Viviane Maraghi expected the blood tests to show she would have some chemical pollution in her body, but nothing like this.
After all, she viewed herself as "very environmentalist," carefully monitoring what she ate and and the household products and items she purchased.
Nevertheless, lead, arsenic, mercury, PCBs, PBDEs (a flame retardant banned in Europe and eight U.S. states but still in use in Canada), plus an array of other chemicals that have been linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological diseases were all well represented in her bloodstream.
Her blood tested positive for 36 of 68 potentially toxic chemicals, many of which never actually leave the body, but continue to accumulate over time in tissues such as fat or bone.
They get there because they are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and the products we use.
Over the last 50 years, from 70,000 to 100,000 different chemicals have been introduced into the world's markets with about 1,500 new ones added each year. They are found mostly in industrial processes and consumer products such as cosmetics, cleaners, food, plastics and more recently the circuit boards that run our computer electronics. Even a seemingly innocuous polyvinyl chloride (PVC ) shower curtain contains up to 108 toxic chemicals - some of which have already been banned by some countries, but not in Canada.
Manufacturers often argue that these chemicals have been used for decades with no reported incidents of harm. But who has ever been able to say: "I'm dying of cancer and it's the shower curtain's fault?"
Fact is, only sporadic toxicity studies have been done on the enormous array of industrial chemicals used in Canada.
Only now are governments beginning to examine the dangers posed to human health and ecosystems. Many western governments are initiating new chemical controls as part of an international Strategic Approach to International Chemical Management agreement signed in Dubai in 2006. The agreement was sparked by the realization that nearly every square inch of the planet is now contaminated to one degree or another with a chemical pollutant. What's more, over the next 15 years, chemical production is expected to climb 80 per cent. The main goal is to assure that by 2020 everybody uses chemicals safely.
Leading the way is the European Union with a new program called REACH (Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) that requires industry to prove the safety of their chemicals and consumer products before they reach the market.
The next 10 years will see a vast number of chemical assessments, all of which will be made public, that will shed light on the murky world of chemical toxicity. It's a world that until now has remained hushed up or simply ignored.
The ultimate result could be a sea change in how we develop products for the consumer market. It could lead to widespread bans on some substances, which might see many consumer products disappear from the shelves or be replaced with safer equivalents.
It is an issue that is becoming increasingly important worldwide as species disappear, health costs sore, and concern grows that many diseases, particularly cancers and autoimmune diseases, might be the result of chemical pollution.
Few tests have been performed on Canadians to pinpoint and quantify the chemical pollutants accumulating in our bodies. But that is beginning to change.
Health Canada is testing 5,000 Canadians for chemical contamination and preliminary results should be available in November.
The tests done on Maraghi, 35, and her son Aladin, 12, in 2005 were part of a research project called Toxic Nation undertaken by the Toronto-based activist group Environmental Defence.
An attempt to wake up Canadians to the growing danger of chemical toxins entering our bodies, the study tested 11 individual volunteers plus five families.
Maraghi and her son took part, she said, because she was eager to help raise Canadian's awareness of the dangers posed by the millions of kilograms of chemicals emitted into the environment each year.
Each volunteer had high levels of many different chemical pollutants in their bloodstreams.
Even Maraghi's son Aladin, who was only 10 when the tests were performed, tested positive for 25 chemicals and had higher lead levels than his mother.
Both had high levels of organophosphate insecticides, probably because they spent three years living in the country, Maraghi said.
"It was surprising to us because we are very aware and a big part of what we eat is organic, and we try to be careful with the types of products we use in the house," she said. "So my first reaction was, 'what happens with people that don't take care of that and are not aware?' "
To date, consumers have been unsuspecting lab rats for chemical companies who have been allowed to market their products without ensuring they won't damage human health or the environment. Bans have been imposed only after the damage is done.
Full Story: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=e4c6d71f-2a6f-4952-98c7-24866f28aa67
