Friday 7 October 2005

Pat Collinson, 70, is part of a group from WWF and the National Federation of Women's Institutes (WI) who are going to Brussels to lobby MEPs for a change in the law on the use of certain chemicals.

Many of these are potentially damaging to health, while the long-term health impacts of others are still unknown. Some of them are found in ordinary household products ranging from cosmetics and antibacterial soap to carpets and computers.

WWF is calling for hazardous man-made chemicals to be properly regulated, replaced where safer alternatives exist, or banned where necessary under the new chemicals regulation (REACH) which gets its first reading in the European Parliament on 16 November.

Pat is going to meet regional MEPs including Jeffrey Titford, Robert Sturdy and Tom Wise and tell them, from her own personal experience, why a change in the law is essential.

Pat said: "I hope that when I go to Brussels the MEPs will reassure me that they are going to do as much as they can to tackle the potentially harmful effects of hazardous chemicals by voting for the REACH legislation.

"I'm going to take the results of the blood tests that were carried out on me and my family to show the politicians the hard evidence of what man-made chemicals we've actually got in our bodies. Maybe then we can start to do something to protect those who are not yet born."

Pat was tested for man made chemicals along with her, daughter Karen Poll, a 41-year-old school secretary, farmer husband John, 42, and daughter Emma, 15. The whole family gave blood last year as part of WWF's biomonitoring survey.

The results revealed that the adults in the family have some of the highest numbers of chemicals in their blood of the whole survey because, in comparison to the other families in the survey, they have higher numbers of PCBs in their blood.

The chemicals that WWF and WI are particularly concerned about include:

Phthalates - which are used in nail varnish, cosmetics and plastics. This group of chemicals has been linked to asthma and genital abnormalities.

Perfluorinated chemicals - used to make non-stick coatings and stain-proof treatments for furniture and textiles. These chemicals have been linked to bladder cancer in workers who are exposed to them.

Brominated flame retardants - used in electrical appliances, carpets and furniture. These chemicals have been shown to affect brain development and thyroid hormone function, which controls physical development, in mammals.

Colin Butfield, Director of WWF's Chemicals and Health Campaign said: "These chemicals should not be in products, let alone in people and wildlife.

"The EU has a once in a generation opportunity to control hazardous chemicals with new REACH legislation - it is vital for the health of future generations that this legislation is effective."

Beth Williams-Sharkey, a WWF volunteer and Ecology Lecturer at University College, Worcester, is also part of the group set to lobby MEPs in Brussels.

Beth, who lives in Stourport, said: "I hope that when I go to Brussels the MEPs will reassure me that they are going to do as much as they can to tackle the potentially harmful effects of hazardous chemicals by voting for the REACH legislation.

"I'm going to take the results of the blood tests that were carried out on me and my family to show the politicians the hard evidence of what man-made chemicals we've actually got in our bodies. Maybe then we can start to do something to protect those who are not yet born."

Beth was tested last year for man made chemicals along with her partner Andrew Sharkey their children Shamus and Connie and the family's paternal grandmother.