Hazardous chemicals contaminate Europe's rainwater
27-May-2003
Scientists at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific analysed 50 samples of rainwater collected by Greenpeace across the Netherlands,with secondary sampling from Belgium and Germany. The NOAS report focuses on substance groups that include chemicals known or suspected of endocrine
disrupting properties. Such chemicals, know as xeno-estrogens, have the ability to mimic hormones and harm reproduction and development.
At a press conference in the Netherlands capital, The Hague, this morning, Greenpeace and Dr. Ruud Peters of NOAS, presented the Environmental
Minister of the Netherlands, van Geel, with the findings. Greenpeace campaigner Bart Opzeeland, urged the Dutch government to act and support a strong new chemicals policy in Europe.
Greenpeace, who commissioned the study, collected 47 samples in the Netherlands, two samples in Germany and one in Belgium.[ In the period February to March 2003, Greenpeace took rainwater samples at 47 different locations in the Netherlands, including 23 high schools in an education project investigating toxic chemicals in the environment.Greenpeace also sampled near chemical production and manufacturing sites.
Rainwater samples were also collected at a school in Antwerp, Belgium, at the Greenpeace Germany office in Hamburg, and at a private home in
Munich.]
The synthetic chemical pollutants included bisphenol-A, alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates, phthalates, brominated flame retardants and synthetic musk compounds. [Notable are high concentrations of phthalates in Vlaardingen, Netherlands in the neighbourhood of phthalate producer Exxon; high concentration of brominated flame retardants around the brominated flame retardant factory in Terneuzen the Netherlands; and high bisphenol, concentrations in Rotterdam probably due to the nearby production location of Resolution Performance Products.]
While the NOAS report does not attempt to define the health and
environmental risks of the contamination, the findings confirm our frequent and wide-ranging exposure to hazardous chemicals, including hormone-disrupting substances, many of which are commonly used in consumer products.
Over 100,000 chemicals are currently registered for use in Europe, many with very little or no health and environmental data. The widespread presence of hazardous chemicals in the environment is becoming increasingly well documented. Toxic chemicals are now found as far away as remote Arctic regions and as near at hand as the house dust in our homes.
[ The Greenpeace report, "Consuming Chemicals: Hazardous chemicals in house dust as an indicator of chemical exposure in the home" documents the presence of hazardous chemicals in over 100 European homes. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/5679.pdf]
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