Posted on 07/26/2005 6:50:28 PM PDT by Coleus
Doctors once thought that the placenta would shield a fetus from harmful chemicals and pollutants. But new research shows that may not be the case. A study published this month by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an advocacy group based in Washington DC, found traces of 287 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of 10 infants. They included mercury, pesticides and the chemicals used in stain-resistant coating and fire-retardant foam. The findings prompted concerns since children’s smaller brains, developing organs and more porous brains put them more at risk from such toxins than adults. "A child's brain is very vulnerable and developing very rapidly in utero and during the first two years of life," says Jane Houlihan, co-author of the study.
While former threats like smallpox and polio are now under control, conditions like autism and asthma are on the rise. Autism rates are up tenfold, asthma cases have doubled and incidences of childhood cancers like leukemia and brain cancer are also high. No one has pinpointed the cause of the increases yet. But reports like this one may leave many parents feeling like they need a PhD in chemistry just to keep their children healthy in an unhealthy, even toxic, world. The EWG study detected perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), for example, in all 10 of the newborns' blood at a range of 3.37 to 10.7 parts per billion. It's not clear whether chemicals at this ratio can cause cancer or birth defects or precisely what, if any, levels would be safe in such a young population, but these levels are certainly not naturally occurring. The samples also contained up to 14,200 parts per trillion of polybrominate dephenyl ethers (PBDEs), which have been linked to brain and thyroid development problems.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
What we need is more DDT use worldwide so that lives can be saved and suffering reduced.
http://www.mafhoum.com/press3/102P8_files/1483081.jpg
Brant served abroad as Newsweek’s Mexico City bureau chief from December 1996 through December 1998. She wrote several Latin American edition cover stories including “No Place Like Home” (6/15/98) about the tremendous financial and ideological impact of Mexican immigrants on their native country. Other covers from Latin American include “Mayan Chic,” (11/3/97), the modern revival of Mayan culture, and “The Importance of Being Ernesto” (5/5/97), the political education of President Ernesto Zedillo.
She served as a Washington correspondent from February 1995 to December 1996, reporting a number of exclusive stories on Hillary Clinton such as the cover “Saint or Sinner?” (01/15/96). She joined Newsweek as a summer intern in June 1993 and was promoted to reporter in 1994. She was part of the Newsweek team reporting on the Oklahoma City bombing.
Brant came to Newsweek after receiving an M.A. in Latin American studies from Stanford University. She worked as a reporter at the Daily Republic in Fairfield, Ca. and the Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica. She was an intern at CNN (Spanish) in Los Angeles and the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Ca. A native of Laguna Beach, Ca., Brant holds a B.A. in history from Yale University and is fluent in Spanish.
Exactly. The "Environmental Working Group" is a far left group. Just the name itself should tell you what kind of organization it is. There are a lot of things that are found in trace amounts in the blood. The problem with groups like this is they don't do thorough studies nor do they take statistically sound samples. Much like groups up in arms over artifical sweeteners and MSG a small amount of smoke and lots of mirrors. The primary indication that someone or a group is a kooksville is they never cite mainstream sources or fund truly independent studies they also never do the basic research to confirm their outstanding self-evident claims.
No, actually, this seems like serious business, and as a parent it worries me. You don't even have to be a scientist to know that there's bad stuff in the water and the air. Just look out your window or turn on your tap. Why has the simple use of our senses become politicized? Can't I favor gun freedoms, less government intrusion in my business and strong defense without thinking it's also okay for my children to be poisoned?
Liquified Count Chocula being the most dangerous. ;)
Did they test adults too? Or would that have played hell with the the results they want to get to prove their agenda?
Bad science is worse than no science. Parts per trillion? What's the margin of error, and where is the hard data supporting the "Unsafe" exposure limits? No one wants to see their children poisoned, but we need a little common sense here.
The first sentence makes me question the entirety of this article.
The sky is falling - panic time!
This is junk science. Ultra low concentrations more toxic than higher ones? Blarney. Homeopathy.
Go ahead and run in circles if you wish but this is junk.
We'll just have to ban children then.
And the production method will have to be tightly regulated.
LOL, you sound like one of those harried liberals from the NEA and NOW, Bill Clinton used the term "for the children", "the children" a lot. Seemed to work especially with women.
Did you or someone in your family you know live before 1980? Before the Clean air and water legislation was passed, factories spewed out tons of pollutants from smoke stacks and dumping sludge in the rivers, most apartment buildings incinerated their garbage, we burned our dead leaves every fall. During some summers our air was tinged green or yellow from all the pollution and smog, no catalytic converters with lots of smoke and lead coming out of the exhaust pipes, our mothers smoked while pregnant and we breathed in second-had smoke from both parents. I even went down a high sliding pond onto the pavement, Nope, no wood chips for me. And to tell you the truth, I knew very few kids who had asthma, ADD, autism, being allergic to peanuts? never heard of it before until a couple of yrs. ago. Doctors now recommend that bedrooms of newborns stay a little dusty so that the children can build up good immune systems. AND WE USED TO RUN BEHIND THE DDT SMOKE TRUCK! and survived. Your comment made me look for a joke I received in e-mail:
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! And we played outside all day even in the winter. We played football in the rain and didn't catch colds.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate sand, dirt, roof shingles and worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
Wow! Babies that won't burn, stain, or get termites. If they could only invent self-cleaning diapers.
no nicotine or nicotine metabolites ?
Those bastards!
Yeah. Chicken nuggets and processed carrots.
Unfortunately obvious evidence like that doesn't make enough people think. Just as the left has shot itself in the foot by calling abortion a "right", so we of the right are shooting ourselves in the foot by calling unregulated pollution a "right." Once the left wakes up and starts talking cancer rates instead of nonsense about spotted owls, our blindness is going to cost us a national election.
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