CSE- Health Environment Newsletter May-June 2002

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May-June 2002

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Review of recent studies on DDT

Mexican success story
The executive director of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) underscores the success of the initiative of Mexican DDT project to eliminate the use of organic pollutants. The project has brought together two communities, the health policy community and the environment community, to serve its purpose. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) regards it as the first project to work in accordance with the Stockholm POPs Convention. Moreover, this DDT initiative exemplifies the efficacy of collaboration among international agencies. It is the first time the CEC, Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), and UNEP have worked together to share resources to achieve maximum output. In today’s world of limited resources, such synergy yields are indeed important.

Source: http://www.cec.org/news/details/index

Contaminated fish
The health of native tribes inhabiting the Columbia River basin is at risk due to fish contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT, mercury and other toxic chemicals that they ingest. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found 92 different chemicals in various fish species from rivers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, according to an unreleased report. The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission requested the study, in which scientists took 281 samples from 61 rivers and tested for 131 different chemicals. The study found higher than normal levels of DDT, PCBs and zinc in the river fish. The samples also found lower levels of highly toxic dioxins, arsenic and mercury in sturgeon, smelt and large-scale sucker. The findings have serious health implications for native communities. Fish is an integral part of tribal sustenance. The average Native Americans of the Northwest region eat fish 48 times a month. The EPA estimates that a 70-year-old tribal member eating his or her regular diet of fish has a risk of cancer 50 times higher than anybody eating fish once a month.

Source: ‘Deadly apathy’ undermining whale conservation,
World Wide Fund (WWF), March 12, 2002.

Lethal war remains
Every day, billions of pounds of deadly chemicals, many of which were used as chemical warfare agents in World War I and II, are applied as pesticides and herbicides to soil and plants around the US and the world. World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates over 200,000 people are killed by pesticides every year and every day 1.1 million US children eat food containing unsafe levels of organophosphate pesticides. Pesticides are often pervasive. DDT, banned in the United States in the 1970s, has been found in Antarctic ice, penguin tissues, and in most species of whales.

Source: http://eces.org/ec/pollution/ddt.shtml#top

Workers affected
A study finds occupational exposure to DDT in malaria-control workers significantly associated with a permanent decline of up to 20 per cent in neurological functioning, increase of neuropsychological and psychiatric symptoms.

The study investigates chronic nervous system effects of long-term occupational exposure to DDT by comparing the neurobehavioural performance of retired malaria-control workers with a reference group. The group exposed to DDT had overall poorer performance, with a mean decrease in performance of up to 20 per cent. The exposed group also reported significantly more neuropsychological and psychiatric symptoms than did the controls. The decline was directly associated with years of DDT exposure. Even small changes in nervous-system functions induced by toxic exposure have important repercussions in elderly people because of their reduced capacity to compensate for impairment, which results in accelerated aging. Discussions continue about the use of DDT in controlling malaria, especially with mounting evidence of the chemical’s adverse effects on the environment and on humans.

Source: The Lancet 2001, VOL 357,
No 9261, March 31.

Cancer in wildlife
When examining 129 carcasses of the St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga (whale), scientists found the cause of death in 27 per cent of the adult animals is cancer. This percentage is not remote from what is found in humans. Scientists think that the presence of contaminants such as heavy metals, DDT, PCBs and polycyclicaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) played an important role in the death of the beluga. Moreover, the human population living in the vicinity of the SLE seems more prone to cancer compared to those living in the rest of Quebec.

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives 2002, Vol 110,
No 3, March, pp.285-292.

The Hudson contamination
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found the Hudson River in New York, USA severely contaminated with hazardous waste. The fish in the Hudson River have also been found contaminated with PCBs, chlordane and DDT. Anglers, the major consumers of this fish, have managed to spread the contaminants. These contaminants have also spread to pregnant women and children. EPA has initiated policies to clean up the Hudson, which is contaminated by approximately 150,000 pounds of PCBs.