SHOCKING: Study finds hundreds of toxic chemicals in umbilical cords of newborns

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The umbilical cord is a baby's lifeline, bringing nourishment from the
mother and removing waste. The amniotic fluid bathes the growing
embryo, and the umbilical cord brings the embryo oxygen, nutrients-and
a startling array of toxic industrial chemicals, according to a recent
study, "Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns."

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from two major laboratories
looked for the presence of toxic chemicals in umbilical cord blood of
10 newborn babies born in U.S. hospitals in August and September 2004.
A collaboration of the Environmental Working Group and Commonweal
brought about the study. (Click here for the full report.)

Of the more than 400 chemicals tested for, 287 were detected in
umbilical cord blood. Of these, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals,
217 are toxic to the brain or nervous system, and 208 cause birth
defects or abnormal development in animals. Scientists refer to the
presence of such toxins in the newborn as "body burden."

According to the study's authors, the scope of testing was limited
because chemical companies are not required to divulge methods for
detecting the presence of their chemicals in the human body. "Had we
tested for a broader array of chemicals," they wrote, "we would almost
certainly have detected far more than 287."

Among those substances found to be polluting the blood supply for the
newborn babies were eight perfluorochemicals used as stain and oil
repellants in fast-food packaging, clothes and textiles, including the
Teflon chemical PFQA, a carcinogen; dozens of widely used bromated
flame retardants and their toxic byproducts; and many pesticides.

This latest research was done to investigate the root causes of
diseases caused by chemicals with in-utero origins. Certain factors
contribute to children's unique susceptibility to the dangerous effect
of chemicals. An immature porous blood-brain barrier in the fetus
allows greater chemical exposures to the developing brain; a
developing child's chemical exposures are greater pound-for-pound than
those of an adult; and systems that detoxify and excrete industrial
chemicals are not fully developed (National Academy of Sciences,
1993).

The difference between the effect of chemical exposure on adults and
embryos can be seen in the case of mercury exposure. In Minamata,
Japan, in the 1950s, poisonous mercury waste was dumped into a bay,
contaminating the food chain. Autopsies of adults revealed
mercury-caused lesions in a few areas of the brain, while in a fetus,
lesions covered nearly the entire cortex.

Here is a summary from the report of the classes of chemical found in
the babies' umbilical cord. Many of them persist for decades in the
environment and in people, accumulate in the food chain and are
lipophilic, that is, accumulate in fatty tissue and fluids such as
breast milk.

Chemicals and pollutants found in human umbilical cord blood (Source:
EWG study)

Mercury (Hg)
Tested for 1, found 1 Pollutant from coal-fired power plants,
mercury-containing products, and certain industrial processes.
Accumulates in seafood. Hurts brain development and function.

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Tested for 18, found 9 Pollutants from burning gasoline and garbage.
Linked to cancer. Accumulate in food chain.

Polybrominated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBDD/F)
Tested for 12, found 7 Contaminants in brominated flame retardants.
Pollutants and byproducts from plastic production and incineration.
Accumulate in food chain. Toxic to developing endocrine (hormone)
system.

Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)
Tested for 12, found 9 Active ingredients or breakdown products of
Teflon, Scotchgard, fabric and carpet protectors, food packaging.
Global contaminants. Accumulate in the environment and the food chain,
in meat, dairy, fish and eggs. Linked to cancer, birth defects, and
more.

Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and furans (PBCD/F)
Tested for 17, found 11 Pollutants, by-products of PVC production,
industrial bleaching, and incineration. Cause cancer in humans.
Persist for decades in the environment. Very toxic to developing
endocrine (hormone) system.

Organochlorine pesticides (OCs)
Tested for 28, found 21 DDT, chlordane and other pesticides. Largely
banned in the U.S. Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate
up the food chain to man. Cause cancer and numerous reproductive
effects.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)
Tested for 46, found 32 Flame retardant in furniture foam, computers,
and televisions. Accumulates in the food chain and human tissues.
Adversely affects brain development and the thyroid.

Polychlorinated napthalenes (PCNs)
Tested for 70, found 50 Wood preservatives, varnishes,
machine-lubricating oils, waste incineration. Formed during
chlorination of drinking water. Common PCB contaminant. Contaminate
the food chain. Cause liver and kidney damage.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
Tested for 209, found 147
Industrial insulators and lubricants. Banned in the U.S. in 1976.
Persist for decades in the environment. Accumulate up the food chain;
in meat, dairy and seafood. Cause cancer and nervous system problems.

Long-term effects

Chemicals that may not show harmful effects a short time after
exposure may cause subtle changes in development that show up later in
childhood as learning or behavior problems or in adulthood as cancers
or neurodegenerative disease. Recent studies are beginning to look at
how early chemical exposure can put adult health at risk. Scientists
from the University of Texas found that fetal exposure to the
synthetic hormone and now-banned drug DES permanently changed body
tissues and raised the rate of uterine cancer in later life in
laboratory animals.

Science understands and can control the spread of polio, smallpox,
diphtheria and other diseases that were scourges in the past. But less
clear is the cause of diseases on the increase over the last 30 years:
asthma (100 percent increase 1982-1993), childhood brain cancer (40
percent increase 1973-1994), acute lymphocytic leukemia (62 percent
increase 1973-1999) and autism (1,000 percent increase from early
1980s to 1996). Early life exposure to environmental toxins is
certainly one suspect.

One chemical studied in the laboratory is Deca, the common name for
one of three commercial fire retardants. It is added to plastics,
computer monitors, TV screens, and home appliances. People absorb the
chemical from food they eat and by ingesting small particles of it in
their homes and worksites. When lab animals were given one single
exposure to Deca, it adversely impacted learning, memory and behavior.
As the animals aged, the effects grew worse. The period of greatest
sensitivity to the chemical correlates to the third trimester of human
pregnancy, when the brain of the fetus is rapidly growing.

One of the most sobering sections of the report examines what impact
the exposure of the embryo to these hundreds of toxins will have in
future generations. The researchers explain that besides genetic
mutations-that is, physical changes in gene structure-there can be
epigenetic changes that can silence or activate a gene (turn it
permanently off or on) in a way that can be inherited. Such epigenetic
changes have been linked to the fungicide vinclozolin and pesticide
methoxychlor, which impaired sperm counts and sperm motility among
animals in the womb and for three subsequent generations.

Lack of government regulation

Besides the fact that procedures to find chemicals in the fetus are
difficult, there is another major problem in tracking the effects on
people. Business has virtually free rein in its use of deadly toxins.
US industries manufacture and import about 75,000 chemicals, using
3,000 of them at the rate of more than a million pounds a year. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the federal government's
regulatory agency, does not require that these chemicals be tested for
safety before they flood the environment.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), a federal law passed in 1976,
approved as safe the 63,000 chemicals in use at the time. The law
requires that the government approve new chemicals within 90 days of a
company request, with companies requesting approval for about seven
new chemicals a day. The law has no teeth, requiring only that the EPA
negotiate with industry or complete a formal "test rule" for each
individual study it wants. Needless to say, not many studies are done
before chemicals are put on the market.

Even when companies agree voluntarily to test a chemical,large parts
of their reports submitted to the EPA, including health and safety
findings, are redacted as business secrets and can't be reviewed. In
addition, the EPA takes years to review information submitted by
industry.

For example, recently, research has raised concerns about the effect
of Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used in the manufacture of nonstick
cookware such as Teflon, and many other applications. The EPA began an
extensive review of PFOA in 2003. It had to file a lawsuit over
DuPont's alleged suppression of information on health studies. Most
data on it has not been made available to the public. Reams of
information have been given to the EPA, and it is just getting to
processing these documents, as this potentially dangerous chemical
continues to be massively used.

The TSCA requires that if use of a chemical is risky, top priority
must be to minimize the costs to industry for any action. The act does
not allow the EPA to require that the industry keep chemicals off the
market as a precaution to protect public health. Rather, the chemicals
have to be proven unsafe first. Since PCBs and DDT were banned in the
1970s, few chemicals have been regulated to make sure millions of
people are protected from their effects.