Thursday 21 September 2006

The report - Chain Of Contamination: The Food Link - reveals for the first time the startling results from WWF's testing of foods from around Europe. It also explains some of the other routes of exposure that have led to toxic chemicals contaminating the blood of every single one of the 352 people we have tested during the WWF biomonitoring surveys undertaken over the last five years.

For the report, WWF tested 27 different foodstuffs from countries around Europe for eight different groups of man-made chemicals - organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals, phthalates, organotins, alkylphenols and artificial musks. None of these man-made chemicals are found naturally in foods, and all have been linked to health problems - ranging from genital deformities in baby boys to reduced IQs, certain cancers and hormone disruption.

The food testing results found potentially harmful synthetic chemicals in all of the analysed foods ranging from phthalates in olive oil, cheeses and meats, banned organochlorine pesticides in fish and Finnish reindeer meat, artificial musks and organotins in fish and flame retardants in meats and cheeses.

Food standards in the EU and particularly in the UK are high and the FSA is doing excellent work in monitoring chemical contamination. However, WWF is seriously concerned that because of the lack of adequate legislation to control harmful chemicals, both humans and wildlife now face constant exposure to small quantities of chemicals that build up over their lifetimes, some of which can build up in the body and others which can disrupt hormone functions. This exposure is particularly harmful to developing foetuses in the womb.

Paul King, Director of Campaigns for WWF-UK said: "Because of decades of inadequate legislation, even healthy diets are exposing us all to a raft of potentially harmful chemicals - and nowhere near enough is known about the long term effects of exposure to multiple chemical contaminants.

"While each item of food we tested is probably safe to eat on its own, taken together over long periods of time the food we eat contributes significantly to our body burden of chemicals. And we are not alone - many creatures at the top of the food chain are seeing these sorts of chemicals build up in their bodies. We have seen stark evidence of the levels of contaminants in arctic predators, like polar bears and killer whales."

This autumn, the European Parliament will vote on the new EU chemicals legislation (REACH) which was designed to protect people and wildlife from harmful man-made chemicals. However, over the period of it's development, industry lobbying has resulted in a much weakened proposal, which would be little improvement to the current legislation. The chemical industry makes billions of pounds every year - much of this from potentially harmful and inadequately regulated chemicals.

WWF believes that in order to protect people and wildlife for centuries to come from the long term impacts of harmful chemicals it is essential that the EU votes through a strong REACH rather than a weakened version. WWF urges UK MEPs and the Labour Government to ensure that chemicals of very high concern, including hormone disrupting chemicals, should be replaced with safer alternatives whenever available.

Elizabeth Salter Green, head of the WWF-UK Toxics Programme said: "Our food is contaminated, our air is contaminated and our bodies are contaminated. Something is desperately wrong here and we need to resolve the problem.

"If the new REACH legislation is not effective in controlling harmful chemicals, our generation will leave behind a legacy of health problems and pollution to the people and wildlife of the world. We must not allow that to happen."