A report by a Canadian environmental group says chemical pollutants in the environment are being transferred to babies in the womb.
The group, Environmental Defence, tested the umbilical cord blood of three anonymous newly-born babies at Toronto and Hamilton Ontario hospitals.
In their report called “Pre-Polluted : A Report on Toxic Substances in the Umbilical Cord Blood of Canadian Newborns, they say traces of dozens of toxic chemicals were found.
These included PBDEs (flame retardants), PCBs (a banned chemical), PFCs (found in non-stick coatings), Organochlorine pesticides, dioxins and furans, mercury and lead which are chemicals that are known to be pervasive in the environment and are linked to serious health problems.
The group says this shows that on a daily basis people are being exposed to chemicals at home, in workplaces and in the greater environment, which have links to cancer, hormone-disruption, and other serious health problems.
The fact that such chemical pollutants in the environment are reaching foetus is especially worrisome they say, because toxicity testing figures are developed from testing with adults and extremely little is known on how such chemicals may affect the rapidly developing and vulnerable foetus, in the short, medium and long term.
The report goes on to say, “Cancers in hormone-sensitive tissues in humans (such as the breast, testes, thyroid, prostate and ovaries) are on the rise—sharply. Between 1973 and 1998, the rate of testicular cancer in U.S. males skyrocketed by 44 per cent. Breast cancer rates are increasing in most industrialized countries, and the rise cannot be fully explained by improvements in mammography or changes in risk factors such as inheritance, or age at time of childbearing.3 Thyroid cancer rates have been increasing more rapidly than any other solid tumour and according to Cancer Care Ontario, “The incidence of thyroid cancer in 15–29 year-old women in Ontario increased rapidly at an average rate of five per cent per year between 1981 and 2009.”
While the Toronto-based organization admits the sample was small, they insist it’s a serious wake-up call to governments to engage in more testing, and more rigorous testing, of the multitude of chemicals in our environment and how we are being exposed to them
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