World Health Organization Calls for Effort to Minimize POPs Exposures Received by All Children

PCB exposure has caused great damage to the health of the people of Akwesasne.  The World Health Organization is now calling for action to minimize the exposure children receive to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) a large group of chemicals, which includes:  PCBs, dioxins, brominated flame retardants and certain pesticides.  A key strategy for minimizing exposure is educational outreach describing the major exposure pathways for POPs.  Consumption of animal fats present in meats, dairy products, fish and eggs is the main exposure route for those who do not reside in the vicinity of a POPs contaminated site.  Residents of Akwesasne have the additional major exposure route of respiratory exposure due to evaporation of PCBs from contaminated sites.

Persistent Organic Pollutants:  Impact on Child Health”, World Health

Organization, 2010

http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/persistent_organic_pollutant/en/index.html

This publication sets forth the recommendation that concerted efforts be made by health professionals in all sectors to minimize the exposure that children receive to POPs.  Restricting consumption of all animal fats is highlighted as a priority strategy for POPs exposure minimization.  Simona Surdu, PhD is the major author of this groundbreaking WHO public health guidance document.  David O. Carpenter, MD, Director of the SUNY Albany Institute for Health and the Environment is a contributing author.  WHO recently designated the Institute for Health and the Environment as one of its worldwide centers.

“Children are more sensitive than adults to almost all dangerous substances, and that particularly is true for persistent organic pollutants (POPs).  Prenatal and early life exposure to POPs results in reduced cognitive function, suppressed immune system function and altered development of the reproductive system as well as increased risk of development of other diseases, such as cancer, later in life.”-David O. Carpenter, MD

Multiple exposures to POPs and resultant unquantified total damages to health are addressed in the 2010 WHO policy document.  Use of precaution is advised in the face of incomplete yet substantial knowledge of serious damages to health resulting from POPs exposure. Concerns involving gestational, lactational, childhood and adolescent exposures are raised.  This is the first time that a governmental public health entity has provided leadership on the use of scientific knowledge to minimize the harm that will result from global POPs contamination.   Focus on action to minimize exposure makes this a very important public health protection document.

Federal government and New York State government can take action to minimize children’s POPs exposure by publishing POPs health hazard advisories for supermarket foods just as is already being done for sport fish and game.  The New York State Department of Health can make POPs exposure minimization for children a high priority action item in the 2011-2016 New York State Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan.

During the course of the past 100 years the global environment has become heavily polluted with a large number of man made chemicals, many of which persist in the environment and accumulate to the highest levels at the top of food chains.  POPs are a major part of this global contamination.  Human beings are being heavily impacted by POPs:  cancers, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, ADHD, reduced cognitive function and altered reproductive function.  The WHO has taken a wonderful step toward a new world where scientific knowledge is fully utilized to minimize the harm caused by past chemical use.  It is now time for the other governmental public health entities to enter into the great work of POPs exposure minimization educational outreach to the general public. We are on the threshold of establishing new paradigms for public health protection that will bring an end to careless chemical use by corporations.

I am aware of the large amount of educational outreach that has taken place at Akwesasne on the subject of PCBs in wild caught fish and game.  However, there has been little or no focus on the presence of POPs in the beef, pork, poultry, fish, dairy products and eggs available in the mainstream food supply.  Consumption of these foods is a major avoidable source of exposure.  Minimizing POPs exposure is a critical part of protecting the health of Akwesasne.  Central to minimizing exposure is creating awareness of the presence of POPs in the food supply.