Findings
and Recommendations
In a study led by
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, in
collaboration with the Environmental Working Group
and Commonweal, researchers at two major
laboratories found an average of 91 industrial
compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the
blood and urine of nine volunteers, with a total of
167 chemicals, pollutants, and
pesticides
found in the group.
Like most of us, none of the nine
volunteers work with chemicals on the job, do
not live near an industrial facility, and all lead
healthy lives. Yet, the subjects contained an average
of 91 compounds – most of which did not exist 75
years ago. Scientists
refer to this contamination as a person’s body
burden. Of the 167 chemicals found, 76 cause cancer
in humans or animals, 94 are toxic to the brain and
nervous system, and 79 cause birth defects or
abnormal development. The dangers of exposure to
these chemicals in combination has never been
studied.
Study results appear in a
recently-published edition of the journal Public
Health Reports (Thornton, et al. 2002) – the first
publicly available, comprehensive look at the
chemical burden we carry in our bodies.
TABLE 1: The
chemicals we found are linked to serious health
problems
|
Health
Effect or Body System Affected
|
Number
of chemicals found in 9 people tested that
are linked to the listed health impact
|
|
Average
number found in 9 people
|
Total
found in all 9 people
|
Range
(lowest and highest number found in all 9
people)
|
|
cancer
[1]
|
53
|
76
[2]
|
36
to 65
|
|
birth
defects / developmental delays
|
55
|
79
[3]
|
37
to 68
|
|
vision
|
5
|
11
[4]
|
4
to 7
|
|
hormone
system
|
58
|
86
[5]
|
40
to 71
|
|
stomach
or intestines
|
59
|
84
[6]
|
41
to 72
|
|
kidney
|
54
|
80
[7]
|
37
to 67
|
|
brain,
nervous system
|
62
|
94
[8]
|
46
to 73
|
|
reproductive
system
|
55
|
77
[9]
|
37
to 68
|
|
lungs/breathing
|
55
|
82
[10]
|
38
to 67
|
|
skin
|
56
|
84
[11]
|
37
to 70
|
|
liver
|
42
|
69
[12]
|
26
to 54
|
|
cardiovascular
system or blood
|
55
|
82
[13]
|
37
to 68
|
|
hearing
|
34
|
50
[14]
|
16
to 47
|
|
immune
system
|
53
|
77
[15]
|
35
to 65
|
|
male
reproductive system
|
47
|
70
[16]
|
28
to 60
|
|
female
reproductive system
|
42
|
61
[17]
|
24
to 56
|
*
Some chemicals are associated with multiple health
impacts, and appear in multiple categories in this
table.
Source:
Environmental Working Group compilation
Footnotes
| References:
Health Effects
These results
represent the most comprehensive assessment of
chemical contamination in individuals ever
performed. Even so, many chemicals were not included
in the analysis that are known to contaminate
virtually the entire U.S. population. Two examples
are Scotchgard and the related family of
perfluorinated chemicals, and a group of compounds
known collectively as brominated flame retardants.
A more precise
picture of human contamination with industrial
chemicals, pollutants and pesticides is not possible
because chemical companies are not required to tell
EPA how their compounds are used or monitor where
their products end up in the environment. Neither
does U.S. law require chemical companies to conduct
basic health and safety testing of their products
either before or after they are commercialized.
Eighty percent of all applications to produce a new
chemical are approved by the U.S. EPA with no health
and safety data. Eighty percent of these are
approved in three weeks.
Only the chemical
companies know whether their products are dangerous
and whether they are likely to contaminate people.
As a first step toward a public understanding of the
extent of the problem, the chemical industry must
submit to the EPA and make public on the web, all
information on human exposure to commercial
chemicals, any and all studies relating to potential
health risks, and comprehensive information on
products that contain their chemicals.
Scientists have not
studied the health risks of exposures to complex
chemical mixtures, such as those found in this
study. For two-thirds of the chemicals found, many
of which are banned, researchers have partially
studied the extent to which these chemicals can harm
human health. They have found that these 112
compounds can threaten nearly every organ in the
body at every stage of life.
In total, the nine
subjects carried:
- 76 chemicals
linked to cancer in humans or animals (average
of 53),
- 94 chemicals
that are toxic to the brain and nervous system
(average of 62),
- 86 chemicals
that interfere with the hormone system (average
of 58),
- 79 chemicals
associated with birth defects or abnormal
development (average of 55),
- 77 chemicals
toxic to the reproductive system (average of
55), and
- 77 chemicals
toxic to the immune system (average of 53).
TABLE 2: 167 compounds from seven chemical groups
were found in the nine people tested
|
|
Number
of chemicals tested for in all 9 people
|
Total
number of chemicals found in people tested
|
Average
number of chemicals found in 9 people tested
|
Range
of chemical concentrations found in people
tested
|
|
PCBs
|
73
|
48
|
33
|
57,290
to 455,790 pg/g in blood lipid
|
|
Dioxins
and furans
|
17
|
15
|
14
|
15.7
to 36.6 pg/g TEQ in blood lipid
|
|
Organophosphate
pesticide metabolites
|
9
|
7
|
3
|
4.0
to 70.4 ug/L in urine
|
|
Organochlorine
pesticides and metabolites
|
23
|
10
|
4
|
615
to 3084 pg/g in blood lipid (pentachlorphenol
was found in 1 person at 1.4 ug/L in urine)
|
|
Phthalates
|
6
|
6
|
4
|
97.2
to 904.8 ug/g in blood lipid
|
|
Other
semivolatile and volatile chemicals (24
classes)
|
77
|
77
|
31
|
not
quantified
|
|
Metals
|
5
|
4
|
2
|
varies
by metal
|
|
Total
|
210
|
167
|
91
|
|
Source:
EWG compilation of blood and urine analysis from two
major national laboratories.
The blood and urine from the nine volunteers were
tested for 210 chemicals that can be divided into
seven basic groups. Of the chemical groups tested,
the most prevalent were those contained in 24
classes of semivolatile and volatile chemicals, with
78 detected. These classes include well-known
industrial solvents and gasoline ingredients, such
as xylene and ethyl benzene, that are used in a
variety of common products like paints, glues, and
fire retardants. The laboratory found 48 PCBs in the
nine people tested. PCBs were banned in the United
States in 1976 but are used in other countries and
persist in the environment for decades. Their most
common use was as an insulating fluid in electrical
capacitors and transformers, vacuum pumps, and
gas-transmission turbines. Lead was found in all 9
participants, and mercury was found in 8.
Health
professionals are not trained to link health
problems to an individual’s chemical exposure, but
it is increasingly evident that background exposures
to industrial chemicals and pesticides are
contributing to a portion of the steady increase in
some health problems in the population. A number of
significant health effects potentially linked to
chemical exposures are increasingly prevalent:
Cancer.
Between 1992 and 1999, cancer incidence increased
for many forms of the disease, including breast,
thyroid, kidney, liver, abdominal cavity connective
tissue, skin and some forms of leukemia. The
incidence of childhood cancer increased by 26
percent between 1975 and 1999, with the sharpest
rise estimated for brain and other nervous system
cancers (50 percent increase) and acute lymphocytic
leukemia (62 percent increase). The incidence of
testicular cancer also rose between 1973 and 1999
(NCI 2002). The probability that a US resident will
develop cancer at some point in his or her lifetime
is 1 in 2 for men and 1 in 3 for women (ACS 2001).
Just 5 to 10 percent of all cancers are linked to
inherited, genetic factors (ACS 2001). For the
remainder, a broad array of environmental factors
plays a pivotal role.
- We found 76
carcinogens in nine people. On average, each
study participant contained 53 chemical
carcinogens.
Major nervous
system disorders. Several recent studies have
determined that the reported incidence of autism is
increasing, and is now almost 10 times higher than
in the mid-1980’s (Byrd 2002, Chakrabarti and
Fombonne 2001, Yang, et al. 2000). The number of
children being diagnosed and treated for attention
deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has also increased
dramatically in the past decade (Robison, et al.
1999, Robison, et al. 2002, Zito, et al. 2000). The
causes are largely unexplained, but environmental
factors, including chemical exposures, are
considered a potential cause or contributor.
Environmental factors have also been increasingly
linked with Parkinson’s disease (Checkoway and
Nelson 1999, Engel, et al. 2001).
- We found 94
chemicals toxic to the nervous system in nine
people. On average, each study participant
contained 62 nervous system toxicants.
Defects of the
reproductive system. Studies show that sperm
counts in certain parts of the world are decreasing
(Swan, et al. 2000, Toppari, et al. 1996).
Scientists have measured significant regional
differences in sperm count that cannot be explained
by differences in genetic factors (Swan, et al. in
press). Girls may be reaching puberty earlier, based
on comparing current appearance of breast
development and pubic hair growth with historical
data (Herman-Giddens, et al. 1997). Incidence of
hypospadias, a birth defect of the penis, doubled in
the United States between 1970 and 1993, and is
estimated to affect one of every 125 male babies
born (Paulozzi, et al. 1997). The incidence of
undescended testicles (cryptorchidism) and
testicular cancer also appear to be rising in
certain parts of the world (Bergstrom, et al. 1996,
McKiernan, et al. 1999, Toppari, et al. 1996).
Testicular cancer is now the most common cancer in
men age 15 to 35 [NCI 2000]. Several studies have
suggested links between developmental exposure to
environmental contaminants and cryptorchidism or
testicular cancer (Hardell, et al. in press, Hosie,
et al. 2000, Toppari, et al. 1996, Weidner, et al.
1998).
- We found 77
chemicals linked to reproductive damage in nine
people. On average the nine subjects contained
55 reproductive toxicants.
Toxic effects do
not require high doses
Hundreds of studies
in the peer-reviewed literature show that adverse
health effects from low dose exposures are occurring
in the population, caused by unavoidable
contamination with PCBs, DDT, dioxin, mercury, lead,
toxic air pollutants, and other chemicals. The
health effects scientists have linked to chemical
exposures in the general population include
premature death, asthma, cancer, chronic bronchitis,
permanent decrements in IQ and declines in other
measures of brain function, premature birth,
respiratory tract infection, heart disease, and
permanent decrements in lung capacity (EPA 1996, EPA
2000, Gauderman, et al. 2002, Jacobson and Jacobson
2002, Jacobson, et al. 2002, Kopp, et al. 2000,
Longnecker, et al. 2001, NAS 2000, NTP 2002, Pope,
et al. 2002, Salonen, et al. 1995, Sydbom, et al.
2001).
A growing body of
literature links low dose chemical exposures in
animal studies to a broad range of health effects
previously unexplored in high dose studies. In low
dose testing, scientists are using sophisticated
techniques to measure subtle but important changes
in the functioning of apparently undamaged organ
systems, including alterations in immune function
(such as antibody response), enzyme activity,
hormone levels, cellular changes in tissues,
neurobehavioral parameters, organ growth, and
hormone and neurotransmitter receptor levels.
Importantly, many low dose effects are detected
following developmental exposure. These tests focus
on the effects of chemical exposures comparable to
those that occur in the general population, and far
below the levels that have traditionally been
considered safe based on the results of studies that
feed lab animals high doses of a given compound.
Using these protocols, scientists are finding that
low doses of chemicals can be far more harmful than
previously believed.
Low dose studies
often identify toxic effects at levels far below
those identified as the “no effect” level in
high dose studies. For instance, through low dose
studies of bisphenol A (BPA), a plasticizer chemical
commonly used in dental sealants and plastic water
bottles, scientists have revealed health effects at
levels 2,500 times lower than EPA’s “lowest
observed effect” dose, with adverse outcomes
ranging from altered male reproductive organs and
aggressive behavior, to abnormal mammary gland
growth, early puberty, and reduced breast feeding
(Figure 1).
In the face of a
powerful and growing body of literature linking low
dose chemical exposures and health harms in the
general population, the chemical industry continues
to claim that low dose exposures to hundreds of
chemicals simultaneously are safe. These claims,
however, are nearly always based on a lack of
scientific information on the toxicity of dose
exposures, not on a definitive, scientific proof of
safety.
High dose animal
studies provide the foundation for federal exposure
limits for contaminants in consumer products,
drinking water, food, and air. Indeed, the
nation’s regulatory system for chemical exposures
is dependent on the notion that high dose studies
will reveal all the toxic properties of a chemical
being tested. We now know that this is not true. A
number of factors, each of which can be as important
as the exposure dose, determine a compound's
toxicity:
- Timing.
The timing of a dose can often determine the
toxicity of the chemical. Low dose chemical
exposures during fetal development or infancy
are known to produce more serious toxic effects
than similar exposures during adulthood for many
chemicals. Lead and mercury are the classic
examples, where low dose exposures in utero and
during infancy cause permanent brain and nerve
damage, while the same doses cause no observable
effects in adults. Few high dose studies, with
the exception of those required for food use
pesticides, target vulnerable periods of
development. Most high dose studies include only
adult animals. Low dose studies almost always
involve in utero exposures.
- Genetic
vulnerability. Some people are more
susceptible to environmental contaminants
because of genetic factors. For example,
EPA-funded research has documented a 10,000-fold
variability in human respiratory response to
airborne particles (including allergens and
pharmaceuticals) (Hattis, et al. 2001). This
variability explains, in part, why we all
breathe the same air, but not all of us have
asthma attacks. Laboratory animal studies, often
conducted with genetically-uniform animals,
cannot reveal genetically-induced adverse
effects that may occur in a small but
significant percentage of a highly diverse human
population.
- Mechanisms.
Chemicals produce a spectrum of health effects
that can both vary with dose, and affect the
target organ in different ways depending on
dose. For instance, some chemicals produce
opposite effects at high and low doses – a
phenomenon called biphasic dose response. Some
produce different effects at high and low doses.
Some produce adverse effects at low doses, but
not at higher doses. DES, a potent synthetic
estrogen, has been shown to stimulate prostate
growth at 0.02, 0.2, and 2 mg/kg-day, but
inhibit prostate growth at doses of 100 and 200
mg/kg-day (vom Saal, et al. 1997). Perchlorate,
a component of rocket fuel that contaminates
drinking water, causes changes in the size of
certain parts of the brain at 0.01 – 1
mg/kg-day, but not at 30 mg/kg-day (Argus 1998).
Current government testing regimes do not
require tests to define different effects of
chemicals across a wide range of doses.
There are other
problems with the assertion that all low dose
exposures are safe, or trivial, simply because they
are small. The chief one being that the toxicity of
mixtures is almost never studied. Current high dose
studies, like those required for pesticides used on
food, are conducted with purified single chemicals.
In the real world, people are exposed to low dose
mixtures of several hundred chemicals. Scientists do
not understand the toxicity of these mixtures, and
with few exceptions are not investigating them.
In the rare cases
in which scientists have studied the effects of
mixtures, they have found adverse health effects. In
two recent studies scientists dosed laboratory
animals with a mixture of 16 organochlorine
pesticides, lead, and cadmium, each applied at its
individual regulatory “safe” dose, and found
that the animals developed impaired immune response
and altered function of the thyroid, a gland that is
critical for brain development (Wade, et al. 2002a,
Wade, et al. 2002b).
Our Body Burden
Scientists refer to
the chemical exposure documented here as an
individuals “body burden” – the consequence of
lifelong exposure to industrial chemicals that are
used in thousands of consumer products and linger as
contaminants in air, water, food, and soil. There
are hundreds of chemicals in drinking water,
household air, dust, treated tap water and food.
They come from household products like detergent,
insulation, fabric treatments, cosmetics, paints,
upholstery, computers and TVs, and they accumulate
in fat, blood and organs, or are passed through the
body in breast milk, urine, feces, sweat, semen,
hair and nails. (Easton, et al. 2002, EPA 2002d,
OECD 2002, Rudel, et al. 2001, Thornton, et al.
2000, USGS 2002).
We know that:
- U.S. chemical
companies hold licenses to make 75,000 chemicals
for commercial use. The federal government
registers an average of 2,000 newly synthesized
chemicals each year.
- The government
has tallied 5,000 chemical ingredients in
cosmetics; more than 3,200 chemicals added to
food; 1,010 chemicals used in 11,700 consumer
products; and 500 chemicals used as active
ingredients in pesticides (EPA 1997c, EPA 2002b,
EPA 2002c, FDA 2002a, FDA 2002b, FDA 2002c).
- In 1998 U.S.
industries reported manufacturing 6.5 trillion
pounds of 9,000 different chemicals (EPA 2001),
and in 2000 major U.S. industries reported
dumping 7.1 billion pounds of 650 industrial
chemicals into our air and water (EPA 2002a).
At least 20 major
peer-reviewed scientific journals are devoted almost
entirely to studies of health effects from chemical
exposures. But despite the ever-growing volume of
data on the nature and consequences of exposure to
industrial chemicals, scientists and doctors cannot
answer the most basic questions:
What health
effects can be linked to the mixtures of industrial
chemicals found in the human body?
Beyond a handful of
chemicals, the answer is not known. The reason:
there is no legal requirement to test most chemicals
for health effects at any stage of production,
marketing, and use.
Under the Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA), chemical companies
can continue making chemicals and putting new
compounds on the market without conducting any
studies of their effects on people or the
environment. Some companies conduct rudimentary
screening studies prior to production, but fewer
than half of all applications to the EPA for new
chemical production include any toxicity data at
all. The government approves 80 percent of these
applications with no restrictions, usually in less
than three weeks. When data are provided, they are
typically cursory in nature, because the government
lacks the authority to request anything more than
that. Eight of 10 new chemicals win approval in less
than three weeks, at an average rate of seven a day.
If there are no data, the government justifies
approval with results of computer models that
estimate if a chemical will harm human health or the
environment (EPA 1997a, GAO 1994).
For chemicals that
are already on the market, the EPA can request data
only when it can substantiate that the chemical is
causing harm, which it generally cannot do without
the toxicity data it is seeking to request. In
practice, this means that studies are required only
after independent scientists have accumulated a body
of evidence demonstrating potential harm, a process
that typically takes decades.
What mixtures of
industrial chemicals are found in the bodies of the
general population in the U.S.?
Not known (even
this study defines only a fraction of the chemicals
in the nine people tested). The reason: beyond
chemicals that are added to food or used as drugs,
there is no requirement for chemical manufacturers
to: disclose how their chemicals are used or the
routes through which people are exposed; understand
the fate of their chemicals in the environment;
measure concentrations of their products in the
environment or in people; or develop and make public
analytical methods that would allow other scientists
to gather information.
Companies sometimes
develop methods to test for chemicals in the blood
or urine of their workers, but they do not routinely
disclose the methods or results to the government or
the public. The government has spearheaded most of
the limited testing that has been performed for the
general population in studies funded by taxpayers.
The government’s studies have not kept pace with
the ever-expanding array of new toxic chemicals. The
country’s most comprehensive program for detecting
industrial chemicals in the human body is run by a
government program that reported on 27 chemicals in
2001 (CDC 2001). The chemical industry provided
direct funding for none of this multi-million dollar
effort, but instead paid their trade association’s
press office to educate the national media on the
safety of industrial chemicals in the days following
the government’s report release. In their upcoming
report on chemical exposures, CDC is expected to
release information on 116 chemicals, or about 70
percent of the number identified in this study.
A few types of
consumer products, such as cosmetics and home
pesticides, must carry partial ingredient labels so
consumers can make informed choices. Federal law,
however, does not require the chemical industry to
disclose ingredients in most household consumer
products, including cleaners, paints and varnishes,
and chemical coatings on clothing and furniture, or
the so-called “inert” ingredients in pesticides,
which are typically more than 95 percent of the
retail product. The EPA has compiled a database of
more than 1,000 chemicals they believe might be
present in 11,700 consumer products, using data the
Agency gathered from chemical encyclopedias, air
sampling studies in the open scientific literature,
and manufacturers. But the companies have classified
the chemical recipes for 9,300 of these products as
“confidential business information.”
The EPA attempts to
track local exposures to chemical pollutants through
two testing programs, one for tap water and another
for ambient air. But testing captures only a small
fraction of the chemicals a person is exposed to
over the course of a day. At least 165 companies
have manufactured the 167 chemicals found in the
test subjects, marketing them under at least 265
trade and consumer product names. By contrast, some
local and state air monitoring programs track only
five chemical contaminants, most of them linked to
automobile exhaust. Water suppliers test tap water
for 70 contaminants, but the list excludes hundreds
of chemicals known to contaminate public water
supplies [e.g., (USGS 2002)].
Can an
individual participate in a testing program to learn
what industrial chemicals are in his or her body?
Not easily. In this
study the laboratory costs alone were $4,900 per
person. Scientists spent two years designing the
study, gaining approval of the study plan from Mount
Sinai School of Medicine’s Institutional Review
Board, and recruiting subjects. People can request
body burden tests through their personal physicians,
but in general the methods used by available
commercial labs are not sensitive, the available
tests are limited, or both. The CDC lists
“availability of analytical methods” as one of
two major constraining factors in its national
biomonitoring program (CDC 2002).
Conclusions and
Recommendations
This study,
combined with work from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and a thorough review of the
scientific literature reveals a ubiquitous and
insidious pollution of the human population with
hundreds of chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides.
In large measure this is the result of a regulatory
system that leaves the EPA with few tools to study
the health effects or the extent of human exposure
to the thousands of chemicals found in consumer
products. The widespread use of poorly studied
chemicals in the absence of any meaningful
regulatory structure to control them has led to:
- Pervasive
contamination of the human population with
hundreds of chemicals at low dose mixtures that
have not been examined for potential health
effects.
- An industry that
has no legal obligation to conduct safety tests
or monitor for the presence of its chemicals in
the environment or the human population – and
a financial incentive not to do so.
- A federal
research establishment that is unequipped, both
technically and financially, to monitor the
human population for commercial chemicals or to
study their health effects.
- An
ever-increasing load of chemical contamination
in the human population and global environment
that is comprised of poorly studied chemicals,
nearly all of which have never before been
encountered in all of evolutionary history.
The chemical
industry tightly controls the testing and the
information flow on any issue related to their
products. In general, the more recently a chemical
has been introduced into commerce, the less
scientists understand its toxicity, and the less
likely it is that scientists will know how to test
for it in people and the environment. The few
chemicals or chemical families that have been
well-studied are those for which scientists
uncovered, often accidentally, environmental
catastrophes that can include widespread pollution
of the environment or human population.
Chemical companies
are not required to disclose methods that could be
used to test for their chemicals in the environment
or the human body. Typically only after a compound
has been on the market for decades, and has
contaminated a significant portion of the
environment, do independent scientists learn how to
detect and quantify it. At that point, the CDC may
choose to include the chemical in its national
biomonitoring program. Even then there is no
guarantee that the manufacturer will provide CDC
with the methodology to detect it, or that the
methods will be reliable. For example, three years
after 3M announced that it was removing
perfluorinated chemicals in Scotchgard from the
market, chiefly because 3M found that the human
population is widely contaminated with the
chemicals, the CDC has yet to develop a method it
considers reliable that would allow it to add the
chemicals to its national biomonitoring program.
This situation is
unacceptable.
At a minimum,
people have a right to know what chemicals are in
their bodies and what harm they might cause. The
sole source of this information is the chemical
manufacturers themselves, who historically have
resisted all efforts to make basic health
information on their products available to the
public, regulators and independent scientists.
Without disclosure
of information on the environmental fate, human
contamination, and health effects of these
chemicals, regulators cannot effectively prioritize
efforts to reduce the health risks from the current
contaminant load in the human population.
Regardless of
whether or not Congress revises the nation’s laws
or policies:
- The chemical
industry must submit to EPA and make public on
individual company web sites, all internal
studies on the properties, environmental fate,
potential human exposure pathways and exposure
levels, concentrations in workers and the
general population, levels in the environment,
worker and community health, measured effects in
wildlife, toxicity, mechanisms of action and any
other information relevant to human exposures
and potential health effects for all chemicals
reasonably likely to be found in people,
drinking water, or indoor air.
Revisions to the
nation’s laws and policies governing chemical
manufacture and use include the following
provisions:
- Industry must be
required to prove the safety of a new chemical
before it is put on the market.
- The EPA must
have the unencumbered authority to request any
and all new data on a chemical that is already
on the market.
- The EPA must
have the clear authority to suspend a
chemical’s production and sale if the data
requested are not generated, or if they show
that the chemical, as used, is not safe for the
most sensitive portion of the exposed
population.
- Chemicals that
persist in the environment or bioaccumulate in
the food chain must be banned.
- Chemicals found
in humans, in products to which children might
be exposed, in drinking water, food, or indoor
air, must be thoroughly tested for their health
effects in low dose, womb-to-tomb,
multi-generational studies focused on known
target organs, that include sensitive endpoints
like organ function and cognitive development.
Studies to define mechanisms of action (how a
chemical harms the body) must also be conducted.
- The chemical
industry must develop and make public analytical
methods to detect their chemicals in the human
body, and conduct biomonitoring studies to find
the levels of their chemicals in the general
population.
- Chemical
manufacturers must fully disclose the
ingredients of their products to the public.
|
PCBs
— Industrial insulators and lubricants. Banned in the U.S.
in 1976. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate
up the food chain, to man. Cause cancer and nervous system
problems.
Dioxins
— Pollutants, by-products of PVC production, industrial
bleaching, and incineration. Cause cancer in man. Persist
for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing
endocrine (hormone) system.
Furans
— Pollutants, by-products of plastics production,
industrial bleaching and incineration. Expected to cause
cancer in man. Persist for decades in the environment. Very
toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system.
Metals — Lead,
mercury, arsenic and cadmium — Cause lowered IQ,
developmental delays, behavioral disorders and cancer at
doses found in the environment. For lead, most exposures are
from lead paint. For mercury, most exposures are from canned
tuna. For arsenic, most exposures are from arsenic (CCA)
treated lumber and contaminated drinking water. For cadmium,
sources of exposure include pigments and bake ware.
Organochlorine
insecticides. DDT,
chlordane and other pesticides. Largely banned in the U.S.
Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the
food chain, to man. Cause cancer and numerous reproductive
effects.
Organophosphate insecticide
metabolites —
Breakdown products of chlorpyrifos, malathion and others.
Potent nervous system toxicants. Most common source of
exposure is residues in food. Recently banned for indoor
uses.
Phthalates
— Plasticizers. Cause birth defects of male reproductive
organs. Found in a wide range of cosmetic and personal care
products. Some phthalates recently banned in Europe.
Volatile and Semi-volatile organic chemicals. —
Industrial solvents and gasoline ingredients like xylene and
ethyl benzene. Toxic to nervous system, some heavily used
SVOCs (benzene) cause cancer.