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Kids 'absorb toxic chemicals'
07/10/2005 11:30 - (SA)
Brussels - Children in Europe are absorbing high levels of toxic chemicals from computers, carpets, clothes and cosmetics, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) warned on Thursday.
Results from a new WWF study showed the existence of a total of 73 dangerous chemicals in the blood of 13 families from 12 European Union states.
The highest number of chemicals was detected in the grandmother's generation (63). Children under twelve, however, had more chemicals in their blood (59) than their mothers (49), and the levels of some chemicals were found to be highest in children.
Newer chemicals linked to daily-use items such as computers, carpets, clothes or cosmetics were found more frequently and often at higher levels in children, the survey revealed.
In contrast, the older generations were most contaminated with the pesticide DDT and PCB (polychlorinated bephenyls), chemicals banned for about 30 years.
"Each person tested was contaminated with a persistent and hormone-disrupting cocktail of at least 18 man-made chemicals," WWF representative Karl Wagner said.
Results were especially worrying as most of the chemicals found only break down slowly, persist in the environment and accumulate in the human body to ever increasing levels during the lifespan, WWF said.
"Low long-term exposure is much more dangerous than extensive short-time exposure," director of the study, Nicolas van Larebeke, said. Furthermore, recent scientific findings had shown that a toxic mix of many chemicals is especially dangerous.
In addition to being passed on from mother to child during pregnancy and breastfeeding, many chemicals were adding up during a life-time, Van Larebeke said.
WWF criticised a "huge lack of data on over 85% of currently marketed compounds" and urged European legislators to beef up a controversial EU regulation to limit contamination by chemicals.
The draft legislation has become a battleground between European businesses which claim costs of implementing the new rules will cripple EU's competitiveness and environmentalists who say it does not go far enough.
"Chemicals should be regulated and controlled," Wagner said. "We want a system able to identify bad chemicals, replacing them with safer alternatives." Research in this area would not only benefit public health but also European industry, he added.
Survey results show little relation between the location of each family tested and their chemical profile, WWF said, adding: "Exposure to man-made chemicals is a fact of life, irrespective of how old a person is, what they do or where they live." - Sapa-dpa
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