WWF and The Co-operative Bank took and analysed the blood of 47 people from all over Europe in December 2003. These included 39 Members of the European Parliament, 4 Observers from accession countries, 1 former MEP and 3 WWF staff, representing 17 countries in Europe. The results released on 21 April 2004 are unacceptable.
It reveal that every person is contaminated with a cocktail of persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic chemicals including chemicals from each of the 5 groups of chemicals tested for. A total of 76 different chemicals from the 101 looked for were found in the blood of those tested.
Those analyses show that the highest number of chemicals in one person was 54, while the median number of chemicals detected was 41.
At least 13 of the same chemicals were found in every single person tested, including chemicals banned and outlawed in Europe over twenty years ago as well as chemicals still in use today such as phthalates and perfluorinated compounds.
The flame retardant HBCD was detected in one person, this is the first time such a chemical has ever been found in human blood, and flame retardant deca BDE was found at the highest level ever seen in a European study.
