According to a recent study, Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from 2 major laboratories looked for the presence of toxic chemicals in umbilical cord blood of 10 newborn babies born in US hospitals in Aug-Sept/04. A collaboration of the Environmental Working Group & Commonweal brought about the study. (to read the full report see: www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden2/.) Of the more than 400 chemicals tested for, 287 were detected in umbilical cord blood. Of these, 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain or nervous system, & 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animals. Scientists refer to the presence of such toxins in the newborn as "body burden". According to the study's authors, the scope of testing was limited because chemical companies are not required to divulge methods for detecting the presence of their chemicals in the human body. "Had we tested for a broader array of chemicals," they wrote, "we would almost certainly have detected far more than 287."
