Environment Minister’s blood sample reveals arsenal of heinous chemicals and toxins

"Unpleasant surprise" of high PCB levels will not stop Enestam from eating fish

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Finland’s Minister for the Environment Jan-Erik Enestam (Swedish People's Party) has at least 38 different artificial, man-made chemicals in his bloodstream, according to a recent study of the minister and several of his EU colleagues made on behalf of the WWF. Enestam’s bloodwork put him in 3rd spot out of fourteen ministers in terms of the quantities of Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) coursing through his veins.
      According to the results of the WWF survey, which are written up in the "DetoX Campaign" link shown below, the blood assays of 14 EU ministers of the environment revealed a total of 55 chemicals of the kind that should not be there and which can have an adverse effect on health.
     
The analyses sought a total of 103 chemicals in all. In one case, a minister’s blood revealed 43 such compounds. Even the cleanest sample turned up 33 of them.
      Twenty-five of the same chemicals were found in the samples of all the fourteen ministers taking part, and all the ministers registered elevated PCB readings.
     
Enestam’s high PCB figures are probably a product of the minister’s healthy (or unhealthy) appetite for fish: Finns who live on the coast or in the archipelago tend to ingest such chemicals into their bodies through eating fish regularly.
      Many of the fattier fish - like Baltic herring and salmon - that are found in the Baltic Sea have levels of dioxin and other PCBs well in excess of the recommended maximums. Enestam, who is 57 and lives on the coast, says he eats fish on an almost daily basis.
      He claims the results, whilst they were "an unpleasant surprise", will not shake this habit.
     
PCBs were outlawed in Finland in 1990. They can cause cancers and have been shown to cause damage to the liver and reproductive organs.
      These chemicals, often found in building materials and for instance in electrical transformers, do not break down, but increase in intensity as they pass upwards along the food chain.
      PCBs are found all over the world. They are absorbed into the bodies of small organisms and fish in water. They are then taken up by other animals that eat these aquatic creatures as food. PCBs especially accumulate in fish and marine mammals such as seals and whales, reaching levels that may be many thousands of times higher than in water.
     
Enestam’s arsenal of heinous chemicals  and toxins also included organo-chlorine pesticides, brominated flame retardants, and one substance that falls into the category of phthalates and synthetic musks.
      The overall levels in the Finnish minister’s blood were roughly on the European average, with the exception of the high PCB readings.
      Enestam’s response to the findings was that they showed conclusively how important it is that the EU’s regulatory framework on chemicals Reach (for Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals), which is currently in preparation, should be brought into force quickly, even if this means it is introduced in a slightly watered-down form.
      "The discussions surrounding EU chemicals legislation have concentrated almost exclusively on cost-effectiveness, when we really should also be talking about what benefits we can bring to people and the environment", said Enestam. 


Links:
  Bad blood? What the WWF found in the ministerial samples (.pdf file)
  And what was in the blood of Jan-Erik Enestam (.pdf file)

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