From: Robina Suwol
Date: 09 Feb 2003
Time: 11:43:06
Remote Name: 24.28.137.151
Toxic chemicals found in Americans CDC: Effects of many on humans unknown
Wendy Wendland-Bowyer
Knight Ridder
The largest study ever done on troublesome chemicals that slip into the bodies
of American children and adults from everyday items like food, shampoo, nail
polish and teething rings was released Friday.The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention report examined 116 chemicals measured in the blood and
urine of some 2,500 Americans in 1999-2000. Nearly all of the chemicals have
been found to be toxic in animal studies, but little is known about their
effects on humans. With cancer, attention deficit disorder, asthma and other
ailments on the
rise -- often for unknown reasons -- some hope the data will be a starting point
to learn more about how chemicals interact with the human body.
"Better information about people's exposure means better decisions to protect
public health," said Dr. Richard Jackson, CDC director of the National Center
for Environmental Health.
The report is called the Second National Report on Human Exposure to
Environmental Chemicals. The first report was released in 2001 and examined 27
chemicals. The CDC plans to continue the reports every other year.
For Friday's report, the CDC measured environmental tobacco smoke by tracing
cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine. The report showed cotinine declined in
children and adults in the 1990s, but children and adolescents continued to have
twice as much of the substance as adults. Black people have twice the
level of whites. Lead poisoning also is declining. Nationally, about 434,000
children between the ages of 1 and 5 have 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of
blood, said Pam Meyer, a health scientist with the CDC's Lead Poisoning
Prevention
Branch. That's about 2.2 percent of that population. The new CDC estimate is
higher than a preliminary one given to the Detroit Free Press this month that
put the number at 300,000.
What's expected to draw the most attention is new data for chemicals like
phthalates, a softening substance added to many products. Teething rings,
shampoo, plastic bags, nail polish and vinyl tubing may have it. The CDC found
one type of phthalates more common in children, another in adults.
Phthalates testing in animals showed a link to reproductive problems.
One problem is the U.S. government does not require companies to test many
chemicals in products before putting them on the market, said Jane Houlihan,
vice president for research with the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy
group.
"We know from polling that Americans think the government requires companies to
test their products before putting them on the market," Houlihan said. "That is
just not true."
The Environmental Working Group conducted its own chemical analysis of nine
volunteers. Pictures of the volunteers, along with the chemicals found in their
bodies, are at .ewg.org/reports/bodyburden.
Some industry representatives say the public should be cautious in drawing hasty
conclusions from the CDC report. chemicals "are associated with benefits to
society whether it's in plastics to make cars more fuel efficient or plastics
used in emergency rooms to save lives or pesticides that contribute to a safe
and abundant food supply," said Jay Vroom, president of CropLife America, which
represents pesticide makers.
Vroom said pesticides have permitted farmers to dramatically increase food
production. Today pesticides undergo about 120 tests that take about 10 years to
complete, he said.
But environmentalists stress such testing is not the norm for many other
products. Tracey Easthope, of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, said the nation
needs to learn from the past.
Health reports from as far back as the early 1920s showed health dangers
associated with lead. Yet lead continued to be used in paint and gasoline for
decades before enough research was compiled to show that it can cause
irreversible health problems when it enters the blood stream.
"We think the finding of chemicals in people's bodies is enough to take action
to reduce exposure to those chemicals," Easthope said.
*Read the CDC report at
www.cdc.gov/exposurereport, or call (866) 670-6052 for a free copy.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=020103&ID=s1296825