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THE BODY'S BURDEN
Humans are now constantly bathed in an endless, toxic chemical soup. About 13 million tons of toxic chemicals are being released into our environment every day. This cocktail of heavy metals and toxic synthetic chemicals of all kinds begin assaulting our bodies even before birth. The phenomenal stress and strain that this places on our bodies is called THE BODY BURDEN!
In a study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group and Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the blood and urine of nine volunteers, with a total of 167 chemicals found in the group. Like most of us, the people tested do not work with chemicals on the job and do not live near an industrial facility. Scientists refer to this contamination as a person’s body burden. Of the 167 chemicals found, 76 cause cancer in humans or animals, 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development. The dangers of exposure to these chemicals in combination has never been studied.
The assault on our babies.
The Pollution in Newborns
A benchmark investigation of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides in umbilical cord blood. Source: Chemical analyses of 10 umbilical cord blood samples were conducted by AXYS Analytical Services (
In the month leading up to a baby's birth, the umbilical cord pulses with the equivalent of at least 300 quarts of blood each day, pumped back and forth from the nutrient- and oxygen-rich placenta to the rapidly growing child cradled in a sac of amniotic fluid. This cord is a lifeline between mother and baby, bearing nutrients that sustain life and propel growth. Not long ago scientists thought that the placenta shielded cord blood — and the developing baby — from most chemicals and pollutants in the environment. But now we know that at this critical time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells to finished form in a span of weeks, the umbilical cord carries not only the building blocks of life, but also a steady stream of industrial chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol. This is the human "body burden" — the pollution in people that permeates everyone in the world, including babies in the womb.
In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in collaboration with Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in
Ø The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage.
This study represents the first reported cord blood tests for 261 of the targeted chemicals and the first reported detections in cord blood for 209 compounds. Among them are eight perfluorochemicals used as stain and oil repellants in fast food packaging, clothes and textiles — including the Teflon chemical PFOA, recently characterized as a likely human carcinogen by the EPA's Science Advisory Board — dozens of widely used brominated flame retardants and their toxic by-products; and numerous pesticides.
Ø Of the 287 chemicals they detected in umbilical cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests. The dangers of pre- or post-natal exposure to this complex mixture of carcinogens, developmental toxins and neurotoxins have never been studied.
Chemicals and pollutants detected in human umbilical cord blood
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Mercury (Hg) - tested for 1, found 1 | |
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Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - tested for 18, found 9 | |
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Polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBDD/F) - tested for 12, found 7 | |
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Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) - tested for 12, found 9 | |
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Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBCD/F) - tested for 17, found 11 | |
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Organochlorine pesticides (OCs) - tested for 28, found 21 | |
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Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - tested for 46, found 32 | |
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Polychlorinated Naphthalenes (PCNs) - tested for 70, found 50 | |
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Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - tested for 209, found 147 |
Chemical exposures in the womb or during infancy can be dramatically more harmful than exposures later in life. Substantial scientific evidence demonstrates that children face amplified risks from their body burden of pollution; the findings are particularly strong for many of the chemicals found in this study, including mercury, PCBs and dioxins. Children's vulnerability derives from both rapid development and incomplete defense systems:
· A developing child's chemical exposures are greater pound-for-pound than those of adults.
· An immature, porous blood-brain barrier allows greater chemical exposures to the developing brain.
· Children have lower levels of some chemical-binding proteins, allowing more of a chemical to reach "target organs."
· A baby's organs and systems are rapidly developing, and thus are often more vulnerable to damage from chemical exposure.
· Systems that detoxify and excrete industrial chemicals are not fully developed.
· The longer future life span of a child compared to an adult allows more time for adverse effects to arise.
A developing baby depends on adults for protection, nutrition, and, ultimately, survival. As a society we have a responsibility to ensure that babies do not enter this world pre-polluted, with 200 industrial chemicals in their blood.
What can we do? Obviously, there is no complete protection, how can there be in the polluted world we live in? Having said that, please be aware, that dozens of major scientific studies have shown without a shadow of a doubt that by ingesting micronutrients daily, we can not only undo most of the damage that we suffer as a result from pollution, but also, protect ourselves from future pollution. What are micronutrients? Vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, essential fatty acids, etc. Now, we have another very big problem, there are vitamins and there are vitamins, many of them are ineffective for various reasons that I cannot go into. At the end of the day, it comes down to this: if you want to heal and enjoy good health you have to consult a natural medicine consultant to devise a personal programme for you.
The assault on our children.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released their second report on
Current government regulations on pesticides do not adequately protect children.
Environmental contaminants can affect children quite differently than adults, both because children are more highly exposed to contaminants and because they are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of contaminants. Children generally eat more food, drink more water, and breathe more air relative to their size than adults do, and consequently are exposed to relatively higher amounts of contaminants. Children’s normal activities, such as putting their hands in their mouths or playing on the ground, can result in exposures to contaminants that adults do not face. In addition, environmental contaminants affect children disproportionately because their immune defenses are not fully developed and their growing organs are more easily harmed. Children may be exposed to pesticides and other contaminants in their food and through day-to-day activities around the home. Children’s exposures to pesticides are higher than the exposures of most adults. Pound for pound, children generally eat more than adults, and they may be exposed more heavily to certain pesticides. Organophosphate pesticides, for instance, were found at about twice the levels in children’s bodies, compared to adults (and remember, even at the same levels children would more likely be harmed).
We now know that pesticides and deleterious chemicals are not just in our surroundings – but lodge deeply into the tissues of our developing children’s bodies.
The assault on adults.
Q:What is the "body burden"?
A: Toxic chemicals, both naturally occurring and man-made, get into the human body all the time. We may inhale them, swallow them in contaminated food or water, or in some cases, absorb them through skin. A woman who is pregnant may pass them to her developing fetus through the placenta.The term " body burden " refers to the total amount of these chemicals that are present in the human body at a given point in time. Sometimes it is also useful to consider the body burden of a specific, single chemical, like, for example, lead, mercury, or dioxin.
Some chemicals or their breakdown products (metabolites) lodge in our bodies for only a short while before being excreted, but continuous exposure to such chemicals can create a "persistent" body burden. Arsenic, for example, is mostly excreted within 72 hours of exposure. Other chemicals, however, are not readily excreted and can remain for years in our blood, adipose (fat) tissue, semen, muscle, bone, brain tissue, or other organs. Chlorinated pesticides, such as DDT, can remain in the body for 50 years. Whether chemicals are quickly passing through or are stored in our bodies, body burden testing can reveal to us an individual's unique chemical load and can highlight the kinds of chemicals we are exposed to as we live out each day of our lives. Of the approximately 80,000 chemicals that are used in the
Q: Do all humans carry this chemical body burden?
A: Scientists estimate that everyone alive today carries within her or his body at least 700 contaminants, most of which have not been well studied (See Onstot and others). This is true whether we live in a rural or isolated area, in the middle of a large city, or near an industrialized area. Because many chemicals have the ability to attach to dust particles and/or catch air and water currents and travel far from where they are produced or used, the globe is bathed in a chemical soup. Our bodies have no alternative but to absorb these chemicals and sometimes store them for long periods of time. Whether we live in Samoa or
*Onstot J, Ayling R,
Some of the chemicals residing in our bodies are pesticides, and some are used in or produced by other forms of industrial production. Many are found in a wide variety of consumer products. Some chemicals like dioxins and furans are created by industrial processes using chlorine and from the manufacture and incineration of certain plastics. Scientists estimate that there are many other such chemicals or created by-products which have not yet been "discovered" since no tests have yet been developed that would fully identify or describe these by-products.
Q: How did this happen? How have we been exposed?
A: Humans are exposed to chemicals through the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink and bathe in. Chemicals often coat the surface of dust particles, which we handle or inhale. Contaminated dust is an especially important route of exposure for children who commonly put their hands into their mouths. We are also exposed to hundreds of chemicals in everyday products we use. Paints and varnishes, gasoline, glues, cosmetics, clothes dry-cleaned with solvents, plastic food containers, and home and garden pesticides are just a few examples. The chemical landscape created as a result of intensive and continuing chemical use during the 20th century has been internalized. Because the chemicals found within our bodies are not labeled with return addresses, it is difficult to identify where they come from.
For example almost all of the dioxin found inside your body got there from eating contaminated food. However, it may have originated in a local medical waste incinerator or it may have been created by a distant, chlorine-based, paper manufacturing plant located thousands of miles from your home. Whatever its source, somewhere it entered the food chain and made its way into the food you ate. Similarly, a pesticide found inside your body may have come from pesticide spraying done at a local school, in your garden or kitchen, or it may have arrived on foodstuffs grown with pesticides abroad. Its origin will be difficult to identify.
Another source of exposure is the chemical body burden of our mothers. During pregnancy, the chemicals stored in a woman's body have the ability to cross the placenta, where they may cause phenomenal harm. Some chemicals from a mother's body are also mobilized and transferred to the breasts as she produces breast milk. These chemicals are then transferred to the baby during breastfeeding. Breast milk remains the best food for babies, as recent studies show, because of its immunological, nutritional and psychological benefits. The fact that industrial chemicals have contaminated breast milk is tragic. Ironically, breastfeeding appears to offset some of the damage created by contaminants during fetal development. Some of the chemicals we receive from our mothers in utero and through breastfeeding remain with us for years, an unintended legacy that our mothers pass on as their body burdens become our own.
Q: What is the evidence for body burden? How long have we known about this problem?
A: It has been known for centuries that chemicals can enter the body and cause health effects. Since the middle of the 20th century, scientists have been able to detect and measure chemicals in wildlife and humans and sometimes link these chemicals to health outcomes. For example, in 1944 researchers found residues of DDT in human fat, and in the early 50's, naturalists rightly concluded that DDT was directly responsible for thinning eggshells and declining populations of bald eagles and other birds. In fact, at about the same time, DDT was detected in Antarctic penguins living an extremely long distance from where DDT was being used.
Since then, analytic techniques have improved and many other chemicals have been detected in human and wildlife tissues. For decades, tests for some substances that make up the total chemical body burden have been conducted by government agencies around the world. These hundreds of studies include analyses of adipose (fat) tissue, breast milk, semen, blood, or urine for chemical content, documenting the amount and kinds of chemicals found.
Q: What are the health effects of this body burden?
A: Chemicals can have different effects in people or in wildlife, depending on the amount, timing, duration, and pattern of exposure as well as the properties of the specific chemical. Chemicals can have toxic effects through a variety of mechanisms.
For example, sometimes a chemical attacks and damages or kills cells or tissues in the body. Some chemicals attack the genetic material in the nucleus of a cell, causing damage directly to the DNA, which may create an inheritable defect that is passed on to the next generation. This can lead to gene mutations, which can set in motion a sequence of events leading to cancer, birth defects, developmental or reproductive disorders. Chemicals that cause cancer are called carcinogens. Chemicals that cause birth defects are called teratogens. Chemicals that damage the normal development of the fetus, infant, or child, or damage our reproductive tissues are called developmental/reproductive toxicants. Some chemicals can cause damage through their ability to interfere with normal hormone function. These chemicals are called endocrine disrupters.
Through these various mechanisms, toxic chemicals can cause a long list of health problems. They include, for example, direct damage to the lungs, liver, kidney, bones, blood, brain and other nerves, and the reproductive systems. There are hundreds of adverse health effects that can arise from exposures to chemicals or metals. These potential effects include cancer; high blood pressure; asthma; deficits in attention, memory, learning, and IQ; Parkinson's-like diseases; infertility; shortened lactation; endometriosis; genital malformation; peripheral nerve damage; and dysfunctional immune systems. For example, dioxin is a carcinogen and fetal exposures to dioxin interfere with normal development, including the immune system. Fetal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is related to behavioral and cognition problems. DDT exposure has been related to women's inability to produce sufficient breast milk. The immune systems of children in some areas of the far north US are unable to produce enough antibodies to make vaccinations effective. Since these children and their mothers carry large chemical body burdens, a chemical link to this problem is likely. Fetal exposure to mercury causes attention, memory, and learning problems later in life. Brain development is also impaired in fetuses and infants exposed to lead.
Q: How do I find out about my own body burden?
A: In general, there is no readily accessible way to know. A few weeks ago I went through a questionnaire on air from which you could get a GENERAL idea of your body burden. Government agencies, health care facilities, or other laboratories do not routinely offer body burden measurements. Most of what we know about body burdens of contaminants comes from limited studies of a few contaminants, conducted by government agencies on selected groups of people. These studies often break down the analysis by sex, age, and race, which provides useful information about population-wide averages. But population-wide averages cannot predict body burdens for individual people. Moreover, these population studies are usually limited to just a few of the contaminants to which people are regularly exposed. Even if you could learn about your own body burden, you may not find the information useful. Your doctor in general cannot prescribe treatments that will lower the level of chemicals in your body. Finding out about your community body burden, however, is useful, and can lead you and your neighbors to take actions to lower your chemical exposures.
In general, you can find out more about the chemicals in the fish you eat than you can discover about the specific chemicals stored in your body. In other countries,
Since we have the right to know about what chemicals are in our air, water, soil, food and products we use daily, it makes sense that we should have the right to know about the chemicals we carry in our bodies. We should take a lesson from the Swedes and establish extensive community-based body burden monitoring programs around the world.
Q: Don't government regulations protect my family and me?
A: Current regulations were developed well in advance of the new science that shows that small exposures to chemicals - once considered harmless - are indeed capable of subtle cellular changes. New evidence shows that these subtle changes can raise the risk for birth defects, cancer and other health problems. In addition, the regulations now in place are not designed to look at exposures in the context of the full burden of chemicals we carry. No one is looking at the health effects of the cumulative total.
Q: How can I get these chemicals out of my body?
A: At this time, regular medicine has no useful or safe methods for reducing body burdens, but natural medicine most certainly has. Consult a natural medicine consultant for an effective personal programme tailored to your needs.