Dioxins Intro - Dioxin Sources - Achieving Zero Dioxin - Dioxin Elimination Report - Health & Environmental Effects - What are POPs? - POPs Sources - Eliminating POPs

The first evidence of POPs related injury to wildlife was discovered in North America in the 1960s where the population of peregrine falcons was found to be declining due to pesticide contamination. Subsequently, a growing body of evidence has implicated POPs in causing a variety of health effects on life, particularly in predator species at the top of the food chain. These effects included :

+ reproductive failure and population decline
+ abnormally functioning thyroids and other hormone dysfunctions
+ feminisation of males and masculisation of females
+ compromised immune systems
+ tumours and cancers
+ behavioural abnormalities
+ gross birth defects

There is now growing evidence of the detrimental impact POPs are having on humans and unsurprisingly the effects are similar to those on wildlife :

+ multiple cancers and tumours
+ learning disorders
+ immune system changes
+ reproductive problems such as infertility
+ shortened lactation periods in nursing mothers
+ various diseases such as endometriosis
+ increased incidence of diabetes

While POPs may be taken in via the air and water, the most important route of exposure of POPs to humans is their food. In particular, fatty foods like meat, fish and dairy products contain high levels of POPs. POP pesticide residues can also be found on vegetables and fruit that has been sprayed.

Many POPs damage the immune system of the life forms they attach themselves to. Some POPs are also known to mimic hormones, disrupt endocrine systems and affect fertility in humans and wildlife. By decreasing fertility, POPs can threaten entire populations of life forms.

The health of workers in several fields is threatened because they are exposed to high levels of POPs during their work. For example, Indian men who worked with organochlorine pesticides, such as DDT, were found to have decreased fertility, and a significant increase in still births, neonatal deaths and congenital defects in the children born to them.

Some other recorded POPs impacts on humans include children in Japan with lower birth weight after a rice poisoning incident, when rice was contaminated with PCBs and dioxins. Inuit babies, whose mothers had slightly elevated levels of PCBs in their breast milk, suffered problems with their immune systems, and post-natal growth was retarded. Dioxin and furan levels in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women was found to be the highest among those studied - higher than in the USA, Canada, Japan or Germany. Infant deaths downwind of incinerators - a primary source of dioxins and furans - have been reported as 40 to 70 per cent higher than average.

These health impacts show just how harmful many POPs and, in particular, the 'dirty dozen' can be. Even POPs that have been banned years ago are still prevalent in our environment, for example POPs are found even in Adelie penguins in the remote Antarctic.

References

Rupa D.S., Reddy P.P. and Reddi O.S. (1991) Reproductive Performance in Population Exposed to Pesticides in Cotton Fields in India. Environmental Research 55: 123-128

Wong K.C. and Hwang M.Y. (1981) Children born to PCB poisoned mothers. Clin. Med. (Taipei) 7:83-87 (Cited in Jacobson J.L., Jacobson S.W. and Humphrey H.E.B. (1990). Effects of exposure to PCBs and related compounds on growth and activity in children. Neurotoxicology and Teratology 12: 319-326.

Dewailly E., Bruneau S., Laliberte C., Beleslles M., Weber J.P., Ayotte P. and Roy R. (1993) Breast milk contamination by PCBCs and PCDDs/PCDFs in Arctic Quebec: Preliminary results on the immune status of Inuit infants. Organohalogen Compounds 13:403-406

Allsopp M., Stringer R., and Johnston P. (June 1998). Unseen Poisons: Levels of Organocholorine Chemicals in Human Tissues. Greenpeace.

The New York Times, April 27, 1997.