"California Children Are Contaminated"
Recently the diets of California children, ages two through seven,
were analyzed to determine the cancer and non-cancer health effects
from food contaminant exposures.
Food may be the primary route of exposure
to toxic heavy metals, persistent pollutants, and pesticides.
Though food-borne toxic contaminants are a concern for all ages,
they are of greatest concern for children,
who are disproportionately impacted because they’re still developing
and have greater intake of food and fluids relative to their weight.
Pediatric problems that have been linked
to preventable environmental toxin exposures
include cancer, asthma, lead poisoning, neurobehavioral disorders,
learning and developmental disabilities, and birth defects.
But the good news is changing one’s diet can change one’s exposure.
A diet high in fish and animal products, for example,
results in greater exposure to persistent pollutants
like DDT and dioxins and heavy metals
than does a plant-based diet because
these compounds bioaccumulate up the food chain,
and plants are at the bottom of the food chain.
But this sample of California kids was not eating a plant-based diet.
And cancer benchmark levels were exceeded
by all 364 children for arsenic, the banned pesticide dieldrin,
a metabolite of DDT called DDE, and dioxins.
Children exceeded safety levels by a greater margin than adults.
This is especially of concern for children
because all of these compounds are suspected endocrine disruptors
and thus may impact normal development.
Cancer risk ratios were exceeded by a factor —
over a factor of 100 for arsenic and dioxins.
Which foods were the worst?
For preschoolers, the #1 food source of arsenic was poultry,
though for their parents it was tuna.
The #1 source for lead was dairy,
and for mercury it was seafood.
And the #1 source of the banned pesticides and dioxins was dairy.
They didn’t split up the groups by gender,
but a similar study in Europe found that men had higher levels
of some of these pollutants than women.
For example, levels of the banned pesticide chlordane.
But women who never breastfed
were right up there closer along with men,
with the lowest levels found in women
who breastfed more than 12 months.
It is therefore likely that the lactation-related reduction
in blood pollutant levels partially explains the lower body burdens
among women compared to men.
So cows can lower their levels by giving some to us,
then we pass it along to our children.
What non-cancer effects might some of these pollutants have?
They can affect the immune system.
Studies clearly demonstrate the ability
of dioxins and related compounds
to have a long-lasting and deleterious effect on immune function.
This manifests as increased incidence of respiratory infections,
ear infections, cough, and sore throat.
At first most of the data was for during infancy,
but now we have follow-up studies showing that
the immunosuppressive effects of some of these toxins
may persist into early childhood,
so we should try to reduce our exposure as much as possible.
How do we do that?
Because these pollutants accumulate in animal fat,
consuming a plant-based diet,
decreasing meat, dairy, and fish consumption
may reduce exposure for children and adults alike.