Fetuses exposed to toxic soup that includes mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, and so are we

Jul 18, 2005

In a small but alarming study it was found that on average, 200 industrial chemicals, including pesticides were found in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies. A total of 287 chemicals were found including 209 never detected before in cord blood. The umbilical cord is the connection from the placenta that supplies blood, oxygen, and nutrients from the mothers blood to the developing baby. The cord blood was collected after the umbilical cord was cut in U.S. hospitals and was gathered by the Red Cross. Researchers then anonymously tested this donated blood for 413 targeted industrial and consumer product chemicals. The chemicals included a wide variety of pesticides, fire retardants, chemicals from carpets, furnitire, electrical insulation and 18 different forms of dioxin, a known cancer causing compound, gasoline byproducts, heavy metals such as mercury, and the Teflon chemical PFOA. There is health and safety data on only 15% of the industrial chemicals sold in the USA, and know one knows what happens when these chemicals combine into new and different chemicals. Rep.Louise Slaughter of NY who is 75 years old, was one of several who donated blood for a continuation of the analysis and 270 toxic chemicals were found in her blood. The analysis was performed by the Environmental Working Group. There are 75,000 chemicals manufactured or imported into the USA, of these, 3,000 are available at over a million pounds a year. Chemical manufacturers are not required to make available to the public or the government, the many specialized ways that are needed to detect their chemicals in human blood.

Curcumin, the ingredient in Turmeric, may fight melanoma according to preliminary research

Previously, researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have shown that curcumin, the active constituent in Turmeric, helps prevent tumors from forming in the lab. They recently demonstrated curcumins ability to inhibit the spread of breast cancer to the lungs of mice. In this cellular study, the researchers found that curcumin inhibited two enzymes that melanoma skin cancer needs to survive - to remain immortal. This caused the melanoma cancer cells to die. The research appears ahead of print in the upcoming issue of the journal Cancer.