Few Here Get Tested for Toxins
Staten Island Advance - Sunday, November 25, 2007
Despite recent studies that point to potentially harmful exposures
to contaminants that may contribute to illness and disease, people
infrequently get tested for environmental toxins, medical and
environmental experts say.
Staten Islanders "very rarely" seek testing for potential toxins in
their bloodstream, said Dr. Mark Jarrett, chief medical officer at
Staten Island University Hospital.
"It's not something that is on people's radar unless there is a
known toxin in the area," said Dr. Jarrett. "I think people think
more immediately about what they are breathing, eating, drinking."
Chemical contaminants often do not show up during routine testing of
blood or urine, and "people don't routinely have testing done for
specific toxins," said Jennifer Sass, a toxicologist with the
Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), a nationwide organization.
That may, in part, be because the effects of toxins "often are not
well understood or appreciated by health care providers," according
to authors of a study, "Chemical Contaminants and Human Disease."
The authors, Dr. Sarah Janssen of the Science and Environmental
Health Network; Dr. Gina Solomon of the NRDC, and Dr. Ted Schettler
of Boston Medical Center, estimated that "more than 80,000 chemicals
have been developed, used, distributed and discarded into the
environment over the past 50 years."
Nor have most of them, the authors noted, been tested for "potential
toxic effects in humans or wildlife" -- even though "some of these
chemicals are commonly in air, water, food, homes, work places and
communities."
One, phthalates, found in plastic products like deodorant, shampoo
and cosmetic bottles, have become a recent target of environmental
advocates, despite their presence for decades, their clearance for
use in toys in both America and Europe, and the view of the American
Chemistry Council, which maintains that any risks are exaggerated.
Work on the effect of phthalates on the environment and on humans is
currently being done by a biology department faculty member at the
College of Staten Island, according to a school spokesman, although
the professor declined to discuss her findings thus far.
But Dr. Robin Whyatt, an environmental health sciences professor at
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, who is also
doing research in phthalates, noted that because of its prevelance,
"everybody is exposed."
She said studies on test animals has shown exposure triggered
reproductive problems, such as sterility.
Meanwhile, another CSI biology professor, Dr. William Wallace, noted
that even though some now-known toxins that can be absorbed through
the skin, like the pesticide DDT, have been banned in the U.S., they
can still be used in developing nations and, with the migration of
birds, "they are moving around the globe."
"The biggest concern for people around Staten Island," said Wallace,
"is the consumption of seafood, because of industrial pollution
through the food chain" in waterways.
Wagner College chemistry professor Dr. Mohammad Alauddin has been
studying pollution of well and ground water in his native
Bangladesh, specifically the presence of arsenic found some 15 years
ago, before filtration systems were in place.
However, Alauddin said, "Symptoms may not show up for five to 10
years from ingestion. Sometimes, it is too late."
"Chemicals can get into our bodies and have adverse health affects
without us being aware of it," said Patrick Kinney, also a professor
at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. "It can happen in
subtle ways, like chemicals binding with our DNA, which can lead to
a cancer."
In the end, as the Janssen-Solomon-Schettler study pointed out, "an
individual's exposure [to toxins] may change over time, and
exposures often occur to multiple chemicals both in the home and
work environments."
"The effects of chemical exposures may vary," the study added,
"depending on the age of exposure [in utero, childhood, adult]; the
route of exposure [ingestion, inhalation, dermal]; the amount and
duration of exposure; exposures to multiple chemicals
simultaneously, and other personal susceptibility factors, including
genetic variability."
And, added Kinney, "People do vary a lot in their ability to detox
and excrete."
Genetic variability aside, environmentalists like Laura Haight, of
the New York Public Interest Research Group, said links between
chemical toxins and diseases like Parkinson's, breast cancer and
childhood cancers should lead to increased advocacy and a push for
tighter government regulations.
Society, she said, should operate under the "precautionary principle
... and not wait until the body of evidence is so damning" that
there's no turning back.
By Judy L. Randall
Reprinted here with permission
from the
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