Tuesday 16 March 2004

During their visit members of the delegation handed over a 77,000 signature petition, calling for hazardous chemicals to be banned in favour of safer alternatives, to Vitaliano Gemelli, President of European Parliament Petitions Committee.

"The public's depth of feeling in the UK over the use of hazardous chemicals in everyday products has become clear to us since the launch of the campaign. The petition has run for less than a year and yet more people have signed it than the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff can hold at full capacity," said Justin Woolford, WWF Chemicals and Health Campaign Leader.

In addition members of the delegation who discovered their bodies were contaminated with a cocktail of highly toxic man-made chemicals during a blood survey last year presented their test results to MEPs. The European Union has admitted that 99 per cent of the volume of chemicals on the market are poorly regulated.

One of the delegates, Ann Turner of Gloucestershire, believes that if we don't try and change the law there will be wide-ranging implications. "I have seven grandchildren but I simply don't know how these hazardous chemicals are going to affect them and future generations. I think it's appalling. I want to find out what the politicians are actually going to do about banning these chemicals and if they are going to take our concerns seriously because put simply, we need testing."

"As a mother I feel we deserve a chemical regulation that properly protects us against the cocktail of chemicals we are being exposed to today. I feel very strongly about this and that's why I am one of many other WI members presenting this petition to the European Parliament," said Eireen Perkins, another delegate from Pembrokeshire. "It shocks me that dangerous chemicals can be found in everyday items such as tinned food, cosmetics, televisions, and carpets, and that exposure to them is slowly contaminating us all."

The current regulations to protect wildlife and people from these hazardous chemicals are ineffective. Proposed European Union chemicals legislation, called REACH, falls short of ensuring that it will be mandatory for hazardous chemicals to be substituted with safer alternatives.

"Europe needs to ensure that the chemicals used everyday are safer and that the hazardous ones are replaced by safer alternatives," added Justin Woolford.

Over 300 man-made chemicals have been found in humans, and it is believed that most, if not all, humans are contaminated with persistent industrial chemicals found in everyday products such as sofas, TVs, cars and cosmetics. Wildlife is also affected, including polar bears, seals, flounder and peregrine falcons.