Dozens of Chemicals Found in Most Americans' Bodies

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Dozens of Chemicals Found in Most Americans' Bodies

The concentration is especially high in children, a

national study says. But experts aren't sure what the

health effects are.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/kids/la-na-chemicals22jul22,1,3669125.sto\

ry?coll=la-health-kids & ctrack=1 & cset=true

By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer

In the largest study of chemical exposure ever

conducted on human beings, the U.S. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that

most American children and adults were carrying in

their bodies dozens of pesticides and toxic compounds

used in consumer products, many of them linked to

potential health threats.

The report documented bigger doses in children than in

adults of many chemicals, including some pyrethroids,

which are in virtually every household pesticide, and

phthalates, which are found in nail polish and other

beauty products as well as in soft plastics.

The CDC's director, Dr. L. Gerberding, called

the national exposure report — the third in an

assessment that is released biennially — a

breakthrough that would help public health officials

home in on the most important compounds to which

Americans are routinely exposed.

The latest installment, which looked for 148 toxic

compounds in the urine and blood of about 2,400 people

age 6 and older in 2000 and 2001, is " the largest and

most comprehensive report of its kind ever released

anywhere by anyone, " Gerberding said. Findings were

broken down by age group and race.

At Thursday's news conference, CDC officials

emphasized the good news: Steep declines were found in

children's exposure to lead and secondhand cigarette

smoke.

Lead levels in children have dropped significantly

over several years, which Gerberding called an

" astonishing public health achievement " attributable

largely to its removal from gasoline and paint.

About 1.6% of young children tested from 1999 to 2002

had elevated levels of lead, which could lower their

intelligence and damage their brains, compared with

88.2% in the late 1970s and 4.4% in the early 1990s.

But the discovery of more than 100 other substances in

humans, particularly children, distressed

environmental health experts.

" The report in general shows that people — kids and

adults — are exposed to things that aren't intended to

be in their body, " said Dr. Jerome A. son, an

associate professor of pediatrics at the

Washington University School of Medicine and Health

Sciences who specializes in children's environmental

health. " In and of itself, that is a concern. Whether

it's harmful or not we can't tell from this particular

study. "

The new data in the 475-page report reveal how " we

have fouled our own nest, " son said. " We

contaminated the environment sufficiently that there

are measurable amounts of potentially toxic substances

in people — kids and adults. "

The CDC did not try to gauge the health threat the

chemicals might pose. A measurable amount of a

compound in a person's body does not mean it causes

disease or other damage, the agency noted.

For many compounds in the report, experts have little

information on what amounts may be harmful or what

they may do in combination.

" We are really at the beginning of a very complicated

journey to understand the thousands of substances we

are exposed to, " said Burke, associate

professor at the s Hopkins Bloomberg School of

Public Health.

The discovery of pyrethroids in most people is

especially important, as no one had looked for them in

the human body before. Pyrethroids are synthetic

versions of natural compounds found in flowers, and

they have been considered safer than older pesticides,

such as DDT and chlordane, that build up in the

environment and have been banned in the United States.

But in high doses, pyrethroids are toxic to the

nervous system. They are the second most common class

of pesticides that result in poisoning. At low doses,

they might alter hormones. The compounds are used in

large volumes in farm and household pesticides and are

sprayed by public agencies to kill mosquitoes.

Pyrethroids " were a step forward [from DDT and other

banned pesticides], but now we're beginning to

understand that while they don't persist in the

environment, many of us are exposed, " Burke said. " We

don't quite know what those levels mean. "

Eleven of 12 phthalates tested were higher in children

than adults. All of the phthalates but one are used in

fragrances. In animal tests, and in one recent study

of human babies, some of the compounds have been shown

to alter male reproductive organs or to feminize

hormones.

Representatives of the chemical and pesticide

industries praised the study, saying that human

biomonitoring is the best available tool to measure

exposure. They echoed the CDC in saying that discovery

of the chemicals in the human body did not

automatically mean they posed a threat.

The report demonstrates " that exposure to these

man-made and natural substances is extremely low, "

said American Chemistry Council spokesman Chris

VandenHeuvel.

The CDC's Gerberding said that " for the vast majority "

of the 148 chemicals in the report, " we have no

evidence of health effects. "

Many toxicologists and environmental scientists

disagree.

Studies of animals, and in some cases people, suggest

that most of the compounds can affect the brain,

hormones, reproductive system or the immune system, or

that they are linked to cancer. " These are some bad

actors, " Burke said.

Many of the compounds have not been studied

sufficiently to know what happens with chronic

exposure to low doses. " No evidence of health effects

does not imply that they are not harmful, " son

said. " It just means we don't know one way or

another. "

Environmental groups have called for U.S. law to

require chemical companies to test industrial

compounds more comprehensively, a proposal similar to

one that the European Parliament is to debate in the

fall.

The evidence that many contaminants amass in children

more than in adults could mean that they are exposed

to larger amounts — perhaps from crawling, breathing

more rapidly or putting items in their mouths — or

that their bodies are less able to cope with or

metabolize them.

In the womb and in the first two years after birth,

children undergo extraordinary cell growth, from brain

neurons to immune cells, so there are more

opportunities for toxic compounds to disrupt the

cells, son said. Animal tests show that fetuses

and newborns are the most susceptible to harm from

many chemicals.

In the CDC study, one of every 18 women of

childbearing age, or 5.7%, had mercury that exceeded

the level that the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency deemed safe to a developing fetus.

Tests on schoolchildren show that mercury exposure in

the womb can lower IQs, with memory and vocabulary

particularly impaired.

The CDC plans to expand the national chemical report

to more than 300 compounds in two years and about 500

in four years. An estimated 80,000 chemicals are in

commercial use today.

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