Last week, I watched Ken Cook (president and founder of Environmental Working Group) talk about 10 Americans at UNC Chapel Hill (live talk here)

He talked about testing the blood of 10 Americans in one day for 413 toxic chemicals. The results of the tests were staggering: a total of 212 toxic chemicals were found in the blood of these people: toxins like BPA, fire retardants, consumer product ingredients, pesticides, waste bi-products, dioxins, Teflon…and the list goes on. These chemicals have been associated in clinical studies with cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption and immune system dysfunction.
The major question he asked was how did these people get exposed to these toxic chemicals and who were they? You would think, judging from the results of the toxins in their blood that they were some special population exposed to major industrial waste. Well, they were not. These were 10 average American unborn babies and the tests were performed on their umbilical cord blood. Exposure to environmental toxins begins in the womb. This is the first study to show that the placenta cannot filter toxic waste chemicals from the blood and unborn babies do not have the blood/brain barriers developed yet to filter these substances to prevent them to enter the brain. Ok, this all sounds really bad, but how does this translate in practical life? How do we know that toxic exposure in the womb will generate long term complications? EWG is trying to find an answer with the Human Toxome Project. The goal of this is to scientifically map toxic chemicals effects in the human body.

According to Ken Cook and a mass body of existing research, a direct link does exists between some of the substances mentioned above and their ability to disrupt hormone function, immune system functioning and cancer. CDC epidemiological data shows a steady yearly increase in the rate of cancer, asthma, autism and infertility in the US population.

That exposure to environmental toxins has a detrimental effect on healthy human development is not a question, is a fact. The question is what can be done about it?

What can we do as consumers? Ken Cook proposed a list of things we can all do to protect our families, like buying organic, using a water filter in the home, use stainless cookware instead of non stick, use green cleaning products and/or cosmetics and check the toxicity rating of cosmetics in the EWG database , etc. I told him I’ve been following his laundry list of things to do but there is something I just cannot avoid: all baby products I buy form crib mattress to stroller, port-a crib, my sofa cushions have been soaked in toxic fire retardant and has a label which states it meets California flammability requirement TB 117, which has been linked to cancer and thyroid dysfunction in animal research. I asked him what are the chances of the stroller catching on fire while we take a stroll with my little boy sits in it, versus the risk that the toxic fire retardant poses to his health? His answer was that he and his family, having a two year old, have been struggling with the same issue. They just use a blanket on everything, he said. And he’s doing more: EWG has been talking with California legislators to revisit their outdated flammability requirements.

Thankfully, there’s more and more effort on the national level to reform the outdated Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which will force manufacturers to disclose what materials they use when manufacturing products and to test their toxicity. In 30 years since it was enacted, the law has banned a total of 5 toxic chemicals of being used in products: lead, PCB (used for insulating electrical wiring), asbestos, DDT and DDE (pesticides used in agriculture). What will happen with the rest of the 207 toxic chemicals found in the babies blood above?

We all can do something to help ban toxic chemicals being used in our products.
Write to your senators and urge them to pass the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010.

Or send a letter to the FDA asking for safer Food Products

Or join a local organization raising awareness about this issue: momsrising.org, Action for Children NC, NC Justice Center, Toxic Free NC, NC Conservation Network, NC Women United , Covenant with North Carolina’s Children.
Or sign up with EWG’s newsletter to learn more about the products you buy and how they rate in toxicity.
EWG is a non profit research organization based in Washington DC. Besides the massive research they do in testing consumer products, they have also put together the report for the President’s Cancer Panel.