CA: StatsCan to test 5000 people for intra-body toxins

[Guest guest]

Interesting that Canada seems to be taking seriously the issue of

intra-body toxins - even tho' the evaluation process and summaries are

likely to be diluted by business-oriented politics. In contrast, the US

govt is waging a war on its citizens by allowing not only the injection of

neurotoxins like thimerosal but also by allowing more businesses secrecy

as they discard toxins into the environment (eg, 1-3) and by closing EPA

libraries (eg, 4-5). How are we to react to our governments actions when

- in humans - pollutants are found in the placenta, amniotic fluid, fetal

brains, and breast milk; and since toxins are increasingly found to be

associated with various human diseases including but not limited to autism

and diabetes?

- - - -

*StatsCan to test 5,000 people for toxins*

Ottawa to map out pollutants in body

MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061222.TOXIC22/TPStory/Enviro\

nment

Statistics Canada will test the blood and urine of 5,000 Canadians, ages 6

to 79, so the government can for the first time chart the chemicals that

pollute our bodies.

The federal government's first large-scale survey mirrors similar efforts

in the United States that have found that virtually the entire population

carries a complex burden of pollutants in their tissues.

The blood and urine will be subjected to a battery of expensive tests that

will check for 70 metals and chemicals, including DDT, the once widely

used insecticide that has been banned for decades.

DDT is still found throughout the environment because it degrades so

slowly. Print Edition - Section Front

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The Globe and Mail

Those who participate will be given an abbreviated summary of the

contaminants they carry. If curious, they can ask to receive a complete

breakdown of all the chemicals.

Many of the substances to be monitored have only recently emerged as

potential health threats, and are a worry because the chemicals appear to

be leaking out of common consumer products and getting into people.

Bisphenol A, for instance, is a compound that mimics the female sex

hormone estrogen and is the main component of polycarbonate, used to make

hard-plastic water bottles and dental sealants.

Phthalates are a ubiquitous plastic softener found in many cosmetics and

which contribute to the distinctive smell of new cars.

Phthalates concern researchers because they appear able to interfere with

the normal functioning of male hormones.

The tests will also look at brominated flame retardants, a widely used

family of chemicals that reduce the fire hazard of mattresses and

computers, but have been linked in animal experiments to problems

resembling attention-deficit disorders in children.

It is unknown whether current exposures to these substances or their

interactions in people's bodies is harmful, although animal

experimentation has found that during early life and fetal development

even trace exposures to some of the substances can skew development in

ways that increase the chances of cancers and other health problems later

in life.

Given this experimental evidence, environmentalists have long called for

the government to conduct this type of broad population testing. It's

hoped that the volunteers, chosen from 15 areas across the country, will

yield enough exposure information to allow researchers to estimate with

reasonable accuracy the amount of harmful substances present in 97 per

cent of the population.

Health Canada is calling it the first nationally representative sample

" that will allow for the proper analysis of the environmental chemicals

found in the bodies of Canadians. "

The first samples will be taken from residents of Clarington, a Toronto

bedroom community, then Montérégie outside Montreal and Moncton.

Federal officials say the survey will close a huge gap in Canadian

public-health measurements, the lack of comprehensive information on the

amount of pollutants such as phthalates, bisphenol A and flame retardants

that people are carrying in their bodies. Until now, health authorities

have had to rely on U.S. testing to try to estimate how exposed Canadians

have been to these substances.

" We have no national data on any of this, " said Jeanine Bustros, a

spokeswoman for the monitoring program at Statscan.

" It's long overdue, " observed Rick , executive director of

Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based organization that has conducted

some small-scale contaminant tests on a few dozen people and found that

everyone carries pollutants.

He said this finding is a sign that governments have to do more to limit

public exposures to potentially harmful chemicals. " The fact that we do

have these things inside us is a condemnation of our current regulatory

system. "

Some prominent federal politicians have recently undergone tests similar

to those that Statistics Canada will do and the results will be out soon.

Environmental Defence has taken samples from Health Minister Tony Clement,

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose and NDP Leader Jack Layton, in a bid to

show that contaminants know no political boundaries and are present in

everyone.

The U.S. has been issuing results of large-scale testing for contaminants,

a process known as biomonitoring, since 2001.

The testing has discovered that the public carries a bewildering cocktail

of chemicals from day-to-day exposures to substances originating in

consumer products, polluting industries and residues on food. However, the

U.S. work has also shown that efforts to ban harmful substances, like the

end of the sale of leaded gasoline, have been quickly reflected in reduced

levels of the brain-damaging heavy metal in children.

Canada hadn't done similar testing until now because federal authorities

blanched at the huge logistical effort involved and the great cost of this

type of work. It costs about $1,000 a person for extensive checks for

chemical contaminants. Statscan will be using big trailers, a kind of

mobile medical centre, where those selected will give their samples.

As part of the survey, the government will also be looking at people's

height, weight, blood pressure, physical fitness and lung function, among

other health factors. Tests will also be run for the presence of weed

killers and cotinine, which indicates exposure to cigarette smoke.

The program will take about two years to move across the country, and

although no follow-up survey has been announced, it is widely expected

that at regular intervals the government will be taking new samples to

track how contaminant levels change over time.

While the government has never before undertaken such a widespread

program, tests have been done involving a few hundred people looking at

specific problems, such as contaminants in breast milk or mercury levels

in those who eat fish caught for sport. The government has also done

biomonitoring of wildlife, including polar bears, seals and gulls.

When the sampling is completed some time in 2009, researchers will have a

national chemical snapshot for how contaminated Canadians were at this

point, which will become the baseline for subsequent tests. It will allow

rankings on the amount of pollution in Canadians, compared with people in

other countries.

Once the database on the contaminants is set up, the government will also

be able to use this information to monitor the results of any regulatory

efforts to ban these substances or limit exposure.

- - - -

1. EPA's rules on pollution reporting loosened

Some plants can emit 4 times as much in '07 under the radar

By JEFF MONTGOMERY, The News Journal

Posted Tuesday, December 19, 2006

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061219/NEWS/612190339

2. Right-to-Know Info Shrinks

EPA says change to TRI will reward cleaner firms; activists, Democrats

decry move

Cheryl Hogue

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/84/i52/8452epa.html

3. Critics call EPA's new rule a loophole for big business

A new reporting rule, aimed to ease the burden on small firms, may instead

help Ashland and other giant companies.

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p02s01-usgn.html

4. As EPA libraries go digital, public access suffers

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1201/p02s02-uspo.html

5. Shutdown of EPA Libraries Worries Scientists, Advocates

by Goldstein

December 2, 2006 by the McClatchy Newspapers

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16143635.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1202-01.htm

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