We all need to take stock of pollutants in our bodies

I haven't had time to read all the postings (yet), but I'm elated to
have the list operational again.  -Vicki

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We all need to take stock of pollutants in our bodies

By Sue Hutchison
Mercury News
When Sharyle Patton made herself a guinea pig two years ago and was
tested for the level of chemical pollutants in her body, she figured
she'd come up pretty clean.
Like many of her environmentally conscious neighbors in Marin County,
she favors organically grown produce and she uses only the most
``green'' cleaning products. She even handpicks the bugs off the roses
in her garden so she doesn't have to use pesticides.
Contaminated anyway
Still, she had the highest number of chemicals in her body of the nine
people who were part of the experiment. Patton, director of health and
environmental programs at the advocacy group Commonweal, came up
positive for 105 of the 210 chemicals tested, including dioxins.
``I didn't give anyone permission to use my body as a toxic waste
dump,'' she said. ``But at least this way I know what my exposure is,
and I can take some more control. I'm much more careful about the health
care and beauty products I buy.''
Commonweal is one of several groups, including the Breast Cancer Fund,
sponsoring a ``biomonitoring'' bill that would make California the first
state in the nation to track the level of chemical pollution in people.
SB 1168, written by Democratic Sen. Deborah Ortiz of Sacramento, has
been passed by the Senate, but it must win a tough vote in the Assembly
Health Committee today if it's to make it to the Assembly floor.
More than three dozen powerful business organizations in the state
oppose the bill, apparently because they think that establishing a
preliminary map of human exposure to chemicals is just too much
dangerous information for us to handle. Is it really a surprise that
groups such as the American Chemistry Council, the California League of
Food Processors and the Society of the Plastics Industry are saying that
the bill is not based on ``sound science'' and would be a ``job-killer''
in the state?
Data helpful
Margaret Bruce, director of environmental programs at the Silicon Valley
Manufacturing Group, which also opposes the bill, said that collecting
samples from volunteer subjects and focusing only on lactating women in
the beginning doesn't amount to a truly scientific sample. She added
that, even once the information is collected, there's nothing to do with
it.
Oh, sure there is. It's a baseline, a starting point. We all know that
chemicals are pervasive in the environment and in our bodies and many of
them are not harmful. But the testing is the beginning of the answer to
the industry groups' usual complaint that there's not enough information
to determine what kind of exposure might be harmful to certain
communities over time. Meanwhile, similar biomonitoring programs have
been conducted in more than a dozen other countries.
``Look, very few cases of cancer fall into the genetic-inherited
category, and some cancers are really on the rise. So what else might be
going on?'' Ortiz asked. ``The groups who say there's no science behind
this question are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to kill a
bill that would promote the science.''
Not only do more than 50 health, environment and labor organizations
support the bill, but also a recent poll conducted by Lake Snell Perry &
Associates showed that almost 80 percent of voters favor the
biomonitoring legislation.
Memo to industry groups: It was a sound scientific poll.
For more information about the biomonitoring bill, go to www.calbbc.org.
Sue Hutchison's column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. She can be reached
at [email protected] 
C 2004 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mercurynews.com

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