17 November 2004
Televisions, computers, toys, perfume, shampoos and T-shirts with plastisol prints: virtually every product contains hazardous chemicals. Yet these hazardous substances are not chemically bound to the products; they ‘leak’ from them and sooner or later end up in the environment.
Traces of hazardous chemicals have already been found in the bodies of countless animals: whales, polar bears, cormorants and eels. Their health and that of their descendants may already be showing the resulting effects. One dramatic example is that of polar bears with both male and female sex organs found by researchers in the North Pole, a phenomenon that may well be a consequence of toxic chemical exposure.
Greenpeace found hazardous chemicals in house dust (2001) and in rainwater (2003). The logical question that follows is: could hazardous chemicals also end up in our bodies? Researchers in Sweden, Germany and the USA say yes. In 2004, Greenpeace Netherlands decided to carry out a unique blood testing project in humans.
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