Posted on 07/15/2005 2:06:25 AM PDT by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
WASHINGTON — Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report to be released Thursday.
Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.
The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.
"These 10 newborn babies ... were born polluted," said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who planned to publicize the findings at a news conference Thursday.
"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb," Slaughter, a Democrat, said.
Cord blood reflects what the mother passes to the baby through the placenta.
"Of the 287 chemicals we 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 report said.
Blood tests did not show how the chemicals got into the mothers' bodies.
MERCURY AND PESTICIDES
Among the chemicals found in the cord blood were methylmercury, produced by coal-fired power plants and certain industrial processes. People can breathe it in or eat it in seafood and it causes brain and nerve damage.
Also found were polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are produced by burning gasoline and garbage and which may cause cancer; flame-retardant chemicals called polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans; and pesticides including DDT and chlordane.
The same group analyzed the breast milk of mothers across the United States in 2003 and found varying levels of chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs. This latest analysis also found PBDEs in cord blood.
The Environmental Working Group report coincided with a Government Accountability Office report issued Wednesday that said the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the powers it needs to fully regulate toxic chemicals.
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act gives only "limited assurance" that new chemicals entering the market are safe and that the EPA only rarely assesses chemicals already on the market.
"Today, chemicals are being used to make baby bottles, food packaging and other products that have never been fully evaluated for their health effects on children -- and some of these chemicals are turning up in our blood," said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who plans to co-sponsor a bill to require more testing of toxic chemicals.
Pollutants and other chemicals are believed to cause a range of illnesses. But scientists agree the only way to really sort out the effects is to measure how much gets into people and then see what happens to their health.
OTH Obstetricians are usually blamed for cerebral palsy - a disease whose root cause still remains elusive. Perhaps this finding is a link in the chain ...
Stupid article. No measure of how much of what chemicals were found. Nor was a benchmark mentioned for comparison. These chemicals are probably in such infinitesimal amounts as to be considered less than neglidgable. We are what is and you are what you eat. Ashes to ashes and all that.
Speaking of ashes, I wonder how many of the mothers smoked.
LOL! Not to mention those dreaded, gasp, MOLECULES...
The elusive subject matter is soaked in hyperbole and chemical fears, this reader finds.
Exactly.....pollution.......must be stopped.......must be GWB's fault.....move on.......
I once read a story of a woman who actually pour the chemical dihydrogen monoxide all over her baby.
!Heavens! Next thing you know, they'll be exposed to COMPOUNDS and SUBSTANCES!"
Oxygen dihydride, sodium chloride, deoxyribonucleic acid...it's a crisis!
Don't forget the Eeeeevil Molecules and Elements!
I think the real question is how the human race ever managed to make it to this time. What with eating red meat, spraying with DDT when we were young, parents smoking inside the house, good smelling fumes when filling the tank, no signs telling us that some chemicals are known to the state of California to cause cancer, and the big one, sun tans every summer. Egad I feel old.
Zero conception rate thus no polluted babies either
And if that's the case, why then would they want to preserve stem cells?????? I would love to ask them.
Samples taken from illegal immigrants from China, kong kong, India, And mexico after they were arrested working in portable methadone labs set up in Semi trailers with no ventilation.
Some study. Lets' try a study with some controls and see what we get, not something done by a group with a political agenda.
Wrong! The Left uses environmentalism as one of many tools to frighten people and strangle what is left of industrialism in the U.S. Ultimately, the beautiful natural world would be better off without wicked people spoiling it, Comrade. Genocide is the ultimate destination of Socialism.
I'm a biochemist, and I was about to post something along the same line.
Actual environmental levels of some toxins are decreasing--for instance, dioxin levels peaked in the early 1970s and have been decreasing ever since.
Plants produce vast numbers of complex organic molecules. The poison in one tobacco plant can kill a man. Broccoli has hundreds of natural pesticides, some of them not even described yet, and some of them known to be teratogens (causing birth defects) or mutagens (causing DNA mutations and perhaps cancer.) Toxic metals have been in the water forever in some places. Eat the wrong part of the wrong animal, and you can give yourself Vitamin A poisoning, tetrodotoxicosis, hyperthyroidism, or an overdose of steroids. Volcano plumes are a witches' brew of nasty, corrosive, toxic chemicals.
The natural world is full of poisons and always has been. Our bodies evolved to deal with small amounts of toxins long before there was an Industrial Revolution. 98% of the claimed benefits of "organic" or "natural" food is bunk.
-ccm
Thanks for confirming. My friend passed away some years ago, so I have no expert nearby to whom I can turn with questions. One of the brightest people I've ever met. He was given a professorship as soon as he finished his Ph.D. -- never heard of anyone else so honored!
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