European Environment and Health Ministers's blood contaminated by 55 industrial chemicals
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The WWF performed blood tests on fourteen European Environment and Health Ministers in June 2004 and found out that they are contaminated with dozens of industrial chemicals, including those used in fire-resistant sofas, non-stick pans, grease proof-pizza boxes, flexible PVC, fragrances, pesticides, and twenty two PCBs. Some are still in use today although they were banned decades ago. Many of the chemicals found in the Ministers are persistent, bio-accumulative and capable of disrupting the hormone systems of wildlife and people. The tests are a contribution to the debate within the European Union on REACH "Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of chemicals", the proposed new chemical law that should lead to the identification and phasing out of the most harmful chemicals. |
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This is amazing ! For those who don't like pdf, the wwf site has the story.
Here are selected excerpts :
Although 86% of the 2500 chemicals used in large quantities do not have enough safety information publicly available to do a basic safety assessment, research increasingly links chemicals to cancers, allergies, reproductive problems and defects in children’s development.
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The chemical industry argues that it cannot afford to find out if its products are dangerous
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The 103 chemicals come from 7 groups
•Brominated flame retardants -- some, but not all, of which have been recently banned in the EU
•Phthalates -- banned from some children's toys but otherwise still widely used
•Pefluorinated chemicals -- widely used in water or grease-resistant coatings for pizza and french-fry boxes, clothes, carpets and even non-stick pans
•PCBS -- banned in Europe in the 1970's
•Organo-chlorine pesticides -- many of which were banned in Europe over 20 years ago, including DDT
•Synthetic musks - widely used in perfumes, aftershaves, soaps and personal care products
•Anti-bacterials – used in many household products from toothpaste, to washing up liquid and even plastic kitchenware such as chopping boards.
So the problem is long term incidence on health which is difficult to test. Maybe we should be precautionous about that ?