You don’t need me to tell you that poor folks are more likely to find themselves dealing with illnesses induced by environmental toxins (although clearly if you give me half a chance I will). Most toxic chemicals – the kind that spill out of industrial factories and result from mining operations, for example – discriminate against the poor, whose homes (for a variety of reasons) are often nearby to such operations.
But bisphenol A (BPA) isn’t picky. If you drink water, breath air, eat food, or use many personal care products, you’ve got the hormone-disrupting chemical flowing through your blood. The was the lesson that three Canadian political leaders learned when Canada’s Environmental Defence tested their body burden levels. And it isn’t just BPA that’s making it’s way into elite bodies:
“A total of 46 pollutants, of the 70 tested for, were detected in the three volunteers, including bisphenol A, 8 phthalates, 13 PCBs, 10 organochlorine pesticides, 6 PAHs, 4 PFCs, and 4 organophosphate insecticide metabolites.â€
The three politicians’ body burden was, on average, higher than that of the families studied for Environmental Defence’s Polluted Children, Toxic Nation report. The organization, whose campaigns range from protecting green space in Ontario to rescuing endangered fish from extinction in addition to their body burden work, is using their series of studies on pollution in people to encourage the implementation of a Pollution and Cancer Prevention Act, which would
Wondering about body burden studies in the U.S.? We’ve got just the thing.
- include any substance listed in the federal National Pollutant Release Inventory, and require companies currently releasing those chemicals to find safer solutions;
- ensure that products containing carcinogens, mutagens (materials that disrupt genetic codes) and reproductive toxins would be labeled; and,
- stipulate that funding be provided to support companies, workers, and citizens to reduce, and hopefully eliminate, the use and production of toxins.