Chemical(s)
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Potential Health Effects
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Dioxins
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Carcinogen, endocrine disruptor, cognitive disfunction
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DDT
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Reproductive toxicant
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Organophosphate
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(pesticide) neurotoxicant, Parkinson’s
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Lead
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Neurotoxicant, kidney toxicant, insomnia, impotence
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Solvent
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Liver toxicant, neurotoxicant
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PCBs
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Carcinogen, toxic to immune, neuro, and repro systems
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Phthalates
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Repro toxicant (infertility), testicular damage, endometriosis, endocrine disruptor
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Receiving these labs would be troubling, but not surprising. The presence of some of the above chemicals are not regulated and can be encountered relatively often on a day to day basis, such as solvents. Some of the above have been regarded extremely hazardous and are now banned or highly regulated, such as DDT. The troubling issue is that the banned chemicals can still be found in our bodies, in which their deleterious long term health effects are not for certain. The highly regulated chemical DDT was allowed to be used against the malaria epidemic in the recent past so receiving a positive result is troubling yet expected for any public health worker working abroad where malaria is prevalent. Although the health effects of the above chemicals have been demonstrated, more studies need to be conducted to suggest a national or global health policy regulating the regular use of such chemicals.
You make a great point. The issue is that some hazardous chemicals can remain in our bodies for long periods of time. Another issue is that there are no “safe levels” for those chemicals. We need more studies about the safety of these chemicals before they enter the market. We learned that EPA doesn’t require manufacturers to test for the effects of new chemicals on human health before approval. After watching this video, I want to know my real lab results and to avoid more exposures.
ReplyDeleteI would be pretty alarmed about these results. A lot of the research done on mice have shown that these chemicals have a great effect on their bodies. For example DDT has shown to cause reproductive organ abnormalities and cancer. I agree with you, we need more research to understand the effect of these chemicals on our body. The Government should also put stricter guidelines on the usage of such chemicals.
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