Human
Experiment

There are over 100,000 chemicals on the market today. The amount is so much that there’s just no escape from them in our every day life. The Finnish National istitute for health and welfare’s (THL) laboratory examined urine samples from three Finnish families, to find out how much of the everyday toxins accumulate into the normal human body.

_{I shot the videos and photos for a multimedia story for Finnish broadcasting company YLE. The original feature can be found here}

Three of the most typical chemicals in the samples were bisphenol A, parabens, and phthalates. Bisphenol A is a single chemical, but parabens and phthalates are actually chemical groups, because there are many different types. All three are suspected of damaging health and are being investigated around the world. Thousands of chemicals are used in consumer products, of which bisphenol A, parabens, and phthalates are among the most commonly produced in the world. But what are the threats to health? It is not fully known, even though the substances have been studied for years.

Animal testing has shown effects on animals, but the effect on humans is different. It is affected by the mechanisms of the human body, how many chemicals get into the body, and how powerful the chemicals are.

Bisphenol A is suspected of interfering with human natural hormone function. Parabens are mildly allergic and have been suspected to increase the risk of breast cancer through deodorants. Phthalates are also suspected of being hormonal disorders and are associated with reduced fertility and obesity.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has set limit values for daily intake of bisphenol A, parabens and phthalates tolerable. Phthalates in the EU are banned in toys and childcare articles for children under 3 years of age. This is to prevent these chemicals from being released into the mouth of children sucking their toys. For the same reason, the use of bisphenol A in the baby bottles was banned in 2011.

A few years ago, the parabens became unpopular and five were banned in the EU. No parabens labeling has become a selling point and a marketing tip on the cosmetic and detergent cans.

_{Family from Kuopio}

There were no huge chemical additions from this family of six. But a few values were worth exploring. The familys mother's bisphenol A value was 7.4 in the second sample. In the reference material, the median for women is 1.5 and the highest measured values in the THL reference material are only 5.8. Possible sources are mainly in groceries. In the cans and bottles an epoxy resin is used for the inner coating, and bisphenol A is a constituent of it. For example, the bisphenol is present on a light material under the lid of cans. The mother suspects that her facial lotion which is packed in a metal tube, is the reason for high values.

Interestingly, father's sample contains about three times more parabens than mothers's sample. The figures should be the opposite: for women, paraben values are generally four to five times higher than for men due to make-up and skin care.
There is a possible explanation for this: mother has been home with the kids for three years and done the makeup only every other day, while the husband always uses hair wax and moisturizing facial lotion in the mornings. He gets the products from the toilet, and the label on both of them contains a reference to the parabens “Often I put these first and then come to eat the breakfast. It may well be that there is something left in the hands and it goes into your body by mouth, ”he says.

The most complex trace of the result strip is phthalates. The values of the family are otherwise average, but one of the 4-year-olds Phthalate values were clearly higher than in the others samples.

Plastics, artificial fibers, paints, adhesives, pharmaceutical tablets? No. There are, of course, plastic toys in the family with children, and some of them may have used phthalates. But then everyone would have been exposed. Parents can’t come up with one reason for that. The 4 year old was on antibiotic treatmen during the sampling week and took the tablets twice a day.

One thing the family is still interested in, is that there is a plenty of plastic toys in the nursery, as in many other Finnish families. Are they safe to play? A large part of the plastic toys do not have a chemical detrimental effect. For example, perhaps the most familiar product of a nursery, Lego, is made of ABS plastic. It is a standard plastic that is considered completely risk-free. Instead, old soft plastic toys may contain prohibited phthalates. Scientists say that, chewing old dolls or continuous playing with them is not recommended, although the old toys are otherwise more ecologically more sustainable.

^{Results of the family from kuopio.}^{(Graphics fom YLE)}

_{Single man from Viitasaari}

_{Liimatainen is a 55-year-old single dairy farmer and the first test person of the human experiment. Liimatainen has lived all his life here in the traditional Finnish countryside, in the middle of forests and fields. He has eleven cows. There's plenty of room for haste. Liimatainen is doing almost everything in his ranch. “The way of life is busy, that there isn’t always time to cook. The Important thing is to eat two hot meals a day. ”

Liimatainen handed over two jars of urine for testing in the laboratory. His bisphenol A value was average. Even the parabens in the sample were moderate, although the second measured paraben, or ethylparaben, was slightly above the average of the reference material. The phthalates then again were elevated.

Liimatainen's home isn’t filled with plastic, it is closer to a rustic farm. Researcher guesses that the phthalates may originate from plastic packaging for the foods eaten by Liimatainen and from plastic storage containers for the kitchen. Liimatainen uses frozen, sliced, cabbage rolls, macaroni boxes and ready-made dishes.

Another factor could be his a cholesterol medication, because the film-coated drug tablets contain phthalates. Admittedly, he takes only one pill a day.

The third possible source of phthalate is his farm equipment: hoses and protective equipment. A look in the barn shows that milk hoses are really softened pvc plastic, and Liimatainen is using the hoses every day.

According to Thl’s researcher, it is a very difficult task to determine the origin of phthalates. The best bet is the combined effect of meals, milk hoses and pharmaceutical tablets.

^{Results of mr. Liimatainen, from Viitasaari. (Graphics fom YLE)}}.

Family From Helsinki

Mother with 2 children. Family is very aware of the chemicals and avoids them as much as possible.

The results of the Schingler family from Helsinki are not very different from the others on the test. Although the expectations were somewhat different, since the family really avoids chemicals.

The 4 year old boy’s bisphenol A level was the second highest of all test subjects and the second highest of the paraben levels. A lot of one phthalate quality was found in the mother herself. The rest of the family's phthalate readings were average, roughly the same as those of the family in Kuopio.

Mother Shingler's own phthalate values are mystery. In the household the cutting boards are wood, there are no plastic containers and the cups are glass. The use of plastic is scarce - ready meals are not eaten.

Shingler is frustrated. He is accurate with bisphenol and he is satisfied with the low level of his level. Other results don't please.

"I began to rearange the bathroom locker from cosmetics over ten years ago, and the past five years I have been using only natural cosmetics. If my own phthalates with this lifestyle are average or even above, it just makes me want to be even more careful”.

^{Results of the Schingler family from Helsinki.} ^{(Graphics fom YLE}

Fertility rate has fallen drastically in the world. In 2014 for the first time in 2014, a Danish research team showed a link between the deterioration of endocrine disrupting chemicals and sperm. The study also revealed a cocktail effect: the combined effect of chemicals was stronger than the effects of individual chemicals alone.It is these two issues, hormone disorder and synergy, that are the hottest topics in Europe today. In 2013, 89 researchers signed the Berlaymont Declaration.
They were demanding urgent action from the EU to limit the use of substances suspected of being hormones. The substances referred to by the researchers were bisphenol A and some of the phthalates.

Even the polar regions are contaminated with many toxins that are not naturally present there. Bisphenol A, parabens, and phthalates break down so quickly that they won't be able to travel long distances, but in Africa, for example, the infamous DDT is still being used. It moves from south to colder regions and rains down there. Reindeer grazing in nature in Finnish Lapland has measured higher toxic concentrations than those receiving feed on the farms. This is also due to long-range transmission.

Chemicals are literally everywhere.

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