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September 6, 2006
Blood sport?
Want to get your name in the paper? Give blood. No, not to the Red Cross, but to some anti-chemical pressure groups who want to show you that there are some environmental chemicals in your system.
There have been a large number of these publicity stunts, involving either celebrities or just plain folks. They tell us what the U.S. government has already told us, via the excellent biomonitoring program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: substances in the environment routinely find their way into our bodies. The tests aren’t producing new and valuable science – but they sure seem to be effective in producing headlines, or legislation.
For example, a new program by the Environmental Working Group to test California teenagers for the phthalates found in cosmetics seems clearly designed to support state legislative proposals expected to be introduced next year to ban their use. We already know what the levels are in that age group, thanks to the CDC – and the levels are far below Federal safety levels. But will that inconvenient reality make the news release?
At long last, this game is coming in for some criticism. In a new report on biomonitoring, the National Academy of Sciences is gently critical of turning the science of biomonitoring into a blood sport. Its report says: "...news-media reports present stories of people who have had their blood tested and are alarmed to learn that it contains hundreds of chemicals. For a number of those chemicals, scientific data could enable interpretation of individual measurements in comparison with validated reference values, but usually the interpretation stops with the mere observation that the chemical is present." However, the NAS said that levels of phthalates can be interpreted and compared to established government safety levels. See our statement at http://www.phthalates.org/mediacenter/panelstatement.asp?ID=68.
And now at least one media voice has spoken up, critical of the sport. Canadian Press, Canada’s national newswire, has run a story titled “Tests of celebrity blood for toxins won’t tell us much, say experts.” The story talks about a study being run by Environmental Defence, for which even some federal cabinet ministers have volunteered, and makes the basic point that the study won’t tell us anything new. The story can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/060820/x082006.html.
For a more formal look at the shortcomings of small-sample biomonitoring studies, please see http://www.biomonitoringinfo.org/AndersonCommentarySmallSamples9-1-06.pdf.
Posted by Marian at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)