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News from AP - Dec 29, 2003
Scientists
Measure Pollution in Humans
(AP) - Davis Baltz
shops for organic food and otherwise tries to live as healthy as he can. So he
was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting inside his body sounded
much like a Superfund cleanup site: pesticides, flame retardants and other
nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test. "What that told me
is that no matter what I tried to do, the plumes of chemicals that we are
passing in and out of everyday give us exposure," said Baltz, who works
for Commonweal, an environmental group in Bolinas, Calif. Commonweal and the
Washington-based Environmental Working Group funded tests for Baltz and eight
others at $5,000 apiece.
Body Burden: The Pollution in People (EWG)
EDF Scorecard -
pollution locator
Scientists
Measure Pollution in Humans
By PAUL
ELIAS, AP Biotechnology Writer Dec 27, 2003
SAN
FRANCISCO - Davis Baltz shops for organic food and otherwise tries to live as
healthy as he can. So he was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting
inside his body sounded much like a Superfund cleanup site: pesticides, flame
retardants and other nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test.
“What that
told me is that no matter what I tried to do, the plumes of chemicals that we
are passing in and out of everyday give us exposure," said Baltz, who
works for Commonweal, an environmental group in Bolinas, Calif. Commonweal and
the Washington-based Environmental Working Group funded tests for Baltz and
eight others at $5,000 apiece.
For
decades, researchers have sampled the air, land and sea to measure pollution
from power plants, factories and automobiles. More recently, they have
expressed concern about mounting "e-waste" — discarded tech gadgets
that contain flame retardants, lead and other toxins.
But
there's been trouble determining precisely how much pollution gets absorbed by
humans.
Now, in a
process called biomonitoring, scientists are sampling urine, blood and mother's
milk to catalogue the pollutants accumulating in humans. They call the results
"body burden."
Though the
tests are yielding scary lists of contaminants found in the body, their links
to disease are less clear. Nonetheless, proponents say such testing will help
researchers learn what role the environment plays in causing disease and how to
treat it.
Many
chemicals such as PCB and DDT, both banned decades ago, remain in the
environment for years and build up in the body over a lifetime.
It's not a new phenomenon. Rachel Carson wrote about the poisons in her 1962 book "Silent Spring," which is widely credited for jump-starting the environmental movement.
But until
now, researchers were left mostly to guess about exactly how much and how many
of the toxins lingered in our bodies.
Few of the
estimated 75,000 chemicals found in the United States have been tested for
their health effects, Baltz and other biomonitoring proponents say. By looking
directly in the human body, they hope to catalogue the environmental influences
that may cause disease.
Already,
several studies have been completed:
_ In
March, California researchers reported that San Francisco-area women have three
to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European
or Japanese women.
_ Indiana
University researchers reported at the same time that levels in Indiana and
California women and infants were 20 times higher than those in Sweden and
Norway, which recently banned flame retardant.
_ The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this year released data from
2,500 volunteers tested for 116 pollutants and found such chemicals as mercury,
uranium and cotinine, a chemical broken down from nicotine.
The CDC
also found that black children have twice the level of cotinine than other
children, implying they were exposed to more secondhand smoke than their peers
of other races.
Meanwhile,
Mexican-American children were found to have three times the amount of a
chemical derived from DDT compared with other children. Scientists suspect that
Mexico and Latin America countries may still be using the banned chemical.
Next
month, state Sen. Deborah Ortiz plans to renew calls for California's polluters
to finance testing of contaminants in mother's milk.
"This
will allow women to better make informed decision about their health,"
said Ortiz, a Democrat. "And the information will help researchers and
public health officials."
But some
fear that biomonitoring results could be misinterpreted and frighten new
mothers from breast feeding their babies.
"We
are clearly concerned about what effects the stories of biomonitoring will
have," said Barbara Brenner, executive director of the San Francisco-based
Breast Cancer Action nonprofit advocacy group. "Any rational woman will
say to herself, `Should I be breast feeding?'"
Others see
political motives behind some of the tests.
"Everyone's
exposed to substances and there's no evidence that the low levels people are
exposed to are harming anybody," said Steven Milloy, author of "Junk
Science Judo: Self Defense Against Health Scares and Scams." "It's a
waste of time and money that only serves to scare people."
Milloy
noted that despite all the chemicals, the overall U.S. population is living
longer and healthier.
Although
the tests conducted on Baltz and other Commonweal volunteers, including public
television journalist Bill Moyers, are too expensive for most people,
proponents believe costs will go down as technology advances. Moyers' body had
traces of 84 toxins, including lead and a byproduct of mercury.
There's
still a debate among advocates over which of the 75,000 chemicals to
specifically look for when biomonitoring. And even when chemicals are found,
there's little an individual can do.
But Baltz
said the knowledge can at least help consumers make more informed choices over
what they eat.
"Since
we don't have a whole lot of control over most of the environment, we can take
charge with the food we eat," he said. "There are few places where
you can exercise such power than controlling what we digest."
On the
Net:
Baltz'
test results: http://www.bodyburden.org
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov
White House Change to Clean Air Act
Blocked - LA Times
(registration req'd) (Dec 25, 2003)
Court Blocks U.S. Effort to Relax
Pollution Rule - NY Times
(registration req'd) (Dec 25, 2003)
The Lingering Effects of Exxon
Valdez - LA Times
(registration req'd) (Dec 19, 2003)
Related
Web Sites:
EDF Chemical Scorecard -
database-backed pollution locator service allowing users to see chemical
pollution on local street maps of their own community - and take action.
United Nations Environment Programme -
includes sections on toxic chemicals and
sustainable development.
New Ideas in Pollution Regulation -
research clearingouse for those interested in understanding and improving
control of industrial pollution, especially in developing countries. From the
World Bank.
Pollution Prevention Information
Clearinghouse - nformation on pollution prevention. From
the U.S. Department of Energy.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -
includes information on pollution prevention and the
Bush Administration's Clear Skies Initiative.
EPA Superfund -
provides background of the
program and explains the cleanup process.
The Story of Smog -
a look at the causes and effects of smog; from CBC.
Environmental
Injustice: Government as Polluter - four-part series that examines the EPA and
enviromental enforcement, and toxic and hazardous messes created by the U.S.
Military. From the Boston Globe, November 1999.
Feeding The World, Poisoning The
Planet - five-part in-depth look at how nitrogen
is poisoning the planet, causing algae blooms and threatening a variety of
marine life. From the Baltimore Sun, September 2000.
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