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Question #1: How does this study compare to the government's National Exposure Report?
Question #2: Why test for chemicals in people? Risk assessment, public health policy
Question #3: Why did you test just 10 newborns?
Question #4: How do industrial chemicals get in my body?
Question #5: How can I reduce my chemical exposures?
Question #4: How do industrial chemicals get in my body?
More than 75,000 commercial chemicals are currently approved for use in the U.S. (EPA 2005c), a number that grows by 2,500 new chemicals yearly (EPA 1997). U.S. industries produce or import 3,000 of these in quantities of greater than one million pounds per year (EPA 2005c). Many pesticides banned in the U.S. for decades (PCBs and DDT, for example) persist in the environment, build up in the food chain, and continue to contribute to daily exposures. Government sources detail more than 3,000 chemicals used as food additives (FDA 2005), an estimated 10,500 ingredients in personal care products (FDA 2000), and more than 500 chemicals approved as active ingredients in pesticides (EPA 2002a,2005b). Many of these chemicals, whether used purposefully or found as unwanted impurities, can contribute to a person's body burden through exposures from food, air, water, dust and soil, and consumer products. And for many chemicals in our bodies, the health consequences are unknown. The studies aren't required under federal law, and in most cases simply haven't been done.
More From Body Burden — The Pollution in Newborns
Executive Summary
Babies are Vulnerable
Human Health Problems on the Rise
Guide to testing.
Adult Blood Test Results.
Why are babies born polluted?
Guest Commentary
Peer Statement
