07/10/2005 - London, UK
– A British grandmother is set to descend
on the European Parliament to highlight the
number of hazardous chemicals in everyday
objects.
Pat Collinson, 70, from from Sudbury, England,
is part of a group from WWF and the National
Federation of Women’s Institutes (WI) who
are going to Brussels to lobby Members of
the European Parliament (MEPs) for a change
in the law on the use of certain chemicals.
Many of these are potentially damaging to
health, while the long-term health impacts
of others are still unknown. Some of them
are found in ordinary household products ranging
from cosmetics and antibacterial soap to carpets
and computers.
WWF is calling for hazardous man-made chemicals
to be properly regulated, replaced where safer
alternatives exist, or banned where necessary
under the new chemicals regulation (REACH)
which gets its first reading in the European
Parliament on 16 November 2005.
“I hope that when I go to Brussels the MEPs
will reassure me that they are going to do
as much as they can to tackle the potentially
harmful effects of hazardous chemicals by
voting for the REACH legislation," Collinson
said.
“I’m going to take the results of the blood
tests that were carried out on me and my family
to show the politicians the hard evidence
of what man-made chemicals we’ve actually
got in our bodies. Maybe then we can start
to do something to protect those who are not
yet born.”
Pat was tested for chemicals along with her
daughter, Karen Poll, a 41-year-old school
secretary, farmer husband John, 42, and daughter
Emma, 15. The whole family gave blood last
year as part of WWF’s biomonitoring survey.
The results revealed that the adults in the
family have some of the highest numbers of
chemicals in their blood of the whole survey
because, in comparison to the other families
in the survey, they have higher numbers of
PCBs in their blood.
“Such chemicals should not be in products,
let alone in people and wildlife," said
Colin Butfield, Director of WWF-UK’s Chemicals
and Health Campaign.
"The EU has a once in a generation opportunity
to control hazardous chemicals with new REACH
legislation. It is vital for the health of
future generations that this legislation is
effective.”
END NOTES:
The chemicals that WWF and WI are particularly
concerned about include:
• Phthalates: This group of chemicals — used
in nail varnish, cosmetics, and plastics —
has been linked to asthma and genital abnormalities.
• Perfluorinated chemicals: These chemicals
— used to make non-stick coatings and stain-proof
treatments for furniture and textiles — have
been linked to bladder cancer in workers who
are exposed to them.
• Brominated flame retardants: These chemicals
— used in electrical appliances, carpets,
and furniture — have been shown to affect
brain development and thyroid hormone function,
which controls physical development, in mammals.
