Our children inherit the toxic burden of our planet


Babies in the womb are being contaminated with hazardous non-stick chemicals, flame-retardants, perfumes and other gender-bending chemicals, a new report by WWF-UK and Greenpeace has found.

Tests on blood taken from the umbilical cords of nearly 30 new-born babies and from more than 40 new mothers were analysed for the presence of eight groups of chemicals, ranging from artificial musks used in cosmetics and cleaning products to flame retardants and chemicals used to make plastics and non stick and water-proof coatings.

The report A Present for Life: hazardous chemicals in cord blood highlights the fact that babies are being exposed to these chemicals at the most vulnerable point in their development, and the need for urgent action to be taken to control the production and sale of those chemicals that may damage the health of babies and adults alike.

Every single sample of mother or baby blood tested positive for an array of chemicals, many of which are suspected of links to health problems ranging from birth defects and genital abnormalities to certain types of cancer. All umbilical cords contained a minimum of five of the 35 chemicals tested for, some contained as many as 14. Two of the mothers tested had 17 of the 35 chemicals in their blood.

The report also highlights the possible effects of chemicals on children's brain development and intelligence.

Most of the chemicals are found in products that we all use every day, like cleaning fluids and sprays, tin can linings, perfumes and cosmetics and even baby bottles. Others include banned pesticides like DDT that have lingered in the environment for decades.

Proposed new EU legislation on chemicals 'REACH' gives Europe a crucial opportunity to take the necessary action to protect humans and the environment from the effects of harmful chemicals and to make producers responsible for the impacts of their products. Greenpeace and WWF are calling on legislators to put the interests of public health and the environment first, by ensuring that the worst chemicals are identified and phased out, and by making it obligatory to substitute harmful chemicals with safer alternatives.

Andrew Lee, Director of Campaigns for WWF-UK said: "These chemicals should not be in products, let alone in developing babies. The EU has a once in a generation opportunity to control hazardous chemicals with new REACH legislation it is vital for the health of future generations that this legislation is effective."

Helen Perivier, Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace International said: "Babies feeding through the umbilical cord are exposed to toxic chemicals from products like vinyl plastics, cleaning products, electronics and perfumes. It is shocking that such chemicals are in the human body at any stage of our life, let alone at the very start, when the child is most vulnerable. Governments need to act and require industries to substitute these contaminating chemicals with safer alternatives."

Colin Butfield, leader of WWF-UK's Chemicals and Health Campaign said: "It is urgent that we end the loophole that permits industry to continue using chemicals of very high concern by claiming adequate control of their use, even when safer alternatives exist. If these chemicals are 'adequately controlled', as industry claims, how do they end up in unborn babies?"

Editor's notes

WWF is now known simply by its initials and the panda logo.

The tests were undertaken as part of a PhD study at the University of Groningen, Holland.

Download A Present for Life: hazardous chemicals in cord blood

For further information, please contact:


http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/p...-in-our-babies

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Where chemicals are found in elevated concentrations
in biological fluids such as breast milk, they should be
removed from the market immediately.

UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2003)


DDT, PCBs and dioxins are among the most hazardous – and
most researched – man-made chemicals that have ever
been brought into our environment. These, along with a
number of other chlorinated pesticide chemicals, have been
officially classified as POPs (persistent organic pollutants)
under the global Stockholm Convention, and are largely
banned from intentional production and use. This United
Nations Convention was adopted in 2001 and entered into
force in May 2004.

Lost and found:
persistent organic pollutants
However, these twelve chemicals and chemical groups,
sometimes referred to as the ‘dirty dozen’, make up only a
small percentage of the total number of POPs. Many other
persistent organic chemicals are still manufactured and
used as ingredients in products for industrial, agricultural
and/or consumer use. Chemicals like brominated flame
retardants, alkylphenols, artificial musks and phthalates
have become, as a result of their extensive use, widely
distributed through the environment. They have even been
found in regions and animals thought to be remote from
sources of chemical contamination. For example, various
brominated chemicals used as flame retardant additives in
plastics and textiles have been found in the bodies of polar
bears, wild falcons, sperm whales and human beings.
Recent research indicates that hazardous chemicals can
escape from consumer products during daily use, either
directly to the air or in the form of contaminated dusts
(Greenpeace Netherlands 2001 and 2003, Santillo et al.
2003a).

Ongoing presence

Though deliberate production and use of the ‘dirty dozen’
POPs have been banned or severely restricted worldwide,
these chemicals, in common with many still in use, are
persistent. They do not easily break down or biodegrade and
therefore remain in the environment for many decades with
the concentrations declining only slowly, if at all. In 2003,
WWF conducted a study of chemical contaminants in the
blood of 155 volunteers in the UK, a country where PCBs
were banned as far back as the 1970s (WWF-UK 2003).
The continuing presence of PCBs in their blood illustrates
how long persistent chemicals remain in the environment
and what we might expect from other persistent chemicals
such as brominated flame retardants.
© Topham/ANP