Close-up
Scientists measuring levels of pollution in human bodies

By Paul Elias
The Associated Press

	NOAH BERGER / AP Davis Baltz, shown Tuesday in Oakland, Calif., says he works to lead a healthy life, yet he discovered after extensive testing that his body contained many pollutants and man-made chemicals.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Related stories Concerns rise over fire retardant

So he was shocked to learn that the pollutants collecting inside his body sounded much like a Superfund cleanup site: Pesticides, flame retardants and other nasty, man-made chemicals turned up in a recent test.

"What that told me is that no matter what I tried to do, the plumes of chemicals that we are passing in and out of everyday give us exposure," said Baltz, who works for Commonweal, an environmental group in Bolinas, Calif.

For decades, researchers have sampled the air, land and sea to measure pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles.

Now, in a process called biomonitoring, scientists are sampling urine, blood and mother's milk to catalogue the pollutants accumulating in humans. They call the results "body burden." Commonweal and the Washington-based Environmental Working Group bought tests for Baltz and eight others at $5,000 apiece.

Though the tests are yielding scary lists of contaminants found in the body, their links to disease are less clear. Nonetheless, proponents say such testing will help researchers learn what role the environment plays in causing disease and how to treat it.

Many chemicals such as PCB and DDT, both banned decades ago, remain in the environment for years and build up in the body over a lifetime.

It's not a new phenomenon. Rachel Carson wrote about the poisons in her 1962 book "Silent Spring," which is widely credited for jump-starting the environmental movement.

But until now, researchers were left mostly to guess exactly how much and how many of the toxins lingered in our bodies.

Few of the estimated 75,000 chemicals found in the United States have been tested for their health effects, Baltz and other biomonitoring proponents say.

But several studies have been completed:

• In March, California researchers reported that San Francisco-area women have three to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European or Japanese women.

• Indiana University researchers reported at the same time that levels in Indiana and California women and infants were 20 times higher than those in Sweden and Norway, which recently banned flame retardant.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this year released data from 2,500 volunteers tested for 116 pollutants and found such chemicals as mercury, uranium and cotinine, a chemical broken down from nicotine.

The CDC also reported that Mexican-American children were found to have three times the amount of a chemical derived from DDT compared with other children. Scientists suspect that Mexico and Latin American countries may still be using the banned chemical.

There's still a debate among advocates over which of the 75,000 chemicals to look for when biomonitoring. And even when chemicals are found, there's little an individual can do.

Next month, state Sen. Deborah Ortiz plans to renew calls for California's polluters to finance testing of contaminants in mother's milk.

"This will allow women to better make informed decision about their health," said Ortiz, a Democrat. "And the information will help researchers and public-health officials."

But some fear that biomonitoring results could be misinterpreted and frighten new mothers from breast-feeding their babies.

"We are clearly concerned about what effects the stories of biomonitoring will have," said Barbara Brenner, executive director of the San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action nonprofit advocacy group. "Any rational woman will say to herself, 'Should I be breast-feeding?' "

Others see political motives behind some of the tests.

"Everyone's exposed to substances and there's no evidence that the low levels people are exposed to are harming anybody," said Steven Milloy, author of "Junk Science Judo: Self Defense Against Health Scares and Scams." "It's a waste of time and money that only serves to scare people."

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company