As a volunteer for Alaska Community Action on Toxics and one who cares deeply about public health issues, Roxanne Chan didn't hesitate taking part in a project that would inventory the foreign chemicals lurking in her body. But she has to admit, the results were unnerving.
She's one who's been paying attention. She reads labels. She uses glass rather than plastic whenever she can. She would never use a plastic container in the microwave; she doesn't even have a microwave. And yet when the test results came in, compared to the 19 other project participants from across the country, one chart showed her level of DEHP, which leaches from plastics, standing out like a high rise in a trailer court.
Chan, 33, was a registered nurse for nine years before becoming an acupuncturist and practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine. She and an anonymous doctor were the two Alaskans taking part in a project called, "Hazardous Chemicals in Health Care: A Snapshot of Chemicals in Doctors and Nurses."
The project, sponsored primarily by Physicians for Social Responsibility, tested the blood and urine of 20 doctors and nurses ranging in age from 33 to 85. With so few subjects, and its wide geographic and age variance, what the test results offer is truly only personal snapshots, not anything conclusive about the nation's health. Although testing for chemicals in people's bodies is nothing new, this is the first time all the subjects have been health care professionals.
"These chemicals were specifically identified because they are emerging or known chemicals of concern, are known to be used in the health care setting, may be endocrine disruptors and have been reported in peer-reviewed literature as associated with certain diseases, the incidents of which are on the rise," the report says.
One of these chemicals was DEHP, found in a variety of soft plastics, from food and beverage containers to intravenous tubing, catheters and other medical devices. More than 200 million pounds of DEHP are produced annually, and the chemical shows up in nearly everyone ever tested.
While the same was true for this particular test group, for whatever reason, Chan had way more of this stuff in her system than any other participant.
"I mean it's really, really high," Chan said from her downtown Anchorage office. "It was actually pretty concerning."
MINIMIZING EXPOSURE
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a public health notification in 2002 recommending that health care providers minimize or avoid medical devices containing DEHP for certain procedures. High levels in test animals have resulted in liver and kidney damage, and have affected the ability to reproduce, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.
For this health care project, Chan and the others were tested for 62 individual chemicals, found in everything from furniture to socks, in six chemical categories: Bisphenol A (BPA), Mercury, Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs), Phthalates, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and Triclosan.
All of them had at least 24 chemicals in their bodies, and two had as many as 39. Chan tested moderately high for some, on the low end for others, including Trislosan, which has raised a variety of health concerns, from acting as an endocrine disruptor in laboratory animals to fears of creating bacterial resistance. Chan felt good about that one because she'd made a conscious effort to avoid it by giving up antibacterial soaps and choosing personal care and household products without it.
She's been studying the chemical exposure issue through her volunteer work at ACAT the past several years. Now knowing she's carrying around this chemical load makes it a lot more personal.
CHEMICALS R US
A similar project in 2007 called "Is It In Us?" tested 35 Americans for chemicals found in common household products. Five were Alaskans, including then congressional candidate Ethan Berkowitz, who had one of the highest PBDE levels in the group. PBDEs, banned in Europe and a handful of states, are flame retardants used in everything from building materials to mattresses to electronics.
There was no way of knowing exactly which everyday and/or workplace products passed them along. The same is true for Chan's DEHP buildup. The stuff is everywhere -- in furniture, shower curtains, garden hoses, rain gear, shoes, automobile upholstery. Having the highest DEHP level of the group tells her one thing: Living in today's world there's no way to avoid it.
"It's really ubiquitous now," she said. "The social justice aspect is that there wasn't consent to have these harmful chemicals introduced into our bodies."
REDUCING EXPOSURE
The federal Centers for Disease Control, which has been monitoring human exposure to toxic substances for more than three decades, couldn't comment on this report since it wasn't involved and knows little about it, said Bernadette Burden, a spokeswoman for the CDC in Atlanta, Ga.
Included in the report are recommendations on how to reduce exposure to these various chemicals, from reading labels to choosing wild over farm-raised fish. But the list of items containing the chemicals is so daunting, it leaves one wondering if the only way to evade exposure is to stop eating, drinking, breathing and wearing clothes.
Pamela Miller, executive director of ACAT, admits the lists are "dizzying."
"Although we can make informed choices as consumers, it is virtually impossible to 'shop' our way out to the problem," she said by e-mail from the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, held in Geneva this year. "The report ... is intended to emphasize the urgency and need for systemic reform of chemical policy on a state and federal level."
"Our main concern is really our next generation," Chan said. "We have enough data to be alarmed, and it's just the perfect time to do something about it."
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