Shore Line TImes - November 13, 2007
By: Robert C. Pollack
GUILFORD - A school nurse and mother who agreed to participate in a biomonitoring project to determine if any of 20 selected toxic chemicals were found in her body feels let down and angry at a food distribution system that is clearly full of dangerous holes.
Tested samples of blood and urine revealed Karen Owens, a Guilford resident, has 17 of the 20 chemicals in her system - more than any of the other 35 women in seven states who agreed to participate in the project.
"We found four phthalates and ten PBDEs in Karen's body, and Bisphenol A in her blood and urine," said Sarah Uhl, coordinator of the Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut, one of seven organizations who sponsored the project.
"These chemicals are impossible to avoid," she added. "Right now, it is perfectly legal to use toxic chemicals in everyday products, like phthalates in children's toys and Bisphenol A in food can linings."
"I was shocked when the results came in," Owens said. "I thought I was living in a safe environment."
The 57-year old mother of a grown son who lives on Old Sachem's Head Road and is a member of the Association of School Nurses of Connecticut said she heard about the project called "The Body Burden" after a presentation at one of their dinners.
A woman, she said, reported the project was designed to test industrial chemicals in the human body.
"Because I am a woman concerned about the environment I volunteered," she said.
The 34 women who joined her - four from Connecticut - were asked to provide blood and urine for analysis of the 20 chemicals.
"I'm not going to comment on what the chemicals can do to me," she said. "That is up to the scientists to determine. But many of them have been linked to developmental problem issues many people are concerned about including autism and a number of other serious health problems as well.
"I didn't think I could be exposed to these chemicals and to me, the point is clear: Contact your state legislators, your Congress people and encourage them to vote Green.
"Some of these chemicals have already been taken off the market and in my view, many others should be as well," she said. "If it is going to hurt the human body, it should not be in our food or our water or our air or any of our consumer products."
Owens is a school nurse at an upper Connecticut middle school, where she also coaches intramural tennis.
"The Body Burden project provided a special opportunity for me to become more aware of environmental exposure to chemicals we take for granted are not there," she said. "No one should find such chemicals in the food or consumer products we buy every day."
Three types of these toxic chemicals used in the components of everyday products were found in Owens and the other Connecticut mothers who participated in the biomonitoring project, according to a new report issued last week by a coalition of public interest groups in seven states.
The report comes at a time of heightened awareness of toxics in consumer products, including recent revelations about lead in toys and lipstick and a call by President Bush to tighten regulations on the inspection and federal approval of food products.
In a report entitled "Is it In Us: Toxic Trespass, Regulatory Failure and Opportunities for Action," the results of blood and urine testing of 35 people from seven states for the presence of three classes of chemicals; Phthalates, Bisphenol A and Polybrominated Diphenyl ethers(PBDEs) were revealed.
The project found all three classes of toxic chemicals in every person tested.
Each of these chemicals is found in common products people use everyday, including baby bottles, shower curtains, cosmetics, couch cushions, computers, toys, and scores of other common items found in most American homes, schools and workplaces, the report said.
Dr. Mary Jane Williams of the Connecticut Nurses Association said that "human and animal studies have linked the three chemicals to birth defects, cancer, learning disabilities, infertility, asthma and other health impacts of urgent public health concern.
"Some of the participants had levels near or above those linked to health impacts in laboratory animals."
Laura Anderson, a project participant from Wethersfield, said: "As hard as I try to eat right and maintain a healthy lifestyle, these results show that there is just no way to avoid being exposed to toxic chemicals."
Nancy Simcox of Middlefield, who also participated in the project, added: "Some of my levels were greater than I expected, even greater than the average levels of the general population, and this just makes me wonder what body burden a worker with even more exposures might have."
Project organizers point out that the federal law regulating chemicals, the Toxics Substances Control Act, was enacted in 1976 and has not been updated to reflect recent scientific advances, including evidence that even tiny doses of toxic chemicals may cause harm.
According to Phil Sherwood of the CT Citizen Action Group, "Our nation's chemical safety system has failed. In the absence of federal action, it's time to join together to develop pioneering state policies that will protect people from involuntary exposure to toxic chemicals from products we use every day."
Sherwood urged Connecticut lawmakers to invest in identifying and developing safer alternatives to the toxics in use today, to protect consumers, workers, and even the viability of Connecticut companies competing in a changing global marketplace. "We need to know how toxics are being used, and which products contain them, and we need to require that safer alternatives be used whenever feasible," he said.
Organizers also point out that because these chemicals are used in so many different products, consumers are not able to shop their way out of the problem. Some states throughout the country have taken the lead in creating a chemical policy that seeks to eliminate potentially hazardous chemicals and ensure the safety of others used in products.
The seven states who participated in the project were Alaska, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan Minnesota, Connecticut and Illinois.
To contact Robert C. Pollack call 203-458-5749 or email him at rpollack@ctcentral.com
