Many Dangerous Chemicals in European Blood - WWF
Date: 07-Oct-05
Country: SWITZERLAND
The conservation body WWF said results of its first European Union-wide family testing survey found a total of 73 man-made hazardous compounds in the blood of grandmothers, mothers and children from 13 families in 12 countries.
The highest number of chemicals, an average of 63 and including some which are now banned like DDT, was recorded among the oldest generation tested, while the middle generation -- the mothers -- registered only 49.
But tests on the children in the 13 families showed an average of 59 dangerous chemicals -- many of them new products in widespread use like flame retardants, the WWF said.
"It shows that we are all unwittingly the subjects of an uncontrolled global experiment, and its is particularly shocking to discover that toxic chemicals in daily use are contaminating the blood of our children," said WWF specialist Karl Wagner.
"How much more evidence is needed before industry and European politicians accept that these hazardous chemicals cannot be adequately controlled?" he asked.
In the tests, blood samples from the 13 families were analysed for 107 different man-made persistent , accumulative or hormone-disrupting chemicals from five main groups.
The WWF, based at Gland near Geneva, said one flame retardant, used in printed circuit boards in electronic appliances, was found at its highest level in one of the children tested.
Of 31 different flame retardants of another type analysed in the survey, 17 were found among the children tested compared to 10 among the grandmothers and eight among the mothers.
The tests matched conclusions of similar sampling last year from 14 EU environment and health ministers which showed contamination by 55 chemicals, some banned years ago and others in daily use.
The latest survey, WWF said, raises the question of whether future generations will be more exposed to potentially cancer- producing and endocrine-disrupting chemicals that accumulate in human bodies to increasing levels over a life-span.
The latest tests were carried out in Belgium, where two families were involved, and on one family each from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and Luxemburg.
The full report is available on the WWF website: www.panda.org/detox
