Blootstelling aan chemische stoffen veroorzaakt toename
ziektes.*
De dagelijkse blootstelling aan een complexe cocktail van
chemische stoffen werd onlangs in verband gebracht met de toename van ziektes
bij kinderen, met inbegrip van astma en kanker. 25 tot 35% van alle ziektes op
deze wereld zijn het gevolg van het milieu. “Het gaat hier niet om
speculaties, maar om feiten”, bevestigt Philip Landrigan, departementshoofd
van preventieve geneeskunde aan de Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
De strijd tegen de chemische overlast zou wel eens het volgende
strijdpaard van de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WGO) kunnen zijn, zo kondigt
het gezaghebbende medische tijdschrift “The Lancet” aan in zijn uitgave van
10 juli. (2004)
Day-to-day
chemicals have been blamed for recent increases in several diseases including
asthma and childhood cancer. Fighting this threat means tackling some of the
biggest companies in the world. But, says Robert Walgate, WHO is prepared for
battle
Chemicals could be
the next tobacco for WHO, which put this issue high up on the agenda of their
52-country conference on environment and health in Budapest, Hungary. There are
thousands of artificial chemicals floating around in each individual and
according to Vyvyan Howard, a toxicopathologist at Liverpool University, this
chemical "soup" is major worry. "We're talking literally of 10s
of thousands of novel molecules", he says.
Far from being
harmless, as the chemical industry protests, these substances have been linked
to several diseases--and children are particularly at risk. "We know these
chemicals are contributing to disease in children. This is not speculation. It's
fact", says Philip Landrigan, Chair of the Department of Community and
Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
The danger posed
by day-to-day chemicals has led WHO to make moves to strengthen existing
guidelines on safety testing. The chemical industry looks set to take on WHO's
challenge, but if past tussles with industry are anything to go by, WHO could be
in for a fight. The organisation's anti-tobacco legislation was met by massive
opposition from industry leaders and similar reactions were seen by the food
industry to WHO's resolution on diet, nutrition, and exercise, announced earlier
this year. But the chemical industry is keeping a close eye on developments.
Observers and lobbyists from large companies journeyed to Budapest to argue
their case.
According to Marc
Danzon, European regional director for WHO, the chemical industry has
"ignored health for many years". He said chemical industry executives
have "been a bit stressed by what's happening with the tobacco
industry" and nerves are starting to show. But, he emphasised that WHO was
looking for "consensus and dialogue" not conflict. "Health cannot
be negotiated . . . We cannot be weak on that."
The European
council for the chemical industry (CEFIC) welcomed a European Commission
directive on chemical safety that was put together in 2000. "Broadly we
agree there's a need for sensible precaution" said Colin Humphris,
Executive Director for Research and Science at CEFIC. "No manufacturer
would want to put out products that harm children". He says that industry
representatives want a framework, proportionality, and a fair basis in relative
risk--which they believe the EC guidelines provide--but he says WHO wants to
move further.
WHO seems
committed to targeting chemicals. Although the conference declaration had no
targets or timelines, even environmental groups came away impressed at WHO's
motivation.
Danzon believes
the conference marked a real achievement. He has made his name by establishing
detailed interactions with countries in Europe, and does not believe in setting
global targets. Using the Declaration, WHO's European office will help member
countries define their own specific priorities, and measure progress during the
next 3 years. "We are not obsessed by models", he explains. "We
give directions, share experience, and then help every member state adapt."
Chemical soup |
Howard says
chemicals can be found in breast milk and travel across the placenta. They can
cause malformation of tissues in the growing fetus because as they occur in
similar concentrations to the cell signalling molecules at work during organ
building.
According to
Landrigan, chemicals also contribute to asthma, childhood cancer, birth defects,
and learning disabilities. "Asthma has more than doubled. Pollution is part
of the problem. Rates of cancer are going up. Rates of certain birth defects of
the male reproductive organs in baby boys have doubled", he says.
"These are
new problems that relate to new exposures that need new solutions", he
adds.
Landrigan believes
a change of a change in thinking is required. He suggests that chemicals need to
be tested more thoroughly before they get on the market. And that agents already
approved for sale should be retested with revised criteria. "Individuals,
families, leaders of local and national governments must know what is in the
products they are purchasing so they can make decisions", he says.
The
precautionary principle |
According to
Howard politicians need to take steps that will minimise exposure to chemicals
by first assuming they cause harm. "If chemicals persist and accumulate in
the body then they should be phased out. That's the short message", he
says.
Adherence to this
"precautionary principle" will be the new bone of contention between
WHO and industry. It was endorsed in the Rio Declaration on Environment and
Development in 1992, and was reiterated in a more subtle way in the EC document
that satisfied CEFIC in 2000.
Now, the health
and environment ministers of the 52 delegate countries that participated in the
Budapest conference, have also pledged to abide by the precautionary principle
"as a risk management tool".
Great scientific
uncertainty about many of the issues debated remains, however. "We know
from painstaking efforts over decades what lead, PCB and methyl mercury can do,
and we have a long list of chemicals that we believe can act the same way but we
just don't have the evidence", says Philippe Grandjean, of the Institute of
Public Health, University of Southern Denmark.
The precautionary
principle is one immediate solution, but there were also calls for a European
version of the US National Children's Study, which aims to follow environmental
exposures and consequences to brain development in 100 000 children from birth
to 21 years of age."They'll be enrolled when their mums come in for
prenatal care" says Landrigan.
Unlike previous
studies which have looked at one chemical at a time, attraction of the NCS
cohort, according to Landrigan, is that investigators will be able to look at
several chemicals in a vast number of children and look at how these agents
interact.
The study will
cost a huge $250 million. But Landrigan says this figure is tiny compared to the
cost of exposure-related disease. He estimates that the annual cost of
environmental diseases in children in the USA is $54·9 billion. "While
Europe is ahead of us in policy, we have made some good advances in the
science", he says.
McGlade affirms
the need for more large-scale studies. "If we told our children what we
don't know and what we do know, I think many of them would be shocked", he
says.
Meanwhile WHO is
addressing the fact that the impact of the environment on health, especially of
children, is not just an issue for Europe. All the six WHO regions are likely to
become involved.
WHO
Director-General Lee Jong-wook told The Lancet in Budapest "To me
this meeting is very important because WHO Euro is not only traditional Western
Europe, but East Europe, Central Asia and the Far East." A spokeswoman
added: "We hope all six regions of WHO will take up the issue."
But Lillian Corra,
of INCHES in Argentina, is concerned that European resolutions will mean
chemical companies look to the developing world for business. "Many
European chemical companies make profits on dirty business outside Europe"
she claims. "We want equality. When [European country] makes a decision we
want the same decision to be made for our industry. And we want to be sure that
the dirty business and chemicals are not going to be relocated [to the
developing world]."
Margaret Chan,
Director of Health and Environment Coordination at WHO in Geneva, told The
Lancet that WHO is looking at this issue. "Globally 25-35% of diseases
have an environmental cause, particularly in vulnerable people like children and
women . . . So WHO is working with other regional offices trying to role out the
same kind of process as Europe's meetings of ministers of environment and
health."
Lee concluded that environmental action in Europe is providing the lead to WHO. "Yesterday, [22 June] I spent a whole day in a meeting on the implementation of the tobacco free initiative. Countries of the EU like Norway and Ireland are already taking very strong measures" by banning smoking in public places. "WHO is concerned with whole world", he said, "but Europe is giving us lessons."
Opmerking
Zolang de industrie hun verantwoording niet op zich neemt zal er nog
weinig veranderen en is het zeker zaak voldoende anti-oxidanten in de vorm van
groente en fruit te consumeren en in bijzondere omstandigheden dit zelfs aan te
vullen.terug