Sperm counts falling, babies changing gender, cancers proliferating

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"Zeus" < info A MUST READ: Sperm counts falling, babies changing gender,cancers proliferating Sperm counts falling, babies changing gender, cancers proliferating -the scandal of the secret Blair-Bush pact to limit controls on toxicchemicals. by Geoffrey LeanDaily Mail 9/9/05 There can be few greater betrayals than for a Government to sacrificethe health of babies and small children to boost the profits offoreign firms. But that is exactly what Tony Blair and his ministersseem determined to do. Confidential documents show that Britain is brokering a dirty deal inBrussels to exempt some of the most dangerous chemicals in widespreaduse from new European safety controls. And what is worse, it is acting at the behest of the Bushadministration, which wants to limit restrictions on America's exportsof highly toxic substances because of the potential threat to theprofits of big chemical companies. Among the chemicals are many of those which - as the Daily Mailreported yesterday (see article below) - have been found to poisonbabies in the womb, passing from mother to child through the umbilicalcord. Research at Groningen University in the Netherlands, commissioned byGreenpeace and WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund), found thatevery one of the newborn babies the research team monitored had acocktail of at least 5 poisonous chemicals in their blood. Some hadas many as 14. HarmfulThe chemicals - found in such everyday objects as soap, cosmetics,clingfilm, tin cans, toothpaste, baby bottles, furniture, cleaningproducts and non-stick pans - have been linked to cancers, birthdefects and genital abnormalities. Many of them are the so-called 'gender-bending' chemicals which areincreasingly being linked with a precipitous drop in sperm countsaround the world. According to new research, at least one of thesechemicals, phthalates, is already 'feminising' baby boys. Yet the secret documents demonstrate that Britain, which holds thepresidency of the EU, is secretly putting together a deal that willexempt phthalates and other chemicals from controls outlined in a newdirective. The REACH directive - standing for Registration, Evaluation andAuthorisation of Chemicals - is designed to monitor the mind-bogglingnumber of untested substances that both enrich and endanger our dailylives. At the last count - some 20 years ago - more than 100,000 chemicalswere in use in Europe; there will be many more now. Many of them have brought us great benefits. Some are medicines whichhave been used to beat back deadly and disabling diseases. Others, inplastics, have brought us many useful consumer products. Others stillhave helped us to increase harvests and preserve food. Yet we are staggeringly ignorant of the damage they may be doing tous. In fact, we have little or no safety data on over 85% of all thesubstances on the market. Tests by WWF found that the blood of every adult and child in Britaincontains a host of hazardous substances. Children are usually more contaminated than adults. Babies and smallchildren are most vulnerable. As the new study reported by the Mail shows, mothers can pass as muchas a third of the chemicals that have long built up in their bodies totheir unborn children. 'Worrying trends are believed to be partially linked to chemicals,'says Margot Wallstrom, an EU vice-president. She cites a 63% increase in cancers in France in 20 years and the factthat one in every seven European couples has infertility problems. Gender-bending chemicals are causing the most concern.In May, alarming research showed that baby boys born to mothersexposed to phthalates had smaller penises and displayed other signs offeminisation of the genitals. Phthalates, which are in widespread use to make plastic more pliable,were found in nearly 90% of babies tested for the study published thisweek. Chemicals used as flame retardants, found in half the blood samples inthe study, are believed to have similar properties as a banned groupof chemicals known as PCBs (polychlorobiphenyls). Research at Rotterdams's Erasmus University suggested that boys bornto mothers who'd been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play withdolls and tea-sets rather than with traditionally male children's toys. DisturbingMore generally, the gender benders are increasingly blamed for spermcounts dropping by half in the last half century, causing men now toproduce proportionately only about a third as much sperm as hamsters. Just three months ago, 125 of the leading scientists in the fieldcalled for urgent action on these chemicals, to establish the size ofthe risk and to protect us, if necessary, from it. Yet it is these very chemicals that Britain is planning to excludefrom the European laws. It is the culmination of a disheartening story in which ministers seemto have succumbed to an unscrupulous campaign by the American government. You might think that the United States has no business setting out toemasculate laws designed to protect British and European children -but that has not deterred President Bush, who is living up to hisnickname 'The Toxic Texan'. For the past three years, the Bush administration has been mounting anintensive campaign to weaken the REACH directive (which aims to getcompanies to carry out, and report on, safety tests on their chemicalsand impose controls on the most dangerous ones). According to documents I have seen, two years ago, Colin Powell, thethen Secretary of State, circulated around US embassies instructionsto lobby against the directive because 'US exports in most industrialsectors - totalling tens of billions of dollars - could be impacted'. DamageBritain's reaction to this was shameful - and unsurprising. Afterinitially backing the directive, it switched to denouncing it as'disastrously wrong'.Worse, Tony Blair succeeded in greatly weakening its provisions bywriting a joint letter to the EU with President Jacques Chirac ofFrance and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, expressing'concern' and calling for 'substantial changes'. Now, Britain has drawn up a new version of the REACH directive - to beput before the other EU governments this autumn - which exemptsgender-bending chemicals from the controls unless there is 'scientificevidence of serious effects to humans or the environment'. Scientists say that if this provision is approved, it means that thesechemicals could only be controlled after they had done grave damage topeople and wildlife, making a mockery of the directive. Dr. Andreas Kortenkamp, of London University's Centre for Toxicology,says that 'very few, if any' gender-bending chemicals would beregulated under the British plan. While Professor John Sumpter of Brunel University says: 'I would wantaction to be taken if there was good evidence that serious effectswere likely, even if they had not been unequivocally proved.' Britain says it is trying to protect jobs - and indeed chemicalcompanies employ more than 1.7 million people across Europe. But studies show that the directive's provisions would cost thesecompanies less than 0.06% of their turnover and save over £30 billionin healthcare costs by reducing disease over the next 30 years. It is long past time that Tony Blair started prioritising the healthof the people of this country over the interests of George W. Bush'sfat-cat friends. He should make a start by putting control of gender-bending chemicalsback into the directive. Tue, 13 Sep 2005 11:43:23 +0100(No link on website)______________ Babies being poisoned in the womb09:59am 8th September 2005 Babies in the womb are being exposed to a shocking cocktail ofchemicals that can cause cancer in later life and have gender-bendingqualities, research has revealed. Tests on blood taken from the umbilical cords of nearly 30 new bornbabies and from more than 40 new mothers were analysed for chemicalsranging from artificial musks used in cosmetics and cleaning productsto flame retardants and chemicals used to make plastics and coatings. Most of the chemicals are found in everyday products such as cleaningfluids and sprays, tin can linings, perfumes and cosmetics and evenbaby bottles. Others include banned pesticides such as DDT that havelingered in the environment for decades. Every single sample of mother or baby blood tested positive for anarray of chemicals, many of which are suspected of being linked tohealth problems ranging from birth defects and genital abnormalitiesto certain types of cancer. The report, A Present for Life: hazardous chemicals in cord blood,from WWF-UK and Greenpeace, says babies are being exposed to thesechemicals at the most vulnerable point in their development. It also calls for urgent action to be taken to control the productionand sale of those chemicals that may damage the health of babies andadults alike. All umbilical cords contained a minimum of five of the 35 chemicalstested for, some contained as many as 14. Two of the mothers testedhad 17 of the 35 chemicals in their blood. The report also highlights the possible effects of chemicals onchildren's brain development and intelligence. It says proposed new EU legislation on chemicals called "REACH" givesEurope a crucial opportunity to take the necessary action to protecthumans and the environment from the effects of harmful chemicals andto make producers responsible for the impacts of their products. Helen Perivier, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International said:"Babies feeding through the umbilical cord are exposed to toxicchemicals from products like vinyl plastics, cleaning products,electronics and perfumes. "It is shocking that such chemicals are in the human body at any stageof our life, let alone at the very start, when the child is mostvulnerable. Governments need to act and require industries tosubstitute these contaminating chemicals with safer alternatives." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=361722 & in_page_id=1799 forwarded byZeus Information ServiceAlternative Views on Healthwww.zeusinfoservice.com