21 Sep
2006 - Gland, Switzerland/Brussels, Belgium –
Industrial chemicals such as pesticides, PCBs
and flame retardants have been found in food consumed
throughout Europe — from dairy products to meat
and fish — according to a WWF report released
today.
The new report, Chain of Contamination:
the food link, shows that food is a crucial link
in a global chain of contamination that begins
with the manufacture of chemicals and ends with
their unwelcome appearance in our blood, with
a potential risk of developing harmful diseases.
According to the report, the same cocktail of
hazardous chemicals has been detected in wildlife
and the environment.
“Being at the top of the food
chain, humans are particularly exposed to chemicals
in food,” said Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson,
coordinator of CASCADE, a European network focusing
on endocrine disrupting chemicals in food, and
who is supporting the WWF report.
“As some of these chemicals
are similar to hormones, they interfere with our
endocrine system and may be a risk factor for
diseases like obesity, different forms of cancer
and diabetes as well as reduced fertility.”
The WWF report reveals the results
of analysis carried out on 27 samples of different
food items purchased in supermarkets in seven
EU countries — the UK, Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden,
Finland and Poland. Food items tested include
dairy products (milk, butter and cheese), meat
(sausages, bacon, chicken breasts, ham and salami),
fish (salmon and tuna), bread, honey and olive
oil. The samples were analyzed for eight different
groups of man-made chemicals — organochlorine
pesticides, PCBs, brominated flame retardants,
perfluorinated chemicals, phthalates, organotins,
alkylphenols and artificial musks.
The tests found potentially
harmful synthetic chemicals in all of the analyzed
samples, ranging from phthalates in olive oil,
cheeses and meats, banned organochlorine pesticides
in fish and reindeer meat, artificial musks and
organotins in fish, and flame retardants in meats
and cheeses.
While WWF stresses that people
will not necessarily become ill by eating these
food items, the global organization is seriously
concerned over the potential effects of long-term,
low levels exposure to chemicals in the diet,
especially on the developing foetus, infants and
young children.
“It is shocking to see that
even a healthy diet leads to the daily uptake
of so many contaminants,” said Sandra Jen, Director
of WWF’s DetoX Campaign. “Breaking this global
chain of contamination will require a strong commitment
from EU politicians to human health and the environment.”
Food is one of the most important
routes for human exposure to pollutants, notably
the ones that persist and accumulate in the environment,
such as DDT, PCBs and brominated flame retardants.
But chemicals also enter the environment in many
other ways: as a result of leakages during manufacture;
transport or storage; direct applications; and
a wide variety of uses in products such as computers,
TVs and toiletries.
This autumn, the European Parliament
will vote on the new EU chemicals legislation
(REACH) which was designed to protect people and
wildlife from harmful man-made chemicals. However,
over the period of its development, industry lobbying
has resulted in a much weakened proposal, which
could be as ineffective as the current legislation,
according to WWF.
The global conservation organization
is urging the EU to adopt a much stronger version
of REACH. European legislators must ensure that
REACH delivers sufficient safety data on chemicals
in order to identify the most hazardous ones.
And chemicals of very high concern, including
hormone disrupting chemicals, should be replaced
with safer alternatives whenever available.
END NOTES:
• Organochlorine pesticides
are used in agriculture; PCBs in electrical equipment;
brominated flame retardants in plastics, textiles
and electronic appliances; perfluorinated chemicals
in the manufacture of non-stick coatings and fast
food packaging; phthalates to soften plastic;
organotins in marine antifoulants; alkylphenols
in detergents; and artificial musks as fragrance
chemicals in cleaning products and cosmetics.
• Many of the compounds are
found in a concentration range of 0.1 to 10 ng/g,
with the exception of phthalates for which typical
concentrations are two orders of magnitude higher.
Contamination with organochlorines is low but
frequent. PCBs have been found in all samples
analysed, and ppDDE -a metabolite of DDT- in 16
out of 27 samples, with the highest concentrations
in fish. Brominated flame retardants have been
found in 19 of 26 samples, with the highest concentrations
in meat. Phthalates were found in 16 of 21 samples.
In few samples nonylphenols, artificial musks
and perfluorchemicals (PFOS) were found in addition.
Noemi Cano, WWF DetoX Communications Manager
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer
