[Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia News]
ImmuneSupport.com
04-28-2004 By Alexandra 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
Andrea
Martin: 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."
Davis
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.
Michael
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. Monique 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
Alexandra
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."
Alexandra
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.
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