11/10/2005 - Families from 11 European countries were in Brussels today to urge their MEPS to take strong measures to control the use and production of hazardous chemicals.

Three generations of families from Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland and Sweden descended on Brussels to share their concerns about the results of a biomonitoring survey they had participated in.

They also urged their MEPs to vote for a strong chemicals policy (REACH), that can effectively protect European families from hazardous chemicals.

The families who journeyed to Brussels took part in a WWF-blood testing survey this spring that tested for 107 toxic, man-made chemicals. The families were horrified when the tests found a total of 73 persistent, bioaccumulative and/or endocrine disrupting man-made chemicals[1] in their blood.

“I was scared when I found I had a high level of three chemicals”, explained 16-year-old Carolin Munster from Heidelberg in Germany.

“Before the tests I didn’t believe you could have chemicals in your blood. I’m meeting several German MEPs. I’ll tell them that they are normal people like me and my mum, and that they also have chemicals in their blood. I want them to vote for REACH to control chemicals”.

Many of the chemicals found came from every day consumer goods, such as carpets, clothes, non-stick cooking pans, computers and babies’ feeding bottles.

Ingrid Korpela, a mother from Finland summed up the frustration of many of those tested when she said, “The problem is that we don’t know where the contamination comes from. As a consumer it’s not my responsibility to go to the producer and find out what chemicals are hazardous”.

The families, who had travelled to Brussels to see their MEPs, had been particularly worried by the findings that children and young people had more chemicals in their bodies (59) than their mothers (49).

The reaction of Kalliopi Vogiatzi, the mother in the Greek family was typical, “I was very disappointed and surprised that my daughter’s results were higher than mine. My daughter is only 12, and she asked me why she had so many chemicals and what we could do. That’s why I’m here in Brussels to meet my MEPs”, she said.

Young people who were tested were equally concerned about the results, “This shows that our lives could be in danger”, said 19-year-old Eleonora Bruno, from southern Italy.

“I’m an activist, so I persuaded my mother and grandmother to take part. Even before these tests we were careful about the food we ate, and the products we bought. Now we see that my parents and grandparents are still affected by chemicals banned 30 years ago. My grandmothers’ generation contains the highest number of chemicals (63). I’m asking my MEPs to approve REACH as soon as possible. It’s not party political. It involves everyone”.

The results of the tests have prompted Monique Davreux, a Belgian grandmother to become an activist: “I am particularly concerned that the younger generation have higher levels of ‘newer’ chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals and artificial musks than the other generations. The MEPs have to reflect: is the situation going to continue like this, or are they going to take action to control chemicals?” she asked.

Positive Responses from MEPs
A number of family members reported positive meetings with their MEPs.

“We met with our MEP Raymond Langendries. He made a bet with us that the vote would be a positive move to protect public health, as he said he couldn’t believe that any Parliamentarians wouldn’t care about public health,” said Marie-Christine Dewolf, the mother from the Belgian family.

This survey shows that chemical contamination is a threat that does not respect any geographical or age boundaries. Every family member in this survey, regardless of age, is contaminated with a cocktail of persistent, bioaccumulative and hormone-disrupting chemicals.

[1] 12 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) incl. DDT, chlordane, lindane, hexachlorobenzene, 44 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 33 brominated flame retardants incl. 31 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), plus hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A), 8 “non-stick” perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) incl. perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and perflurooctanoic acid (PFOA), 7 artificial musks, 2 antimicrobials (triclosan and its breakdown product, methyl triclosan) and the polycarbonate plastic monomer Bisphenol-A.