Chemicals and You

Chemicals are used in products for a variety of reasons. For example plasticisers are used to make vinyl soft and pliable, stabilizers prevent plastics from breaking down, flame retardant chemicals prevent materials from igniting quickly, and surfactants make detergents soak into materials. However the big boom in chemical production from the 1950s onwards resulted in thousands of chemicals being used in products which also have the ability to persist in the environment and accumulate up the food chain.

For example, a brominated chemical widely used in polyurethane foam for upholstery can now be found in water, food, dust and in the bodies of animals and people. Chemical contamination is now global reaching even polar regions where no chemical production or use takes place because chemicals which do not break down in the environment are carried on air and water currents round the globe.

Chemicals which persist and bio-accumulate, or move up through the food chain, are of particular concern. When we eat food at the top of the food chain such as meat, eggs, fish and dairy, we can also be consuming residues from the pesticides used on crops or the chemicals which contaminate sewage sludge spread on land. Similarly chemical contamination of our rivers and oceans results in these same chemicals moving up the seafood chain so that we end up eating a range of hazardous chemicals in fish. Communities can be exposed to chemicals more directly and in greater volumes from manufacturing plant emissions or pesticide use on farms. Occupational exposure in the workplace can be higher still. This direct exposure adds to the ongoing and unknown consumption of chemicals in food. Children are the most vulnerable because their nervous, immune and reproductive systems are still developing. Studies show that exposure in the womb can disrupt their developing hormone system which in turn can lead to permanent alterations of their nervous, immune and reproductive systems.

Recent research is now investigating the types and amount of hazardous chemicals in household dust. Because people and children spend so much time indoors, the presence of chemicals in dust is of growing concern. The presence of these chemicals indoors also demonstrates how chemicals can migrate out of products into the environment.