The link between chemicals and cancer is greater than previously thought, according to a recent 200-page report from the President’s Cancer Panel. Many questions remain, but the report provides simple steps you can take now to reduce your risk:

• Eat organic food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and meat from free-range animals that aren’t given growth hormones.
•  Microwave food and drinks in glass or ceramic containers, not plastic ones.
• Filter water and put it in BPA- or phthalate-free containers.
• Ask your doctor about the necessity of any medical scan, which could expose you to radiation.

In addition to consumer tips, the report calls on Uncle Sam to reduce our exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. With nearly 80,000 unregulated or understudied chemicals on the market in the U.S., it’s about time, says Maryann Donovan, the director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. “It’s a call to action to regulate industries that have self-policed in the past.”