Do you netflix? If so, there are many great documentaries available. We just netflixed one hosted by Anderson Cooper called Planet in Peril. There’s a great clip on the Body Burden. Anderson is tested for over 240 chemicals and is found to have more than 100 of them in his blood. Among them, chemicals like the organochloride DDT and PCBs, which were banned in the U.S. in the 70s. Most notable though is that he is in the 95th percentile for phthalates. The doctors suspect this is due to all the makeup he wears as a reporter for CNN. Most concerning to me was Anderson’s coverage of a family that was tested for the Body Burden project. The 18 month old and 5 year old children had 2-4 times more of many of the chemicals tested than their parents. One of those chemicals was also phthalates (see my Dangers of Plastics post for more on children and phthalates).
Anderson Cooper isn’t the only one to have his blood tested. The Environmental Working Group is testing the blood of many Americans for their Human Toxome Project. Several of their studies have found that 100% of participants have phthalates, PCBs, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in their blood. They have found flame retardents (PBDE’s–polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in all breastmilk tested. And they’ve found many of these chemicals in the blood of umbilical cords. One study of mothers and their daughters found that 32% of participants had high levels of BPA in their blood, while 55% had high levels of lead. This kind of makes you wonder what chemicals might be in your body, doesn’t it?
For more info, see the EWG’s Body Burden website. Also see the chemicalbodyburden.org.
