The umbilical cord is a
baby’s lifeline, bringing nourishment from the mother and removing waste. The
amniotic fluid bathes the growing embryo, and the umbilical cord brings the
embryo oxygen, nutrients—and a startling array of toxic industrial chemicals,
according to a recent study, “Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns.”
In a first-of-its-kind
study, researchers from two major laboratories looked for the presence of toxic
chemicals in umbilical cord blood of 10 newborn babies born in U.S. hospitals
in August and September 2004. A collaboration of the Environmental Working
Group and Commonweal brought about the study. (For the full report, go to http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/.)
Of the more than 400
chemicals tested for, 287 were detected in umbilical cord blood. Of these, 180
cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain or nervous
system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animals.
Scientists refer to the presence of such toxins in the newborn as “body
burden.”
According to the study’s
authors, the scope of testing was limited because chemical companies are not
required to divulge methods for detecting the presence of their chemicals in
the human body. “Had we tested for a broader array of chemicals,” they wrote,
“we would almost certainly have detected far more than 287.”
Among those substances
found to be polluting the blood supply for the newborn babies were eight
perfluorochemicals used as stain and oil repellants in fast-food packaging,
clothes and textiles, including the Teflon chemical PFQA, a carcinogen; dozens
of widely used bromated flame retardants and their toxic byproducts; and many
pesticides.
Publication of this study,
despite its sensational findings, created barely a ripple in the national
media. There was no outcry from the Christian fundamentalists against the
poisoning of fetuses by the chemical industry, in sharp contrast to their
hysteria over abortion rights. The ultra-right fanatics demonize pregnant
teenagers and even the victims of rape and incest as “murderers” for terminating
their pregnancies. But it is apparently an article of faith that corporate
polluters should have the right to continue pumping out dangerous chemicals
that damage individuals and even generations, in the name of “free enterprise.”
This latest research was
done to investigate the root causes of diseases caused by chemicals with
in-utero origins. Certain factors contribute to children’s unique
susceptibility to the dangerous effect of chemicals. An immature porous
blood-brain barrier in the fetus allows greater chemical exposures to the
developing brain; a developing child’s chemical exposures are greater
pound-for-pound than those of an adult; and systems that detoxify and excrete
industrial chemicals are not fully developed (National Academy of Sciences, 1993).
The difference between the
effect of chemical exposure on adults and embryos can be seen in the case of
mercury exposure. In Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s, poisonous mercury waste was
dumped into a bay, contaminating the food chain. Autopsies of adults revealed
mercury-caused lesions in a few areas of the brain, while in a fetus, lesions
covered nearly the entire cortex.
Here is a summary from the
report of the classes of chemical found in the babies’ umbilical cord. Many of
them persist for decades in the environment and in people, accumulate in the
food chain and are lipophilic, that is, accumulate in fatty tissue and fluids
such as breast milk.
|
Chemicals and
pollutants found in human umbilical cord blood |
|
|
Mercury (Hg) |
Pollutant from coal-fired power plants, mercury-containing products, and certain industrial processes. Accumulates in seafood. Hurts brain development and function. |
|
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) |
Pollutants from burning gasoline and garbage. Linked to cancer.
Accumulate in food chain. |
|
Polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBDD/F) |
Contaminants in brominated flame retardants. Pollutants and byproducts
from plastic production and incineration. Accumulate in food chain. Toxic to
developing endocrine (hormone) system. |
|
Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) |
Active ingredients or breakdown products of Teflon, Scotchgard, fabric and carpet protectors, food packaging. Global contaminants. Accumulate in the environment and the food chain, in meat, dairy, fish and eggs. Linked to cancer, birth defects, and more. |
|
Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBCD/F) |
Pollutants, by-products of PVC production, industrial bleaching, and incineration. Cause cancer in humans. Persist for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing endocrine (hormone) system. |
|
Organochlorine pesticides (OCs) |
DDT, chlordane and other pesticides. Largely banned in the U.S.
Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain to man.
Cause cancer and numerous reproductive effects. |
|
Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBD |
Flame retardant in furniture foam, computers, and televisions. Accumulates in the food chain and human tissues. Adversely affects brain development and the thyroid. |
|
Polychlorinated napthalenes (PCNs) |
Wood preservatives, varnishes, machine-lubricating oils, waste incineration. Formed during chlorination of drinking water. Common PCB contaminant. Contaminate the food chain. Cause liver and kidney damage. |
|
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) |
Industrial insulators and lubricants. Banned in the U.S. in 1976. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain; in meat, dairy and seafood. Cause cancer and nervous system problems. |
Long-term effects
Chemicals that may not show
harmful effects a short time after exposure may cause subtle changes in
development that show up later in childhood as learning or behavior problems or
in adulthood as cancers or neurodegenerative disease. Recent studies are beginning
to look at how early chemical exposure can put adult health at risk. Scientists
from the University of Texas found that fetal exposure to the synthetic hormone
and now-banned drug DES permanently changed body tissues and raised the rate of
uterine cancer in later life in laboratory animals.
Science understands and can
control the spread of polio, smallpox, diphtheria and other diseases that were
scourges in the past. But less clear is the cause of diseases on the increase
over the last 30 years: asthma (100 percent increase 1982-1993), childhood
brain cancer (40 percent increase 1973-1994), acute lymphocytic leukemia (62
percent increase 1973-1999) and autism (1,000 percent increase from early 1980s
to 1996). Early life exposure to environmental toxins is certainly one suspect.
One chemical studied in the
laboratory is Deca, the common name for one of three commercial fire
retardants. It is added to plastics, computer monitors, TV screens, and home
appliances. People absorb the chemical from food they eat and by ingesting
small particles of it in their homes and worksites. When lab animals were given
one single exposure to Deca, it adversely impacted learning, memory and
behavior. As the animals aged, the effects grew worse. The period of greatest
sensitivity to the chemical correlates to the third trimester of human
pregnancy, when the brain of the fetus is rapidly growing.
One of the most sobering
sections of the report examines what impact the exposure of the embryo to these
hundreds of toxins will have in future generations. The researchers explain
that besides genetic mutations—that is, physical changes in gene
structure—there can be epigenetic changes that can silence or activate a gene
(turn it permanently off or on) in a way that can be inherited. Such epigenetic
changes have been linked to the fungicide vinclozolin and pesticide
methoxychlor, which impaired sperm counts and sperm motility among animals in
the womb and for three subsequen
Lack of government regulation
Besides the fact that
procedures to find chemicals in the fetus are difficult, there is another major
problem in tracking the effects on people. Business has virtually free rein in
its use of deadly toxins. US industries manufacture and import about 75,000
chemicals, using 3,000 of them at the rate of more than a million pounds a
year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal government’s
regulatory agency, does not require that these chemicals be tested for safety
before they flood the environment.
The Toxic Substances
Control Act (TSCA), a federal law passed in 1976, approved as safe the 63,000
chemicals in use at the time. The law requires that the government approve new
chemicals within 90 days of a company request, with companies requesting
approval for about seven new chemicals a day. The law has no teeth, requiring
only that the EPA negotiate with industry or complete a formal “test rule” for
each individual study it wants. Needless to say, not many studies are done
before chemicals are put on the market.
Even when companies agree
voluntarily to test a chemical, large parts of their reports submitted to the
EPA, including health and safety findings, are redacted as business secrets and
can’t be reviewed. In addition, the EPA takes years to review information
submitted by industry.
For example, recently,
research has raised concerns about the effect of Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA),
used in the manufacture of nonstick cookware such as Teflon, and many other
applications. The EPA began an extensive review of PFOA in 2003. It had to file
a lawsuit over DuPont’s alleged suppression of information on health studies.
Most data on it has not been made available to the public. Reams of information
have been given to the EPA, and it is jus
The TSCA requires that if
use of a chemical is risky, top priority must be to minimize the costs to
industry for any action. The act does not allow the EPA to require that the
industry keep chemicals off the market as a precaution to protect public
health. Rather, the chemicals have to be proven unsafe first. Since PCBs and
DDT were banned in the 1970s, few chemicals have been regulated to make sure
millions of people are protected from their effects.
The paltry environmental
regulations that exist are being aggressively undermined by the Bush
administration. Advisory committees to government agencies such as the EPA are
rife with corporate executives, and polluters produce their own “scientific”
studies that claim the dangerous chemicals they use are safe for the
environment.