Widespread Toxic Exposure

The CDC says there are too many chemicals in our bodies

By Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service

Common products such as soap, shampoo and perfume are leaching dangerous chemicals into the bloodstreams of US consumers, according to a first-ever study by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Advances in a technology known as biomonitoring allowed the CDC to measure chemicals directly in blood and urine samples rather than estimating population exposures by measuring air, water or soil samples. Thus, the new report provides data on actual levels of chemicals in humans.

“This new resource is a significant development in the field of environmental health,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. “It will help us to better track the exposures of Americans to chemicals in the environment and to measure the effectiveness of our public health efforts.”

The report measures the exposure of Americans to 27 environmental chemicals including metals such as lead and mercury, pesticides, plastic and cosmetic additives called phthalates, and cotinine, which derives from nicotine.

Some of the main toxics polluting the environment and people are:

PHTHALATES: Blood levels of seven major phthalates were much higher than expected. Phthalates are compounds commonly used in such consumer products as soap, shampoo, hair spray and many types of nail polish. Some phthalates are used in flexible plastics such as blood bags and tubing. The report said women of childbearing age are regularly exposed to the phthalate most clearly associated with birth defects and other developmental effects in animals, and at levels much higher than estimated by the government’s National Toxicology Program just last year.

MERCURY: For some children and women, levels of mercury were higher than experts had predicted. Small increases in exposure can be unsafe for women and the developing fetus.

PESTICIDES: A small number of the study participants showed very high levels of pesticides in their blood. The CDC said this could cause concern if it accurately reflects the exposure levels of the entire US population.

LEAD: The report shows that lead levels in the US population are declining, as they have been since refiners began phasing out leaded gasoline in the 1970s. “The good news is that blood lead levels continue to decline among children overall,” said Eric Sampson of CDC’s Environmental Laboratory and a co-author of the report, “However, other data show that children living in environments placing them at high risk for lead exposure remain a major public health concern.” Said Dr. Bailus Walker, chair of the Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning and former president of the American Public Health Association, “These national data mask the crushing reality that one third of preschool children in many low-income minority communities are still poisoned by lead paint hazards in their homes.”

NICOTINE: “One significant finding was the more than 75 percent decrease in serum cotinine (a breakdown product of nicotine) levels for nonsmokers in the US,” said Dr. Jim Pirkle of CDC’s Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the report. “However, environmental tobacco smoke remains a major public health concern since more than half of American youth continue to be exposed to this known human carcinogen.”

“The widespread exposure [of Americans to toxic chemicals] identified by the CDC is cause for concern,” said Dr. John Balbus, director of the Center for Risk Science and Public Health at George Washington University. “We do know that some of these chemicals have been associated with various health effects at higher levels, including certain cancers, birth defects, and developmental and reproductive disabilities. What we don’t know is what kinds of problems may be associated with these chemicals at the levels identified today. We should take these findings very seriously.”

Responding to the report, a coalition of physicians and representatives of almost 20 national organizations are calling for a national program of chemical exposure monitoring vastly larger than the program that produced the CDC study.

“There are 80,000 chemicals in commerce today, but only the 27 chemicals in today’s report have been systematically monitored,” said Dr. Richard Levinson, associate executive director of the American Public Health Association. “We have to do a lot better.” The coalition called for exposure monitoring programs in every state, monitoring for many more chemicals, and looking much more closely at sensitive subpopulations like children and more highly exposed minority populations.

The full CDC report is available at: www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/report.