IWU Environmental Wellness: Safer Path: Body Burden

“Shocked…stunned.” These are the words my Illinois Wesleyan (IWU) environmental health students used upon learning how many industrial chemicals their bodies are likely “burdened” with. Body burden is the term scientists use to describe the body’s accumulation of chemical contaminants -- substances like household cleaners, fabric treatments, cosmetics, pest repellants, computers, weedkillers -- that have helped “modernize” our lives in the post-World War II chemical age. Many of these newfangled chemicals are derived by rearranging the molecules of fossil fuels. But some are age-old heavy metals, like lead and mercury, which modern living (through household paint or digging up coal beds) concentrates. A January 2003 report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is the largest, most comprehensive body burden assessment (called biomonitoring) to date on US citizens. The Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals traces some 116 chemicals through some 2,500 American children’s and adults’ bodies.

Among the concerning findings: Contamination is widespread, with 89 of 116 chemicals detected in Americans blood and urine. And subsets of Americans experience greater body burdens. For example…children had twice the levels of pesticides and cotinine (a residue from secondhand smoke) as adults. Adolescents had higher levels of the hormone-disrupting phthalates (used in many personal care products) than adults. Mexican-Americans had 3 times as much DDT (a pesticide banned in the US since 1973) in their blood as other Americans had. And 8% of women of child-bearing age had neurotoxic methyl-mercury blood levels above the government’s precautionary standard to protect an unborn fetus.

“We’ve never had this amount of information about what [contaminants] are getting into people via food, air or skin contact… If it’s not getting into you, it can’t harm you.” Says Dr. Jim Pirkle, deputy director of science for the CDCs environmental-health lab.

Complementing the CDC report is a joint study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine which extensively tested 9 individuals for 210 chemicals, and found an average of 91 residues in each person. None of the participants work with chemicals on the job. Disturbingly, two-thirds of the compounds found (many of which have been banned, but persist) “can threaten nearly every organ in the body at every stage of life,” the authors said.

On the EWG’s interactive body burden website one can view the pictures of each of the 9 participants (including journalist and TV host Bill Moyers) with the contaminants found in each of their bodies. Additionally viewers can take a “virtual tour” of their own bodies to estimate their own body burden based on products they use. “I feel dirty… contaminated,” my students admitted after taking this tour. They were disturbed to learn that everyday products they use literally become them. The idea can make anyone squirm.

Clearly, many industrial chemicals are getting into our bodies. How? We know that:

In 1998 US industries reported manufacturing 6.5 trillion pounds of 9,000 different chemicals, and in 2000 major US industries reported dumping 7.1 billion pounds of 650 industrial chemicals into our air and water.
US chemical companies hold licenses to make nearly 85,000 chemicals for commercial use--chemicals which our bodies prior to the 1940s have no evolutionary history with.
The government usually approves 80% of applications for new chemicals with no restrictions within just 3 weeks.
The government has tallied 5,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics; more than 3,200 chemicals added to food; 1,010 chemicals used in 11,700 consumer products; and 500 chemicals used as active ingredients in pesticides.
Of 491 chemicals commonly used by children and families in consumer products, only 25% have full screening data on health effects. The EPA admits it cannot begin to judge the hazards of health risks without even basic toxicity data.

Oddly, we humans mistakenly assume we live in an imaginary bubble that protects us from the contaminants in our “outside” environment. We have forgotten that we ARE the environment, geneticist, author and film producer David Suzuki reminds us. Whatever is “out there” is inside us. We live, breathe and eat the products of our modern industrial era, for better or for worse.

So what can we do to protect our health while immersed in this chemical soup? IWU’s environmental health students are turning their reactions into actions, assembling some helpful steps each of us can take. Look for them dispersed amongst various community groups at the IWU Wellness Fair and learn how you can lighten your body burden.

Resources:
For the CDC report: www.cdc.gov/exposurereport
For the EWG/Mount Sinai body burden report: www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden/index.php
For the EPA study on extent of testing for modern chemicals: www.epa.gov/opptintr/chemtest/hazchem.htm
For ideas on shat you can do: “Everybody’s Chemical Burden” by Shayna Cohen in The Green Guide #96 May/June 2003, www.thegreenguide.com