Re: chemcials article

[Guest guest]

very interesting, scary, and sad article. Feels like we're up against a force we

cannot stop. sheila

tina83862 <tina83862@...> wrote:Syndrome & Fibromyalgia News]

ImmuneSupport.com

04-28-2004

By andra Rome

We learned in high school chemistry class that the human body is

simply a living, breathing mixture of chemicals. What we're not

taught, what few of us grasp, is that increasingly our bodies are

part of a vast chemistry experiment, bombarded daily by industrial

and agricultural toxic substances.

I volunteered to be one of nine people tested for 210 of these

chemicals four summers ago. Thirteen vials of blood were drawn, and

urine samples over a 24-hour period were collected from each

participant and shipped overnight to labs in Kansas and California

for evaluation.

The organizations that collaborated on the study -- the Mount Sinai

School of Medicine; the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit

research and education organization; and Commonweal, a Bolinas-based

nonprofit health and environmental research institute -- wanted to

discover what scientists call our " body burden. " Our industrialized

society leaves its chemical imprint on us. Industrial, agricultural

and waste management practices introduce chemicals that linger in

food, air, water and soil -- and enter our bodies when we breathe,

eat and drink. Some chemicals in consumer products also contaminate

us.

This is my test result: I have measurable levels of 86 out of the 210

chemicals, including 27 different compounds from the chemical groups

PCB and dioxin, both considered among the most toxic environmental

contaminants. (The manufacture of PCBs was banned in the United

States in 1976 because of concern over their effects on human health.

They are still in use in some electrical equipment. Dioxins are

byproducts of the manufacture and burning of products that contain

chlorine.)

To put this number into context: There are more than 75,000 chemicals

licensed for commercial use; more than 2,000 new synthetic chemicals

are registered every year; the Environmental Protection Agency has

tallied close to 10,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics, food and

consumer products. The 210 we were tested for are just a few of the

industrial chemicals in our world. We can surmise that the actual

number of manufactured chemicals in our bodies is far greater than

our results show. Very few of these chemicals were in our

environment, or our bodies, just 75 years ago.

In 1998, U.S. industries reported manufacturing 6.5 trillion pounds

of 9, 000 different chemicals, and in 2000, major American companies -

- not even counting the smaller ones -- dumped 7.1 billion pounds of

650 different industrial chemicals into our air and water.

How do I feel knowing I have all these chemicals in my body? Although

I've spent most of my adult life working on environment and public

health issues and, in an intellectual sense, I expected the results,

seeing the list of chemicals was shocking: Heavy metals like lead and

methylmercury, organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides.

Numerous furans -- pollutant byproducts of industry. Volatile and

semi-volatile chemicals widely used in consumer products like

gasoline, paints, glues and fire retardants.

I had secretly harbored the hope that I would find I didn't have much

of the bad stuff in me. After all, I have been privileged to live

a " clean " life. I haven't worked in factories or lived in heavily

industrial areas; I've had access to good, organic food; I'm well

educated and knowledgeable about the dangers of pesticides and have

made a point of not keeping them in my house. (Though I'm an avid

gardener, I haven't used pesticides for years.)

What I discovered is that we are all in this chemical soup together.

Chemicals in our environment don't discriminate.

The findings gave new and pointed meaning to terms I've heard for

years: toxic, persistent, bio-accumulative. One example is Mirex, an

organochlorine pesticide. I became fixated on Mirex because I was the

only one in our group to have a measurable level of it.

Mirex was banned for use in the United States in 1976 -- 26 years

ago, the year the second of my three daughters was born. Manufactured

by the Allied Chemical Corp., it was until then used as an

insecticide and fire retardant.

Here's what the Environmental Working Group found out about

Mirex: " As a class, organochlorine pesticides are toxic, persistent,

bio-accumulative and lipophilic. This means that organochlorines

build up and are stored in fatty tissues and fluids, such as breast

milk, and can be passed on to fetuses and infants during pregnancy

and lactation. " And, chillingly, " Extremely little is known about the

effect of Mirex in humans. "

I'm 56, and my personal health history includes autoimmune illnesses,

fibromyalgia and a rare cardiac syndrome known as Syndrome X. I've

had three breast biopsies, one of which showed a finding of atypical

cells that are usually considered a precursor to breast cancer.

Although it's unknown to what extent my exposure may have contributed

to the diseases I have that have been diagnosed, learning of these

chemicals in my body has been deeply disturbing. I have many

questions and concerns: How and where was I exposed to each of them?

Have they contributed to my health problems? Had I known, could I

have done anything more to avoid the exposures?

Most importantly, how much of what has bio-accumulated in me have I,

however unwittingly, passed on to my daughters? Living in a world

with ever-increasing numbers of and uses for chemicals, how will this

affect them and their future children, my grandchildren? And why do

we know so little about these chemicals and the ubiquitous, low-dose

exposures we are subjected to daily?

I know that we can seldom link specific health problems to specific

exposures; the science is not yet available for that. But the

prevalence of many illnesses and diseases -- including cancers, birth

and reproductive system defects, asthma, nervous system disorders

such as autism and attention deficit disorder -- is on the rise, and

environmental factors may play a significant role in these increases.

More than 50 of the chemicals I tested positive for are known to have

harmful effects on the immune and cardiac systems.

Unfortunately, way too little is known about the vast majority of

chemicals we have unleashed into our environment and bodies. There is

no information available on the chemical uses or health effects of

more than one- third of the chemicals for which the nine body burden

study participants tested positive in a review of eight standard

industry or government references used by the EPA. The chemical

industry continues to claim that low- dose exposure to hundreds of

chemicals simultaneously is safe. Yet, for most of the chemicals

found in us, there are almost no studies done on such exposures, much

less on related questions about how they may interact with each other

in our bodies, how the timing of exposure may affect us, or how

genetic vulnerability plays into the mix. It is not acceptable for

any of us to be participants, without a choice, in this chemical soup

about which we have so little knowledge.

The main reason so little is known is this: Companies are under no

legal or regulatory obligation to understand how their products might

harm human health, except in the case of certain ingredients in drugs

or food or used as pesticides. That is also unacceptable. We must

have more reliable scientific information about these chemicals. We

must reform the Toxic Substance Control Act (the nation's chief

regulatory statute for commercial chemicals) and incorporate into it

the precautionary principle, which would require industries to show

reasonable certainty that no harm will result from putting chemicals

on the market. Companies are already required to do this before

marketing some pesticides.

Where scientific evidence shows that industrial chemicals are likely

to contribute to diseases, and their benefits don't outweigh their

harmful effects, exposures should be reduced or eliminated. We have

to change our laws and regulatory practices relating to the chemicals

pouring into our world.

It's no less important to support independent research and public

health facilities, like the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, which will pioneer the science that must lie behind the

decisions we need to make.

I hope that the cumulative effect of many efforts like our body

burden study will lighten the body burdens that my daughters -- and

all of our children -- have to carry. A complete report on our study,

information about the chemicals we were tested for, and profiles of

the participants are available at www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden/.

The other participants in the " body-burden " study

: A Corte Madera environment and public health activist

who founded the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco. She died in

August of brain cancer.

Bill Moyers: Broadcast journalist who shared results of his body

burden tests in his Emmy award-winning PBS special on the chemical

industry, " Trade Secrets: Bill Moyers Reports. "

Baltz: A senior projects director for Bolinas-based Commonweal,

a nonprofit environmental and health research organization. Lucy

Waletzky: A psychiatrist and board member of the National Audubon

Society who serves on the board of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Cancer Society.

Lerner: Founder of Commonweal and a longtime environmental

activist.

Sharyle Patton: Co-founder of the International Persistent Organic

Pollutants Network and co-director of the Collaborative on Health and

Environment, focusing on links between health and the environment.

Harden: A New Orleans attorney with expertise in anti-

pollution litigation.

Charlotte Brody: A registered nurse who founded the Health Care

Without Harm Campaign to make health care more environmentally

responsible.

KEY TO CONTAMINANTS

andra Rome's body was found to contain measurable levels of 86

out of the 210 chemicals tested in the " Body Burden " study. In most

cases there is no official standard for what constitutes unsafe

levels of these chemicals within the human body and scientists

haven't determined what levels of exposure cause disease. But several

of these chemical compounds are listed by the official U. S. National

Toxicology Program as " known " or " reasonably anticipated " human

carcinogens. They fall into one of the following eight categories:

PCBs: PCBs were used for industrial insulation and lubrication until

they were almost entirely banned in 1974. Based on animal studies,

the government has concluded that several mixtures of PCBs

are " reasonably anticipated " to cause cancer in humans.

Dioxin: The byproducts of PVC production, industrial bleaching and

incineration, dioxin can cause cancer in humans and is toxic to

developing endocrine systems.

Furans: Pollutant byproduct of plastics production, incineration and

industrial leaching. Toxic to developing endocrine systems.

Organochlorine insecticides: DDT, chlordane and other pesticides.

Largely banned in the United States, these chemicals can accumulate

in the food chain and be ingested by humans.Some of them can cause

cancer and reproductive effects.

Organophosphate insecticide metabolites: Byproduct of malathion and

other insecticides, can be toxic to the nervous system. Indoor uses

were recently banned. A common exposure is from food.

Phthalates: Plasticizers found in some cosmetic and personal care

products and inks. The National Toxicology Program found these may

cause birth defects of male reproductive organs.

Volatile and Semi-volatile organic chemicals: Gasoline, varnishes,

glue and industrial solvents contain chemicals from this family, as

does tobacco smoke. Some are poisonous to the nervous system.

Benzene, a gasoline additive also present in tobacco smoke, is

identified by the government as a cancercauser in humans.

Metals: Lead, found in old paint chips, can cause lowered IQ.

Mercury, which may befound in swordfish, shark and canned albacore,

can trigger developmental delays. Arsenic exposure from treated

lumber and contaminated drinking water, is linked to behavioral

disorders. Cadmium, found for example in pigments and bakeware, is

classified by the government as a " known carcinogen. "

andra Rome was co-director of the Sustainable Futures Group at

Commonweal, a nonprofit health and environmental research institute,

until 2000. She lives in Mill Valley.