Progress. Blood tests show nonsmokers are exposed to less smoke cigarettes now than they were 10 years ago.
Efforts to curb exposure to tobacco smoke in the United States paid dramatically, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Atlanta. It's just a conclusion of a report published today, which presents the first data on the exposure of the general population to 24 environmental chemicals.
The CDC's goal was to create a basic range of chemical exposure to a section of the population of the country. With this baseline in hand, researchers will be able to determine if a person has had an exceptionally high exposure to a chemical environment, a necessary first step in determining whether a chemical exposure may have caused birth defects or other health effects. In 1999, researchers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey CDC (NHANES) visited 12 sites around the country, collecting blood and urine samples of 3800 people. CDC analyzed the samples traces of 27 chemicals, including toxic metals, cotinine (a marker of tobacco smoke), and metabolites of malathion and other pesticides. They also examined the phthalate metabolites - chemicals found in other household products soap, shampoo, hair spray, and -. That cause reproductive harm in laboratory animals
The researchers found good news in both cases for which data existed earlier. blood cotinine levels fell by 75% compared to 1991 NHANES. "It is really remarkable," said Richard Jackson, director of CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH). Exposure through lead also declined. For children aged 1 to 5, the blood levels fell 2 7 to 2.0 microgram per deciliter (mg / dL). (A level of 10 ug / dL is associated with adverse effects on learning and behavior of children.)
most other compounds, however, have never been measured in the general population. It is not known if baseline levels represent a health risk, said Jim Pirkle of NCEH Division of laboratory sciences. But already the measures provide clues to further investigation. two phthalates levels stand out among the others, so the CDC researchers focus on finding how they enter the body.
public health experts welcomed the report. "history has been made today," said John Balbus of George Washington University in Washington, told a news conference. "It is a small but significant." CDC plans to increase the number of chemicals, it tests 100 in 4 years, but even that is a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands in use today.
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The CDC report
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