Children, Health Risks, and Chemical Exposures
EWG research has laid the foundation for reform of the nation's chemical policies. Our pioneering testing for pollution in people has identified more than 455 chemicals in 160 Americans, including 287 industrial chemical pollutants found in the cord blood of 10 babies born in 2004. Our assessments of health risks to infants and children have led to phase-outs of several highly problematic chemicals, including the Teflon chemical PFOA, the flame retardant compounds penta and octa PBDE, and arsenic based pesticides used to preserve so-called "pressure treated" lumber.
But winning battles one chemical at a time is not enough. Everyone is polluted with hundreds of industrial chemicals, yet health officials and chemical companies have little or no understanding of the consequences. This is because the nation's toxic chemical regulatory law, The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), allows chemicals on the market without meaningful safety assessments, and gives EPA almost no authority to protect the public health. Passed in 1976 and never amended since, TSCA is widely regarded as the weakest of all major environmental laws on the books today. The Kid safe Chemical Act (KSCA) represents the first attempt at comprehensive chemical policy reform in more than 30 years.
Some of EWG's most important research is highlighted below. Click here for a complete index of EWG's research on children's health and exposures, including the particular topics highlighted below and much more.
In a landmark study conducted in 2006, EWG found up to 287 industrial chemicals, pollutants, and pesticides in 10 newborn babies, measured in umbilical cord blood collected at the moment of birth including 133 carcinogens, 157 chemicals that can harm the brain and nervous system, and 151 chemicals linked to birth defects. The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act would reform this country's 30-year-old toxic chemical law, requiring for the first time that companies test chemicals and prove they are safe for children, including babies in the womb, before they are sold in products and end up in people's bodies. This study of pollution in newborns shows that its passage could not come a day too soon.
A baby's first food is packed with nutrients, fats and proteins needed for a rapidly growing brain and body. But breast milk can also harbor industrial pollutants from a mother's body. These chemicals can cling to fats or proteins in breast milk, and are swallowed by a baby with each gulp from his mother's breast. Our tests found fire retardants called PBDEs in the breast milk of every one of 20 first-time mothers who volunteered for our study, at average levels 75 times higher than those found in breast milk of women in Europe. These fire retardants can disrupt the delicate balance of hormones that are critical to the proper growth and development of the brain, nervous system and many other organs and systems in a baby's tiny body. Breast milk is still near universally considered a better food for babies than formula. But breast milk free of toxic industrial chemicals is better still. Link:
Fire retardants in breast milk. What you can do to reduce exposures.
EWG began investigating the toxic plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in 2006 and immediately hit pay dirt. Our analysis of BPA contamination of canned food and infant formula and documentation of BPA use by every major infant formula manufacturer led to a congressional inquiry into BPA use in infant formula packaging and the adequacy of FDA's safety standard. BPA is a signature compound in the fight for reform of the nation's toxic chemicals laws. Studies indicate that nearly every American is exposed to the chemical, and that infants and children are at the highest risk for BPA toxicity. Daily exposures may exceed levels harmful in laboratory studies, and the associated effects—breast and prostate cancer, early puberty and behavior problems—are on the rise. The National Toxicology Program has now raised concerns about the potential for BPA to harm human health, Canada has deemed it hazardous and is phasing it out of children's products, and
Wal-Mart, Target and other retailers are removing BPA-containing products from store shelves, including baby bottles. Parents wondering how to safety feed a newborn should read
EWG's guide to baby-safe bottles and formula.
The same chemical, perchlorate, that the Defense Department uses to propel missiles and rockets into the sky now fouls tap water supplies in at least 28 states, contaminates lettuce and other foods irrigated with tainted water, and pollutes the bodies of every one of 2,820 Americans tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Under pressure from defense industry lobbyists, the Environmental Protection Agency has refused to set a safety standard for tap water. Perchlorate is one of several potent thyroid toxins found in common consumer products and found in children's bodies, including fire retardants and antimicrobial chemicals in personal care products. Do children face additive risks from chronic exposures to these thyroid-damaging pollutants? Almost certainly, but under current law the government is not required to set safety standards to reflect this cumulative impact. For more on rocket fuel in children, see
EWG's research.
Parents might be surprised to know that companies are free to use almost any ingredient they choose in children's personal care products. "Natural" products contain artificial preservatives and "gentle" products contain harsh skin irritants. With exposures adding up to an average of 60 chemicals every day for each child, no wonder tests of children's blood turn up hand soap ingredients, musk fragrances and plastics chemicals. Potential risks range from hormone disruption to reproductive system damage and allergic reactions, and add to risks children face from contaminants in food, air, water and other consumer products. EWG analyzed personal care products used by 3,200 children to find the best ones. Click here for
Parent's guide to safer products.
An EWG investigation of the ingredients in 800 name-brand sunscreens in 2007 gave sobering results: fewer than 1 of 5 sunscreens on the market are both effective at blocking cancer-causing UV radiation and safe to use, containing few ingredients known to pose health risks. The government began drafting sunscreen safety standards 30 years ago, and still hasn't finished them despite a Congressional mandate. In the meantime, companies in the U.S. are free to make products that let too much radiation through or that contain toxic ingredients that absorb through the skin. The risks? Skin cancer risks add up over a lifetime, beginning in childhood. Until federal standards are in place,
EWG's sunscreen guide gives parents advice on the best products available.
Since 1993 EWG has conducted cutting-edge research on children's exposures to pesticides, advocated for organics, and given parents easy-to-use information on cutting down children's exposures to synthetic pesticides linked to nervous system problems, allergies, and other health risks. Examples? In 1995
our tests found pesticides in name-brand baby food and spurred manufacturers to clean up their products. Three years later
our research showed that 90% of children are exposed to 13 different neurotoxic pesticides in food every day. Pesticide exposures add to the risks children face from the hundreds of industrial chemicals in everyday consumer products that the
Kid-Safe Chemicals Act would target. EWG gives parents up-to-date advice on reducing children's exposures to pesticides, with data on fruits and vegetables lowest in pesticides, and the "dirty dozen" where parents should buy organic. See
Shopper's Guide.
The average 2-year-old drinks more than twice as much water as an adult, pound for pound, which means that their risks from tap water pollutants are that much higher, too. And for formula-fed infants drinking tap water, risks are even greater, since their rapidly changing bodies are sensitive to chemical damage and their exposures are even higher than toddlers'. EWG has compiled a one-of-a-kind tap water quality atlas that includes reports on all the contaminants water utilities have found in tap water from 40,000 communities in 42 states since 2003. We found 260 pollutants in tap water altogether, including 166 industrial chemical contaminants and 44 chemicals that are harmful byproducts of the water treatment processes utilities use when they try to make polluted rivers, streams, and ground water safe enough to drink. What's in your water? You can look up your town in our tap water atlas, and also
find tips on filtering your water at home to make it safer.
