Fw: Study Tallies Americans' Exposure to Chemical Contaminants

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From: " ilena rose " <ilena@...>

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 12:08 PM

Subject: Study Tallies Americans' Exposure to Chemical Contaminants

> Study Tallies Americans' Exposure to Chemical Contaminants

>

> By Cat Lazaroff

>

> WASHINGTON, DC, March 22, 2001 (ENS) - Common products such as soap,

> shampoo and

> perfume are leaching dangerous chemicals into the bloodstreams of U.S.

> consumers, reveals a comprehensive new study by the U.S. Centers for

Disease

> Control and Prevention. The study, released Wednesday, also carried some

good

> news: national blood levels of lead, and cotinine from second hand smoke,

> appear

> to be declining.

>

> The first National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals is

a new

> research tool that will provide better information on levels of exposure

to

> environmental chemicals, and over time what these levels mean for public

> health.

> Previously, only limited data were available on which environmental

chemicals

> were in the U.S. population and at what levels.

>

> Advances in a technology known as biomonitoring allow the Centers for

Disease

> Control and Prevention (CDC) to measure chemicals directly in blood and

urine

> samples rather than estimating population exposures by measuring air,

water or

> soil samples. Based on this scientific advancement, the new report

provides

> data

> on actual levels of chemicals in humans.

>

> " This new resource is a significant development in the field of

environmental

> health, " said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy . " It will

help

> us to better track the exposures of Americans to chemicals in the

environment

> and to measure the effectiveness of our public health efforts. "

>

> This first report initially measures the exposure of the U.S. population

to 27

> environmental chemicals. The report includes metals such as lead and

mercury,

> pesticides, plastic and cosmetic additives called phthalates, and

cotinine,

> which shows exposure to tobacco smoke. Many of these substances were found

in

> levels that surprised the researchers.

>

> " What's really remarkable about the CDC's results is that in several

instances

> the chemical exposure levels they measure in the real world are higher

than

> levels predicted by scientific panels, the National Academy of Sciences,

and

> other experts, " said McCally, co-director of the Center for

Children's

> Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. " We may

need

> to rethink a lot of our assumptions about the public's exposure to a range

of

> toxic substances, or at the very least increasingly rely on these direct,

real

> world measurements. "

>

> " This report is a wake up call, " added Dr. Philip Landrigan, professor of

> pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and chair of the

Committee

> that

> produced a 1993 National Academy of Sciences report, " Pesticides in the

> Diets of

> Infants and Children. " " Americans are clearly being exposed to an array of

> toxic

> chemicals, many of which can and should be avoided. "

>

> Levels of environmental chemicals were measured in blood and urine samples

> collected from participants in the CDC's National Health and Nutrition

> Examination Survey (NHANES) - an ongoing national health survey of the

U.S.

> population.

>

> The report includes the first measurements of national exposure levels for

24

> chemicals including mercury, organophosphate pesticides, and phthalates.

> Exposure to pesticides and phthalates was measured through blood levels of

> their

> metabolites - the byproducts left in the body after chemicals are digested

or

> metabolized.

>

> Among the study's major findings:

>

> PHTHALATES

>

> Blood levels of seven major phthalates, as measured by the presence of

their

> metabolites, were much higher than expected. Phthalates are compounds

commonly

> used in such consumer products as soap, shampoo, hair spray and many types

of

> nail polish. Some phthalates are used in flexible plastics such as blood

bags

> and tubing.

>

> The report also revealed that women of childbearing age are regularly

> exposed to

> the phthalate most clearly associated with birth defects and other

> developmental

> effects in animals, and at levels much higher than estimated by the

> government's

> National Toxicology Program just last year.

>

> These new data have prompted CDC to conduct additional studies to explain

these

> findings by examining the pathways by which these phthalates get into

people's

> bodies.

>

> MERCURY

>

> The report had particularly bad news for some children and women of

> childbearing

> age, for whom levels of mercury were higher than experts, including the

> National

> Academy of Sciences in a report last fall, had predicted. Levels of

mercury

> among many more women of childbearing age are high enough that small

increases

> in exposure could expose them and children in utero to unsafe levels.

>

> Scientists will use these new data to better estimate health risks for the

> fetus, children, and women of childbearing age from potential sources of

> mercury

> exposure.

>

> PESTICIDES

>

> Urine levels of organophosphate pesticide metabolites were measured in a

sample

> of study participants aged six through 59 years. A particular metabolite

may

> come from exposure to any of several organophosphate pesticides.

>

>

> Last year, independent tests found organophosphate pesticides on some

> Washington

> apples (Photo by Bauer, courtesy Agricultural Research Service)

> A small number of the study participants showed very high levels of

pesticides

> in their blood. The CDC noted that this result could cause for concern if

it

> accurately reflects the exposure levels of the entire U.S. population.

> " Whether organophosphate pesticides at the levels of metabolites reported

here

> are a cause for health concern is not yet known, " the CDC wrote in its

report.

>

> LEAD

>

> The CDC has been measuring the population's exposure to lead since 1976

through

> the NHANES surveys. The current report, which presents blood lead level

> measurements for U.S. children in 1999, shows that lead levels in the U.S.

> population as a whole are declining, as they have been since refiners

began

> phasing out leaded gasoline in the 1970s.

>

> " The good news is that blood lead levels continue to decline among

children

> overall, " said Sampson, PhD, of CDC's Environmental Laboratory and

also a

> co-author of the report, " However, other data show that children living in

> environments placing them at high risk for lead exposure remain a major

public

> health concern. "

> Besides leaded fuels - still used in some aircraft, watercraft and racing

car

> engines - other sources of lead include old lead based paints, which can

flake

> off in older homes and be ingested by children.

>

> " The national lead data show that government regulations to control lead

have

> benefited human health, " said Dr. Bailus , chair of the Alliance To

End

> Childhood Lead Poisoning and former president of the American Public

Health

> Association. " But these national data mask the crushing reality that one

third

> of preschool children in many low income minority communities are still

> poisoned

> by lead paint hazards in their homes. "

>

> NICOTINE

>

> Nicotine exposure was measured by blood levels of cotinine, a breakdown

product

> of nicotine after it enters the body. Levels of cotinine in the body track

the

> amount of exposure a person has to tobacco smoke.

>

> For a nonsmoker, cotinine tracks exposure to environmental tobacco smoke,

> sometimes called secondhand smoke.

>

> " One significant finding was the more than 75 percent decrease in serum

> cotinine

> levels for nonsmokers in the United States, " said Dr. Jim Pirkle of CDC's

> Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the report, " This decrease

> documents a

> dramatic reduction in exposure of the U.S. population to environmental

tobacco

> smoke since 1991. However, environmental tobacco smoke remains a major

public

> health concern since more than half of American youth continue to be

exposed to

> this known human carcinogen. "

>

> The CDC authors cautioned that the presence of a chemical in blood or

urine

> does

> not necessarily indicate that the chemical will cause disease. Additional

> research will be needed to determine whether the levels reported are a

> cause for

> health concern, the agency said.

>

> " The widespread exposure identified by the CDC is cause for concern, " said

Dr.

> Balbus, director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health at

>

> Washington University. " We do know that some of these chemicals have been

> associated with various health effects at higher levels - including

certain

> cancers, birth defects, and developmental and reproductive disabilities.

> What we

> don't know is what kinds of problems may be associated with these

chemicals at

> the levels identified today. We should take these findings very

seriously. "

>

> Information from this report on environmental chemical exposures will

assist

> researchers and public health officials to better understand the

relationship

> between toxic exposures and health consequences and guide public health

> prevention efforts.

>

> " The report is a major step toward assessing in the U.S. population which

> environmental chemicals are present in blood and urine samples, who is

exposed,

> trends in exposure over time, and whether interventions to reduce exposure

are

> working, " said Dr. , director of the CDC's National Center

for

> Environmental Health (NCEH).

>

> The CDC plans to add other substances to future reports, and continue to

> measure

> the 27 substances covered in this report as well, with a goal of reporting

> on at

> least 100 different chemicals.

>

> In the future, CDC also plans to offer data on exposure levels for more

> specific

> population groups, such as minority populations, and those exposed to

chemicals

> through particular sources, such as eating mercury contaminated fish from

a

> polluted river.

>

> Responding to the new CDC report, a coalition of physicians and

representatives

> of almost 20 national organizations are calling for a national program of

> chemical exposure monitoring vastly larger than the pilot program which

> produced

> the results CDC announced Wednesday.

>

> " There are 80,000 chemicals in commerce today, but only the 27 chemicals

in

> today's report have been systematically monitored for, " said Dr.

> Levinson, associate executive director of the American Public Health

> Association. " We have to do a lot better. "

>

> The coalition called for exposure monitoring programs in every state,

> monitoring

> for many more chemicals, and looking much more closely at sensitive

> subpopulations like children and more highly exposed minority populations.

>

> The full report is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report

>

>