What’s in Your Blood?

Canadians are being contaminated on an ongoing basis by an array of toxic chemicals such as pesticides, heavy metals and flame retardants, according to a study by environmental watchdog group Environmental Defence.

The study examined the blood and urine of eleven people of both sexes, including that of wildlife artist Robert Bateman and Chief David Masty of the Whapmagoostui First Nations in Northern Quebec.

Environmental Defence Program Director Sarah Winterton says that even though only eleven people were tested the study is still indicative of the chemical burden all Canadians are carrying. She points out that the volunteers for the study were from different geographic areas, had different occupations and different ethnicities, and ranged in age from early twenties to mid-seventies.

“We tested for 88 chemicals and I had 43 of the 88,” says Winterton, who was among the volunteers in the study. “I think what unnerves me the most is that there are hundreds more out there that we didn’t test for, and we don’t have any good information on how these chemicals interact or what the cumulative impact is.”

Forty-eight chemicals were found in samples from Bateman, the artist, who lives on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia and whose diet consists primarily of organic foods.

Chief Masty tested positive for 51 chemicals—the highest of all the volunteers—showing especially high levels of mercury, PCBs and flame retardants.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are known to concentrate in the north, carried there by wind, water currents and climatic conditions.

“It dispels the myth that you can get out of the city and get away from all this stuff,” says Winterton. “One of the biggest challenges we have is to make people understand that when we say everywhere we mean everywhere. These chemicals are everywhere.”

Environmental Defence says many of the foods Canadians are eating contain lead and cadmium. Lead causes learning disabilities and behavioural disorders in children and has been found in ground beef, wine, frozen dinners and raisins. Cadmium, which causes kidney and liver damage, is present in cabbage, peanuts and peanut butter, shelled seeds and some processed foods like French fries and potato chips.

Mercury and its more potent cousin, methyl mercury, concentrates in large fish and shellfish. As mercury can cause brain damage in young children and the foetus, Health Canada advises pregnant women, women of childbearing age and young children to eat no more than one serving per month of swordfish, shark and fresh tuna.

For residents of some Canadian cities, even the drinking water may contain traces of lead, cadmium and even arsenic—chemicals that can be found in the hydrofluosilicic acid added to the public’s drinking water.

Gideon Forman, Executive Director of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), says the Canadian government isn’t doing nearly enough to control or get rid of toxic pollutants, and that other countries are way ahead of Canada in banning harmful chemicals.

Forman says the coal-burning plants in Ontario, which deliver “an enormous amount of mercury” into the environment, should be shut down now, not slowly phased out until 2009 as planned.

“In the case of pesticides there are all sorts of safe, non-toxic alternatives and yet the government still allows people to use these poisons,” says Forman. “People are allowed to use poisons on their lawns just to kill harmless things like dandelions and crabgrass. It’s shameful.”

Forman says CAPE is trying to convince the government to initiate a long-term biomonitoring study on the impact of chemicals in the environment similar to one being carried out in the U.S. in which 100,000 people are being tested for chemical toxicity. CAPE hopes the results of such a test will prompt the government to ban many poisonous chemicals.

“We need to get more data about just how much chemical residues there are in peoples’ blood. We’re pretty confident that if we look at a big study we’re going to find some very upsetting data.”

The younger volunteers in the Environmental Defence study, who were born after the late seventies when PCBs were banned, showed fewer PCBs in their samples. Winterton says many heavy metals and POPs remain in the environment long after their use has been discontinued. And though people may have some success removing certain chemicals in a detoxification process, Winterton says there’s no way to avoid getting re-contaminated.

“Every year we pump millions and millions of kilograms of chemicals into the air, into the water and onto the land. We have to stop putting more into the environment and we have to put the onus on industry to prove that a chemical is safe before it gets into the market. They have to start substituting the most toxic chemicals with safe alternatives.”