Canadians are awash in toxic chemicals that are held responsible for 24,000 new cases of cancer annually and for low birth weights in 2,500 babies, a researcher at the University of British Columbia says.

Toxins in air pollution, pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals and household cleaning agents are also killing between 10,000 to 25,000 Canadians annually, said David Boyd, the lead author of a UBC study published this week in Environmental Research.

"There are many contaminants individuals simply can't avoid. They're invisible. We can't see them. We can't smell them. We can't taste them," Boyd told CBC News Tuesday.

"The onus must be on government to do a better job of protecting Canadians from these hazards," he said.

Boyd's paper crunches numbers from Canadian health statistics sources, using a methodology employed by the World Health Organization. The research is the first "environmental burden of disease" study in Canada, the university said.

While the science is likely to be debated, Guy Dauncey, co-chair of the non-profit group Prevent Cancer Now, said there's ample evidence that Boyd's study is pointing in the right direction.

"This is both shocking and exactly what we have feared is happening," he said. "We know for instance, that a brand-new baby typically, out of the womb, has over 230 industrial chemicals in its blood, 190 of which have been linked to cancer."

On Sept. 17, Boyd, along with B.C. environmentalist David Suzuki, called on Ottawa to create a national environmental health strategy.

Boyd said he hopes his new data could nudge Ottawa in the direction of reducing the toxic load in the lives of Canadians.

"One of the big hurdles is just the Canadian cultural mythology about us being a clean and pristine nation," Boyd said. "The scientific evidence shows that that's simply not the case, but sometimes it's hard to let go of these myths."