Group Asks CDC to Test Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood for Pollution
Do Chemical Companies Know Where Their Toxins End Up?
WASHINGTON, July 21 — As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today releases its third national body burden study measuring the pollution in people, Environmental Working Group (EWG) calls upon the government to begin testing the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. EWG also sent letters to 20 top chemical manufacturers asking them to release any internal tests to determine whether their products pollute babies.
The letters follow a benchmark investigation EWG released last week commissioning laboratory tests of 10 umbilical cord blood samples for the most extensive array of industrial chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants ever studied in newborns. EWG found that the babies averaged 200 contaminants in their blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA. In total, the babies' blood contained 287 chemicals, including 209 never before detected in cord blood. The study is available at www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2.
In a letter available at the URL above, EWG President Ken Cook asked chemical manufacturers: "If your company has performed [tests for toxins in cord blood], we ask that you make public the results. If you have not conducted such tests, we'd like to know why not."
"Chemical exposures during childhood can be far more harmful than those later in life. Our cord blood findings above all raise the need for testing that ensures the safety of the widespread exposures we've documented that begin even before birth," Jane Houlihan, EWG's vice president for research, said. "CDC is uniquely positioned and funded to respond to this need through its national body burden testing program, but CDC cannot test for all 80,000 industrial chemicals registered for use today. The companies that produce these chemicals have a responsibility to know if their products end up in babies, and to share what they learn with the public."
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EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C., that uses the power of information to protect public health and the environment. Their research on the pollution in people is available here.
www.ewg.org is the website for both Environmental Working Group and EWG Action Fund
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