- A new study conducted in British Columbia and the U.S.
Northwest has found chemical flame retardants in the breast milk of every
woman tested. Not only were the chemicals, polybrominated diphenyl ethers
or PBDEs, omnipresent, but they were among the highest levels recorded
in humans.
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- "Contamination with PBDEs is ubiquitous," said
Clark Williams-Derry, research director for Northwest Environment Watch
(NEW), the Seattle-based group that conducted the research.
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- "The levels we found were 20 to 40 times higher
than what you find in Europe and Asia," said Mr. Williams-Derry, who
heads up NEW, which describes itself an independent, not-for-profit
research
and communication centre.
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- Earlier this year, Health Canada released a survey that
found that women in Canada had levels about five to 10 times higher than
those in other advanced industrial countries, such as Japan, Sweden and
Germany. The survey indicated that Canadian women have the second-highest
levels in the world, after the United States.
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- PBDEs are chemicals widely used as flame retardants in
furniture foams, industrial textiles, and consumer electronics. It is not
known exactly how PBDEs migrate from household products into human tissue.
They have been found in household dust and sewage sludge, in many fatty
foods such as meat and fish, and in wildlife.
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- Mr. Williams-Derry said that while there is little
research
on human health and PBDEs, animal experiments have linked the chemicals
to learning difficulties, memory impairment, and changes in thyroid hormone
levels.
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- The similarity of these effects to those of childhood
attention-deficit disorders, and the rising tide of adult thyroid problems,
have led to suggestions that PBDEs play a role in these ailments.
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- "You can't avoid exposure to flame retardants any
more, even if you have the cleanest lifestyle. That calls for some public
safeguards, some regulatory action," he said.
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- Alexis Doctor, a Vancouver woman whose breast milk was
tested as part of the research, said that she was shocked to learn of the
contamination, and that her 14-month-old son, Ethan, could be ingesting
chemicals.
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- "I don't have a safe feeling any more," she
said. "I work in an office, not a chemical factory, so I can't believe
that all this stuff is in my body."
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- Ms. Doctor was one of 40 women in British Columbia and
the states of Montana, Oregon, and Washington whose breast milk was tested
as part of the research. Her milk contained 23 parts per billion of PBDEs,
well below the median level of 50 ppb, but still not negligible. The
highest
level recorded in British Columbia was 381 ppb.
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- The researchers stressed that women should continue to
breastfeed because the benefits of doing so almost certainly outweigh the
risks. They tested breast milk only because it is a simple means of
determining
environmental exposure to chemicals.
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- Paul Muldoon, executive director of the Canadian
Environmental
Law Association, said that while the sample was small and tests were done
only on the Pacific Coast, there is every reason to believe this level
of contamination exists across North America. "People in Eastern
Canada
should be just as alarmed about these findings as people in Western Canada
and people in Central Canada," he said.
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- Mr. Muldoon said while it is unclear what safe levels
of PBDEs might be for humans, regulators should not be complacent. "We
need to take a precautionary approach, and that requires some direct
intervention."
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- Mr. Muldoon said that, legally, PBDEs are a tough
substance
to regulate. Environmental laws tend to target emissions, while in this
instance the potentially dangerous chemicals are discharged from common
household products.
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- Mr. Williams-Derry said that there should be a rapid
phase-out of the use of PBDEs in manufacturing, and a push to find
alternatives.
He noted that countries like Sweden have banned PBDEs without difficulty.
"This is not an insurmountable problem."
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- Until PBDEs are banned, or phased out, Mr. Williams-Derry
said consumers should try to minimize their exposure by buying furniture
and carpeting made with natural fibres, or sold at companies such as IKEA,
which has stopped using the chemicals.
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- Health Canada and Environment Canada recommended earlier
this year that some forms of PBDEs be declared toxic and eliminated from
use.
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- International comparisons done by Health Canada
scientists
show that breast milk has about 100 times more PBDEs today than 30 years
ago.
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- Over the past three decades, increasing amounts of PBDEs
have been added to consumer products such as televisions, computers, and
to the polyurethane foam used in furniture. The good news, according to
health and environmental experts, is that the problem can be fairly easily
reversed. After Sweden banned PBDEs, contamination levels in breast milk
declined sharply.
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