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« Enviro Programs Get the Budget Ax – Again | Main | The Water’s Not Fine: Plant Refuses to Locate in Teflon-Tainted Town »

Toxic Chemicals Found in British Celebrities’ Bodies

In the latest study of toxic chemicals in people, the BBC reports that seven British TV personalities were tested for 104 industrial compounds in their blood. All were contaminated with toxins, and one had 30 different chemicals in her sysem. Scientists tested for commonly found chemicals including banned pesticides like DDT, flame retardants and the PFOA chemical found in Teflon and other nonstick pans and stain repellents.

World Wide Fund for Nature and the Co-Operative Bank funded the study, hoping to gain support for stronger regulation of the chemical industry.

In 2003, one of the first and most comprehensive studies of toxics in people was conducted by Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group and Commonweal. Researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 91 industrial compounds, pollutants, and other chemicals in the blood and urine of nine volunteers, with a total of 167 chemicals found in the group.

Scientists refer to this contamination as a person’s body burden. Of the 167 chemicals found in the Mount Sinai study, 76 cause cancer in humans or animals, 94 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 79 cause birth defects or abnormal development. The dangers of exposure to these chemicals in combination has never been studied.

Click here for more information on Body Burden.

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