to
assess possible emerging trends in chronic diseases. Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR)
has partnered with environmental health researchers to assess the emerging links between
chronic diseases and environmental exposures and to generate a set of policy and research
recommendations. PSR’s goals are to elucidate and raise awareness of health care providers,
researchers, and policy makers about increased evidence suggesting linkages between
environmental factors and chronic diseases. PSR has chosen Parkinson’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, and diabetes as the three focus areas.
The next few pages review the diseases that
were considered when conceptualizing this
project. The comprehensive report that follows
delves much more deeply into the three specific
chronic conditions and their connections to the
environment.
In evaluating the candidate diseases, PSR used
three sets of criteria:
1. Public health importance: disease incidence
and prevalence, years of productive life lost,
and associated costs;
2. Scientific evidence supporting a link between
the disease and environmental exposures;
3. Public concern and interest: the likelihood
that the disease is of significant concern to the
public and to health care providers treating
the public.
In developing the initial process to examine
emerging environmental links to chronic conditions,
PSR identified several possible candidate conditions
for evaluation: attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD); amyotrophic later