"Is It in Us?"

A story in Newsweek recently highlighted the work of the SAFER coalition. The story featured the results of SAFER's study of toxic chemicals in our bodies called "Is It in Us?"

All 35 people who were studied had three classes of toxic chemicals in their bodies. Not only are these chemicals in our bodies, they are being found in newborn babies. A 2005 Environmental Working Group student found an average of 200 chemicals in the cord blood of 10 newborns - chemicals known to be carcinogens and neurotoxins.

The shocking thing to most Americans is that we really don't know the health effects of many chemicals on the market today. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, chemicals already in use were grandfathered in without scrutiny. These include the three classes of compounds targeted in "Is It in Us?"— a plastic strengthener called bisphenol A (BPA), brominated flame retardants known as PBDEs and plastic softeners called phthalates. The chemical industry says these compounds have been used safely for decades, and certainly they do not have the overtly toxic properties of mercury or lead. But in animal studies and human cell cultures, they mimic hormones, with effects even at minute levels, down to parts per billion. Scientists say we're now awash in a chemical brew of hormone-mimicking compounds that didn't exist 100 years ago. "We've changed the nature of nature," says Devra Lee Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh.

California has banned the use of six phthalates in children's products. Eleven states have banned two major flame retardant chemicals, and some stores, including Whole Foods, have stopped selling baby bottles made from polycarbonate plastic, which contains BPA.