CDC Releases Chemical Report

The Centers for Disease Control released its National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals on Jan. 31, calling it the most extensive report of its kind ever issued.

The scientific report outlines biomonitoring data gathered regarding the population's exposure to 116 common chemicals, including a handful of pesticides. The CDC report measures the presence of residual quantities of chemicals; it does not link the presence of these compounds to adverse health effects – which is appropriate since trace levels of chemicals are not necessarily detrimental to the human body.

“In order to make sound public health decisions, we have to have reliable info about chemicals,” explained  David Flemming, the CDC's deputy director for science and public health. “That’s the purpose of the report – providing objective information about what’s getting into peoples’ bodies and how much is getting in.”

However, the report does not provide any direction for the general public.

“There is no consumer guidance within this document,” noted Richard Jackson, director of the National Center for Environmental Health of the CDC. “The intent of this report is to provide information for the scientific community – not the scare the American population.”

And yet, a collection of environmental organizations have united to form the Collaborative on Health and the Environment. According to media sources, the group intends to launch "the broadest and most ambitious effort ever attempted by the national environmental community," aimed at scaring the American public into thinking the presence of these reported chemicals is tied to serious medical conditions, including a variety of cancers.

The author is Assistant Editor - Internet for Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.