Biomonitoring: What Lies Within

By Nancy K. Crevier

Funded by the Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut in conjunction with six other states, the results of the largest nongovernmentally funded biomonitoring project were released this past week by Clean Water Action Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut.

According to the coalition’s website, “The Coalition for a Safe & Healthy Connecticut is a partnership of organizations and individuals working together to reduce toxic chemicals that threaten human health and the environment.”

Members include the Administrative and Residual Employees Union #4200, Clean Water Action, ConnectiCOSH, ConnFESS, Connecticut Association of Directors of Health, Connecticut Association of Public Health Nurses, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, Connecticut Nurses Association, Connecticut Public Health Association, Connecticut State Council of Machinists, Ecological Health Organization, Environment Connecticut, Hartford Central Labor Council, Sierra Club Connecticut Chapter, Teamsters 559, Toxics Action Center, The Watershed Partnership, Council 4 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Connecticut Chapter, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.

The tests, conducted seven months ago, involved 35 volunteers from Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York who donated blood and urine samples to be tested for 20 toxic chemicals that occur commonly in homes, workplaces, and schools. Five of the volunteers were residents of Connecticut, including Stacy Carney of Sandy Hook. Researchers knew that the chemicals tested in the study — phthalates, bisphenol-A, and polybrominated diphenol ethers (PBDEs) — had been linked in earlier studies to a number of diseases. Even at low levels, PBDEs have been proven to affect memory, learning, and behavior in laboratory animals, according to Clean Water Action Coalition. That these chemicals are in the environment and in products used each day was also a known fact. What the study sought to find out was Is it in us?

Phthalates, explains the report, are used as plasticizers in flexible polyvinyl chloride products. They show up in many everyday items like vinyl shower curtains, fragrances, and even in pill coatings, and exposure to them may impact reproductive health and development.

Bisphenol-A is found in aluminum can liners and plastic reusable water bottles. An aromatic organic compound, bisphenol-A was first synthesized as a synthetic estrogen.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers are more commonly known as flame-retardants and are found in fabric, furniture cushions, shampoo, air fresheners, electronics, toys, and numerous other items used every day by millions of people.

Phthalates, bisphenol-A, and polybrominated diphenol ethers were words not completely foreign to Ms Carney, who holds a degree in biology. She had heard of them and knew they were potential environmental hazards that needed to be addressed.

As the owner of Better Bodies Muscular Therapy, Ms Carney considers herself to be an advocate of healthy life choices, and as the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, Amelia, Ms Carney said that she and her husband, Shawn, try to provide healthy options for their child and to live a life that is in harmony with the environment.

Simple Testing

“I’ve been very health conscious for years. I use healthy cleaning products around the home, I have been an organic farm market gardener, and am interested in healthy living. I want to be around as long as I can and not make a big impact on the environment,” said Ms Carney. So when an old college friend working for Clean Water Action told Ms Carney about the study, she was happy to volunteer. “I thought it would be great to see what’s in my body,” Ms Carney said. “I’m always very interested in what is going on around me in the environment.”

The testing was simple, said Ms Carney. She traveled to a lab in Hartford to have blood drawn and spent one 24-hour period collecting urine specimens. “I knew that the test results would find something, because I live in the real world,” said Ms Carney.

Of the 35 volunteers tested, all had at least seven of the 20 chemicals in their bodies at some level. Thirty-three participants tested positive for diethyl phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, diethylexyl phthalate, and bisphenol-A, suggesting that people are regularly exposed to these chemicals in all settings, at all ages, in various occupations, and regardless of sex, race, or lifestyle.

Ms Carney, however, was feeling pretty good about the initial test results for the PBDEs and phthalates, scoring among the lowest of the 35 volunteers. Many of the PBDE levels in her blood and urine samples were below the level at which the procedure could detect the pollutant.

Results overall ranged from 0.5 nanograms to more than 200 nanograms per gram of fat in the volunteers. For one toxin, her results were only 12 nanograms per gram of fat, while another volunteer tested 203 nanograms per gram of fat for the same agent.

A nanogram is one billionth of a gram, so it might seem that the quantities of the toxins detected in the volunteers would hardly pose a risk. Dr Ted Schettler, the physician of record for the report, and science director of science and environmental health on staff at Boston Medical Center, explained that this is exactly the point of the report. “These are miniscule amounts showing up. The fact that a level is low is no reason to disregard the information,” said Dr Schettler. “Many pharmaceutical drugs work at levels even lower than these.”

The intent of the report, said Dr Schettler, was only to look at the exposure of people to these chemicals and to measure the levels in their bodies. “The report shows that the human population is being exposed at levels that have affected laboratory animals,” Dr Schettler said. For example, biological responses to bisphenol-A have been recorded in laboratory animals at doses of micrograms per kilogram.

“[Tiny amounts of toxins in the body] does not imply that there is a risk, but it should not be dismissed,” Dr Schettler said.

With a test result of just 6.85 nanograms per milliliter for one phthalate compared to 684 nanograms per milliliter for another volunteer, Ms Carney felt fairly certain that her vigilance in lifestyle choices had paid off.

But the testing for bisphenol-A took a little longer, and when she received the feedback, she was taken aback. “I was so confident about the other tests, that hearing that I had tested the highest among all of the volunteers for levels of bisphenol-A in my urine was shocking,” said Ms Carney. “I was really surprised, to say the least.”

Finding The Source

How did her body become a vessel for a potentially hazardous substance? “My guess is probably from water. I’ve never been big on drinking bottled water, but I have used plastic Nalgene bottles to put water in for years,” said Ms Carney. “And I found out that plastics from those bottles leaches into the water, especially if it gets warm.”

Another source of bisphenol-A is found in composite fillings for teeth, Ms Carney discovered. “I stopped getting fillings that had mercury in them because I thought they were unhealthy and got composite fillings instead, but now I have found out that those contain bisphenol-A. ”

She asked the doctor involved in the study if chelation-type therapy existed for bisphenol-A, such as that used for the removal of heavy metals from the blood, but was told that at this time no such process existed. “The doctor told me that it stays permanently in the tissues,” she said. She is saddened to think that by opting to breast feed her daughter she may have unwittingly subjected Amelia to toxic chemicals, as bisphenol-A is excreted in breast milk.

“I’m glad to know the test results, but I do wonder how my health will be affected in the long run,” said Ms Carney. “But I try not to worry about it. I think I am doing what I can to be healthy.”

What she can do, she said, is to take steps to remove from her home those items that are a source of bisphenol-A. The Nalgene bottles are out, as are all of the other plastic drinking cups and plastic sippy cups used by her daughter. “We have stainless steel cups that Amelia can use, and we use glasses now,” Ms Carney said. She is careful to never reheat foods in plastic in a microwave and has actually removed her microwave from the kitchen. She will continue to read labels, she said, for many of these toxins are found not only inert items but also food items and cosmetics.

Her hope is that as results of the tests are publicized that manufacturers will feel pressured to produce “greener” products. “I will be writing to my representatives, and I think we all need to put pressure on the government agencies that are supposed to protect us to actually protect the people and not the corporations,” Ms Carney said. She is hopeful that with increased knowledge of the dangers posed by chemicals that surround people everywhere they go that people will actively demand safer products.

“We don’t know the long-term effects of these toxins, and it shouldn’t take lawsuits to make changes, she said.

“The environment is not just around us, it is in us, too,” Ms Carney said, and the tests she has undergone have proven just that to her.