Household Exposure To Toxic Chemicals Lurks Unrecognized

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Household Exposure To Toxic Chemicals Lurks Unrecognized, Researchers Find

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081121092451.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2008) - Although Americans are becoming increasingly

aware of toxic chemical exposure from everyday household products like

bisphenol A in some baby bottles and lead in some toys, women do not readily

connect typical household products with personal chemical exposure and

related adverse health effects, according to research from the December

issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Brown University

sociologist Phil Brown is a co-author of the study.

" People more readily equate pollution with large-scale contamination and

environmental disasters, yet the products and activities that form the

backdrop to our everyday lives - electronics, cleaners, beauty products,

food packaging - are a significant source of daily personal chemical

exposure that accumulates over time, " said sociologist Gasior

Altman, lead author of the study, " Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal:

Women's Experience of Household Chemical Exposure. " Altman received a Ph.D.

from Brown in 2008.

Altman and the team examined how women interpreted and reacted to

information about chemical contamination in their homes and bodies. After

reviewing their personal chemical exposure data, most women were surprised

and puzzled at the number of contaminants detected. They initially had

difficulty relating the chemical results for their homes, located in rural

and suburban communities, with their images of environmental problems, which

they associated with toxic contamination originating outside the home from

military or industrial activities, accidents or dumping.

" This work underscores the value of having sociologists collaborate with

life scientists to examine the personal experience of environmental

problems, " said Brown. " While there has been a rapid rise in bio-monitoring

and household exposure assessment, we're lacking social science data on how

people respond to research that involves their homes and bodies. Our

findings are among the first to examine the full 'exposure experience.' "

" This research illustrates how science is beginning to play a paramount role

in discovering and redefining environmental problems that are not

immediately perceptible through direct experience, " Altman said. " Pollution

at home has been a blind spot for society. The study documents that an

important shift occurs in how people understand environmental pollution, its

sources and possible solutions as they learn about chemicals from everyday

products that are detectable in urine samples and the household dust

collecting under the sofa. "

Though some scientists and government officials worry such information will

provoke fears, the interdisciplinary team discovered that people who learned

about chemicals in their homes and bodies were not alarmed and were eager

for more, not less, information about how typical household products can

expose them to chemicals that may affect health.

The researchers interviewed 25 women, all of whom had participated in an

earlier study, the Silent Spring Institute's Household Exposure Study (HES),

which tested for 89 environmental pollutants in air, dust and urine samples

from 120 Cape Cod households. The study found about 20 target chemicals per

home on average, including pesticides and compounds from plastics, cleaners,

furniture, cosmetics, and other products. Nearly all participants in the HES

chose to learn their personal results, and the 25 selected for the current

research were interviewed about their experiences learning the results for

their home and the study as a whole.

This new study is among the first to apply the tools and perspectives of

sociology to biomonitoring and exposure assessment research, and is the

first to investigate the experience of personal results-reporting in a study

of a wide range of contaminants. According to the researchers, the Household

Exposure Study has set an example that is shifting scientific practice, as

it was among the first to adopt a right-to-know framework for reporting all

results to interested participants.

In addition to Altman and Brown, this study was co-authored by

Morello-Frosch, epidemiologist and environmental health scientist at the

University of California-Berkeley; Green Brody and Ruthann Rudel,

environmental health scientists at Silent Spring Institute; and Mara

Averick, a 2006 graduate of Brown who served as a research assistant as an

undergraduate.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences and the National Science Foundation.

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Journal reference:

1.. . Pollution Comes Home and Gets Personal: Women%u2019s Experience of

Household Chemical Exposure. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, December

2008

Adapted from materials provided by Brown University.