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[Applause]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
00:00:25
before the second world war the
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industrialized World produced 1 million
00:00:28
tons of chemicals a year
00:00:30
by 2005 it was 5 million the post-war
00:00:34
boom saw mass production the frenzy of
00:00:36
progress consumerism and petrochemical
00:00:39
Magic create the unbreakable baby bottle
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and plastic
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
00:00:48
[Applause]
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Cuttery crude oil like everything else
00:00:55
is made up of billions of tiny molecules
00:00:59
and using the magic of research oil
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companies compete with each other in
00:01:04
taking the petroleum molecule apart and
00:01:07
rearranging it into well you name it
00:01:10
Fabrics
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toothbrushes tires
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insecticides Cosmetics weed
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killers a whole galaxy of things to make
00:01:22
a better life on Earth we know that
00:01:25
there
00:01:27
are about 80 to 85 5,000 chemicals that
00:01:31
are in Commerce
00:01:33
today
00:01:35
and about 7,000 high production high
00:01:38
volume chemicals most of these have not
00:01:40
been tested for safety so that's sort of
00:01:42
the bottom line but then you could say
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so what so they're manufactured they're
00:01:48
great they make all these products that
00:01:49
this little film showed but um the first
00:01:53
thing to realize is that they actually
00:01:56
get into our bodies which I don't think
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was realized at that time the
00:02:01
perspective is unlimited there are
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unlimited potentials yes if you forget
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your waste products and all of these uh
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chemicals that Leech from the products
00:02:15
all of the contaminates if you forget
00:02:17
that and that was the way we developed
00:02:19
the modern world we thought that
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everything is innocent until proven
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otherwise nobody would have thought that
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we would have over 200 different
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chemicals in our blood so because
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they're there does it mean that they're
00:02:32
causing toxicity but none of those
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chemicals belong there so where do they
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all come
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[Music]
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from chemicals began to share our daily
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lives incrusted in plastic in detergents
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and toasters concealed in our food in
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toys in shampoo they are invisible but
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everywhere including inside our own
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[Applause]
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bodies so you know I'm I'm old enough I
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watch this kind of thing and in fact uh
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when I was a child uh they would come
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down the streets spraying DDT to kill
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the bugs and as kids we would run behind
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it and think that was great to have this
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spray in in our face so
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the reason I say that is at that time
00:03:33
there was not an indication at all that
00:03:36
any of this
00:03:37
would produce bad products we can find
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chemicals in the body pretty much
00:03:43
everywhere we look um you can measure
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urine that's a very good way to do that
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you can look in the blood um you can
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look in the amniotic fluid of a pregnant
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woman you can look at the cord blood
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when the baby's born the meconium when
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the baby's born you can look in the
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breast pretty much everywhere we look we
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find measurable chemicals that come out
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of our environment and important thing
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is that they are
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silent modern Comfort flows through our
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veins under unknown B baric names
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members of the large family of
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pesticides Doro defol Tri chloroethane
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commonly known as DDT atrazine phalates
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bisol a parabens polybrominated defol
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ethers per fluro octanoic acid all this
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pollution perniciously intoxicates us
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every day within the privacy of our own
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homes with the infatuation
00:04:42
with modern
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products we see the uh demand for them
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and then the production of them and the
00:04:51
onslaught of these chemicals into our
00:04:53
lives I could ask you are you a smoker
00:04:57
are you do you drink alcohol and then
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would know some of your exposures but if
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I asked you are
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you consuming phalates or are you
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consuming bisf how would you know that
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[Music]
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[Music]
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we live in a chemical World chemicals
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have uses they are very useful that's
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why they are there the price we pay is
00:05:47
we are exposed there's only one way
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around this we need a a very rational
00:05:54
approach to balance
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better r risks to health and and
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usefulness raid here raid ra ra ra yes
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raid new bug killer Discovery from
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Johnson's Wax
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ainger get things clean just like a
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wh you start paying the elbow tax when
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you start cleaning with Ajax so a
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[Applause]
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our ordinary everyday lives are full of
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chemicals which escape from surrounding
00:06:40
objects some have a special
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characteristic they are capable of
00:06:44
hijacking our hormonal intimacy blocking
00:06:46
our hormones or imitating them and
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affecting their levels they are called
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endocrine
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disruptors an endocrine disrupting
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chemical is a chemical that in some
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interferes with the body's endocrine
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system so that's the system that
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produces uh regulates and uh deals with
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the body's many hormones like estrogen
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testosterone thyroid and so on and so an
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endocrine disruptor can interfere with
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either how much is produced how much is
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um sent where it's supposed to go if you
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will they're they're Messengers they
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carry information from one organ to the
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other
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natural hormones are produced by the
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endocrine
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system the hypothalamus the pineal and
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the pituitary glands in the brain the
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thyroid the
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thymus the adrenal glands the
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pancreas the ovaries in women and the
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testes in
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men adrenaline for instance is a hormone
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that helps to control stress a lack of
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insulin may cause diabetes hormones are
00:08:08
often highly potent
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so these messages and signals have to be
00:08:14
finely tuned it's like you know someone
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switches on a light and someone else has
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to switch it off again so all these
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reactions on off have to be very
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carefully
00:08:27
controlled and foreign chem chicals that
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interfere with this in some way um can
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have uh fairly drastic unwanted effects
00:08:36
on our health the body secretes the male
00:08:38
sexual hormone testosterone in precise
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amounts and at specific times no more no
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less than
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necessary a minute quantity is extremely
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[Music]
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effective but endocrine disruptors found
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in plas itics phalates for instance can
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dup the hormonal system and take over
00:09:04
its mechanisms by blocking testosterone
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[Music]
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action endocrine disruptors interfere
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with subtle hormonal Maneuvers the
00:09:19
result is like playing a chopan Sonata
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with a
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hammer the study of endocrine disruptors
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is focused on what can go wrong when you
00:09:34
introduce a hormonally active chemical
00:09:36
into the body a chemical that the body
00:09:39
was not designed evolutionarily to deal
00:09:43
with there is something wrong with the
00:09:46
way we humans act we don't see something
00:09:50
so we assume that it doesn't exist so
00:09:52
this chemical is good to make plastic so
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let's use it this chemical kills insects
00:09:58
so that is great
00:10:03
when we produce a chemical we are going
00:10:06
to test it for what we think we should
00:10:09
and if it's not in our imagination if it
00:10:12
doesn't cross our imagination we won't
00:10:14
do it there's a lot of established test
00:10:16
systems but with endocrine disruption we
00:10:19
have the problem that a lot of the
00:10:21
effects we are concerned about are not
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answered by the available test systems
00:10:27
when experiments and I mean
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epidemiological experiments
00:10:32
reveal relationships between a chemical
00:10:35
exposure and a
00:10:37
disease that was done in a way that you
00:10:39
could separate the population that was
00:10:42
exposed and the one that wasn't like for
00:10:45
example people that apply
00:10:48
pesticides in the fields versus people
00:10:50
that live in the
00:10:52
city but when you talk about Plastics
00:10:55
when you talk about things that are
00:10:57
present in everyone's urine in
00:11:01
everyone's blood then you don't have
00:11:04
that luxury because you cannot
00:11:07
distinguish a non-exposed population and
00:11:11
exposed population to conduct this human
00:11:13
studies it's this rapid adaptability
00:11:16
together with the attractiveness
00:11:17
usefulness and low cost of the plastic
00:11:20
itself that has made this industry one
00:11:22
of the fastest growing in the nation's
00:11:24
history
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what's it to
00:11:36
[Music]
00:11:45
you plastic chemistry's greatest Triumph
00:11:49
has gradually invaded our daily lives
00:11:52
its production over the last 10 years is
00:11:53
higher than that of the entire 20th
00:11:56
century but plastic contains several
00:11:58
types of endocrine
00:12:00
disruptors notoriously present in baby
00:12:02
bottles Bisal a has the unfortunate
00:12:06
drawback of imitating the female sexual
00:12:08
hormone
00:12:15
estrogen some studies were conducted by
00:12:17
the Center for Disease Control for
00:12:19
example that found that more than
00:12:22
92% of the urines that they analyze that
00:12:26
correspond to a profile of the American
00:12:29
population contained bisphenol a bisol a
00:12:35
is used to make polycarbonate plastic
00:12:37
and epoxy resins which are the
00:12:40
ingredients of printed circuits kitchen
00:12:42
rolls plastic dishes plugs floor
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coverings household electric appliances
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refrigerators washing machines
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microwaves mixers Hoovers dishwashers
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metal furniture cash desk tickets all
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sorts of tickets glues and adhesive
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water bottles Dental fillings food
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packaging car equipment plastic
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recipients of all kinds the inside
00:13:02
Coatings of tins and cans hair dryers
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protective glasses Sports helmets
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rackets skis garden tools cameras
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glasses DVDs cosmetic tubes water flasks
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irons televisions razes
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computers France has banned its use in
00:13:18
baby bottles the bottom line is that we
00:13:21
cannot measure exposure and outcome in
00:13:25
humans anymore because everyone is
00:13:27
exposed because everyone is exposed
00:13:30
through Lifetime and because we cannot
00:13:32
integrate the daily exposures through a
00:13:35
life to
00:13:36
know whether there is a correlation so
00:13:39
we have to rely in animal
00:13:45
studies no
00:13:52
no we expose animals in neutal as they
00:13:56
were developing as fetuses to my amounts
00:13:59
of bisphenol a then we follow all their
00:14:03
[Music]
00:14:11
development exposed to this chemical
00:14:13
estrogen baby mice display hyperactivity
00:14:16
and behavior
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[Music]
00:14:24
disorders then as they grow older become
00:14:26
obese and develop tumors of the mamory
00:14:29
glands and the prostate gland amongst
00:14:34
[Music]
00:14:37
others now we have all this evidence in
00:14:40
rats and mice that if you expose them to
00:14:43
bfol at
00:14:45
minute environmentally relevant doses
00:14:48
you increase the propensity and at
00:14:51
higher doses you really produce cancer
00:14:54
[Music]
00:15:01
the likelihood for a woman to develop
00:15:04
breast cancer in her whole lifetime has
00:15:08
increased from 1 in 22 in the 50s to 1
00:15:11
in s nowadays that is
00:15:14
three-fold so it can be done by
00:15:17
modifying our Gene composition obviously
00:15:20
this is a very short time it has to be
00:15:22
the environment people have asked for a
00:15:24
long time when are diseases due to
00:15:27
genetics or environment
00:15:30
and now we know that the answer is yes
00:15:34
it's due to both genetics and
00:15:36
environment so if we're going to
00:15:38
understand the ideology of diseases what
00:15:41
causes diseases we have to not just
00:15:44
understand the genetics part but we have
00:15:45
to understand the role of an environment
00:15:48
and environment really covers
00:15:51
environmental chemical exposures
00:15:53
nutrition stress drugs and infections
00:15:56
well we know that during development for
00:15:59
example there are times where the
00:16:01
developing organism is extremely
00:16:04
sensitive to different kinds of
00:16:06
chemicals exposure both natural
00:16:08
chemicals and synthetic chemicals so
00:16:10
while you might expose an adult to a
00:16:12
chemical and have no effect at all if
00:16:15
you expose an embryo or a fetus or an
00:16:18
infant in fact you might have an effect
00:16:21
it turns out we Now understand that the
00:16:24
most sensitive period for nutrition and
00:16:27
chemicals to have effects on disease is
00:16:29
really during development
00:16:32
[Music]
00:16:37
[Applause]
00:16:40
[Music]
00:17:23
[Applause]
00:17:25
the effects of chemicals are going to
00:17:27
depend on on the timing they're going to
00:17:30
depend on the dose and they're going to
00:17:32
depend on who's being exposed with an
00:17:35
environmental chemical just for a few
00:17:37
days they're in development then the
00:17:39
chemical is long gone but later in life
00:17:42
after a long latent period these
00:17:44
diseases show up so it's called the
00:17:47
developmental basis of disease because
00:17:50
we believe that almost all these
00:17:52
diseases that we have today have their
00:17:55
Origins during development at least that
00:17:58
is exact exactly what happens to mice
00:17:59
and rats when they are exposed to
00:18:01
endocrine disruptors during pregnancy
00:18:04
their progyny develop hyperactivity and
00:18:06
learning defects insulin resistance
00:18:09
weight gain in females tumors of the
00:18:12
mamory glands abnormal ovarian
00:18:14
pathologies in males prostate cancer
00:18:17
infertility genital abnormalities such
00:18:20
as the incomplete Descent of the testes
00:18:22
into the scrotum in humans too adult
00:18:25
diseases can be triggered in the
00:18:27
fetus since the cancer registry was
00:18:30
opened in Denmark in 1943 there had been
00:18:33
a 4 400% increase in the rate of
00:18:37
testicular cancer so that was an amazing
00:18:39
increase over one or two generation and
00:18:42
such an increase could only be due to
00:18:45
environmental problems there was a lot
00:18:47
of signs which suggested that testicular
00:18:50
cancer originated very early in life and
00:18:53
our hypothesis was that it originated in
00:18:57
futter life actually although it did not
00:19:00
manifest itself as a tumor in the test
00:19:02
until in
00:19:04
adulthood the hypothesis a feral origin
00:19:08
of testicular cancer has now received
00:19:10
support from really many studies from
00:19:12
all over the world and what what is also
00:19:15
apparent is that testicular cancer
00:19:17
development is associated with other
00:19:20
abnormalities other the testes and some
00:19:22
of these abnormalities will be apparent
00:19:24
just after birth for instance if the
00:19:26
test is has not developed fully normally
00:19:29
it may not descend it into the scrotum
00:19:31
at Birth or if the penis has not been
00:19:34
fully developed that may also been
00:19:37
increased risk of of test cancer so you
00:19:39
have a a group of of of symptoms or
00:19:43
diseases you could say that that go to
00:19:46
are associated and we we actually now
00:19:49
call this testicular D Genesis syndrome
00:19:52
this syndrome is not only increasing in
00:19:55
statistics it is linked with a
00:19:56
significant decrease in fertility by 1%
00:19:59
a year men are producing half as many
00:20:02
sperm as 50 years
00:20:05
ago it is low tied in the scrotums of
00:20:08
the modern
00:20:09
world so our hypothesis was that if you
00:20:13
had uh hormon from outside coming into
00:20:16
the testes and uh disturbing this
00:20:19
delicate balance which is in the
00:20:21
developing uh organs then that could
00:20:24
cause the same as genetic problems could
00:20:28
listen to the sounds of
00:20:31
[Applause]
00:20:35
freshness among the suspects some
00:20:38
pesticides imitate estrogens but there
00:20:40
are also some plastic ingredients that
00:20:42
have the regrettable habit of blocking
00:20:46
testosterone what has happened is that
00:20:48
through this research we have become
00:20:50
aware of new Pathways in our bodies and
00:20:54
new effects that weren't recognized
00:20:57
before a good examp example would be the
00:20:59
plasticizers the certain thades
00:21:02
they uh they turn out to interfere with
00:21:06
the action of um male sex hormones in
00:21:10
fetal life fat
00:21:13
lates are in
00:21:15
PVC shower
00:21:17
curtains plastic floorings and surfaces
00:21:21
mats detergents sprays water repellent
00:21:24
materials balloons food film Windows
00:21:29
glues and adhesives patterns on clothes
00:21:32
perfumes Cosmetics like lipstick and
00:21:35
nail
00:21:36
varnish medicines shampoo aftershave
00:21:40
hairsprays and gels gloves Zodiacs games
00:21:45
hospital equipment flip-flops bottles
00:21:48
sneakers Sho SES cables and wires
00:21:51
insecticides and even in water
00:21:54
hoses it turns out that the genital
00:21:58
tractor originally in the very very
00:22:01
early embryo is neutral it's sex
00:22:05
neutral and then there's development and
00:22:09
it differentiates and it differentiates
00:22:11
to the female or the male well the
00:22:15
female is the
00:22:16
default the this genital tract will be
00:22:19
female unless there is testosterone
00:22:22
present and so the amount of
00:22:24
testosterone and the timing of the
00:22:26
testosterone is absolutely critical for
00:22:28
setting up a whole series a whole
00:22:30
Cascade of changes which produce the
00:22:33
male typical
00:22:35
genitals if that testosterone is not
00:22:37
there or there's not enough of it or it
00:22:39
comes at the wrong time all of this
00:22:41
process can be disturbed and that's what
00:22:44
th's
00:22:46
do there was one measure that was
00:22:49
particularly important to the rodent
00:22:51
toxicologist so we we paid a lot of
00:22:53
attention to that and that's a something
00:22:55
called the anogenital distance the
00:22:58
distance from the anus to the genitals
00:23:00
in rodents the male anogenital distance
00:23:03
is twice as long as the female on the
00:23:06
average um and when the mother has been
00:23:09
exposed to phalates that male anog
00:23:12
gental distance is shortened the higher
00:23:14
the dose the shorter the anal distance
00:23:16
until it becomes close to the female
00:23:21
size we wondered whether that happened
00:23:23
in humans
00:23:25
[Music]
00:23:27
[Applause]
00:23:28
shaana Swan and her team measured the
00:23:30
levels of phets in more than 100
00:23:32
pregnant women then when the babies were
00:23:35
born she carefully examined the baby
00:23:37
boys in search of signs of
00:23:40
[Music]
00:23:46
feminization what we concluded was that
00:23:49
certain
00:23:51
phalates two in particular were
00:23:54
particularly uh
00:23:56
concerning our strong strongly related
00:23:59
to the inter gental distance and they
00:24:03
cause the boys who have this High
00:24:06
exposure to these thides have a less
00:24:09
male typical genital tract and genitalia
00:24:13
so they have shorter anogenital distance
00:24:16
they have smaller penises and their
00:24:18
testicles are more likely to be not
00:24:22
completely down in the scrotum so these
00:24:25
are three characteristics of the phite
00:24:27
syndrome three that we could look at
00:24:35
externally another family of endocrine
00:24:37
disruptors is suspected of having
00:24:39
effects on the brain and causing
00:24:41
dyslexia or memory and detention
00:24:43
disorders in children it is a family of
00:24:46
polybrominated defal ethers or pbdes
00:24:50
additives used to prevent
00:24:53
fire to respect fire safety standards
00:24:56
they were stuck into inflammable objects
00:24:58
and Plastics right back in the early
00:24:59
'70s
00:25:00
[Music]
00:25:07
pbde hide in fitted carpets and rugs
00:25:10
washing machines cookers hods toasters
00:25:13
refrigerators mixers irons dishwashers
00:25:18
microwaves mattresses and pillows radio
00:25:20
alarm clocks pipes tents Furniture
00:25:24
material and fillings couches curtains
00:25:27
office chairs printed circuits fax
00:25:30
machines computers printers the
00:25:32
packaging of all these objects light
00:25:34
bulbs plugs cables and wires batteries
00:25:36
car equipment car radios car batteries
00:25:40
ventilators hair dryers Hoovers hair
00:25:42
curlers or straighteners telephones
00:25:44
televisions remote controls DVD players
00:25:48
high-i radios etc
00:25:52
etc even in 1970 the levels of pbdes in
00:25:56
human either breast milk or blood were
00:25:59
essentially non-detect and that these
00:26:01
levels increased very rapidly between
00:26:05
1970 and say 2000 to our surprise the
00:26:10
major route of exposure to these
00:26:12
chemicals at least in America appears to
00:26:15
be related to their presence in dust
00:26:18
house dust office dust car
00:26:21
dust when we think DUS we wonder how is
00:26:25
it getting into people if it's in the
00:26:26
dust well little children children we
00:26:28
know are always putting their fingers in
00:26:30
their mouth and they're crawling around
00:26:31
on the floor but in fact dust gets into
00:26:35
adults as well and much of it has to do
00:26:38
with people consciously or not putting
00:26:41
their hands into their mouths there are
00:26:44
animal uh toxicity studies that
00:26:46
demonstrate that that various flame
00:26:48
rurin are neurotoxic so essentially we
00:26:51
have that um evidence but the problem is
00:26:54
that animal brains are less complex than
00:26:57
human brains brains and we're not sure
00:27:00
how to um translate that evidence into
00:27:05
risk assessment for humans the first
00:27:07
studies are have just are just being
00:27:09
reported about the effects of the pbdes
00:27:12
in the human population and what we're
00:27:15
seeing in many cases mirror almost
00:27:18
exactly the kinds of effects that we see
00:27:21
in the animals so I think it is
00:27:23
reasonable to assume that the animal
00:27:25
data is at least predict Ive or
00:27:29
certainly suggestive of what may happen
00:27:30
in people after all we are a kind of
00:27:36
animal many modern Plastics however are
00:27:39
fire resistant one of the numerous
00:27:41
improvements science has made in plastic
00:27:44
articles it is going to take many many
00:27:46
years to get better
00:27:48
evidence should we just wait and in the
00:27:50
meantime we just expose the children to
00:27:53
all all of these chemicals and then uh
00:27:56
maybe we'll come back many years from
00:27:58
now and find out that some of them were
00:28:01
just as bad as
00:28:03
lead the extreme toxicity of lead didn't
00:28:06
prevent its presence in our petrol for
00:28:08
60 years the only pretext being that the
00:28:11
proof was not
00:28:12
irrefutable but research takes time and
00:28:16
scientists are not pizza delivery
00:28:18
[Music]
00:28:20
men this model shows how just the right
00:28:23
amount of fluid containing tetraethyl
00:28:25
lead and dye is added to the
00:28:39
gasoline with lead it took decades to
00:28:42
document that children were suffering
00:28:46
from U adverse effects on brain
00:28:49
development they were losing IQ points
00:28:52
uh losing um various skills memory Etc
00:28:56
and it took de Ates for us to get that
00:28:59
information and only now do we realize
00:29:04
that lead is so toxic that essentially
00:29:07
everybody in France everybody in Europe
00:29:10
has a lead exposure that we cannot call
00:29:13
Safe even
00:29:15
today it's essentially a whole
00:29:17
generation of children whose brains have
00:29:21
been negatively affected so all of these
00:29:25
people who were born like in the 1960s
00:29:27
and 19 7s were to some degree affected
00:29:32
by this
00:29:33
[Music]
00:29:41
[Applause]
00:29:43
pollution do we want this to happen
00:29:45
again I would say no therefore we have
00:29:49
to find a way to make responsible
00:29:53
decisions in this regard on an uncertain
00:29:56
basis science is never
00:29:58
100% certain you always have to make
00:30:00
decisions in the face of some
00:30:02
uncertainty but it's important not to
00:30:05
require 100% certainty before we move
00:30:07
ahead and I do think that scientists are
00:30:10
citizens and have a responsibility to
00:30:13
convey the results of their
00:30:16
understanding to other
00:30:20
people when you develop a brain that is
00:30:24
a brain you will have for the rest of
00:30:26
your life you can had only one chance to
00:30:29
develop your
00:30:31
brain here is a recipe for concocting a
00:30:34
contemporary
00:30:35
disease marinate a group of endocrine
00:30:38
disruptors in amniotic liquid of the 50s
00:30:40
and 60s and when these children of the
00:30:42
synthetic age reach adulthood note the
00:30:45
increase of problems in public health
00:30:47
statistics of obesity for
00:30:54
example for obesity the critical fact
00:30:59
are how much you eat and how much you
00:31:02
exercise and and of course that's really
00:31:05
important because that determines your
00:31:08
energy balance but we think that there's
00:31:11
more to it get
00:31:18
set people try so hard to lose weight
00:31:21
and 95% of people who lose weight within
00:31:23
a year gain it back so that tells us
00:31:27
something and it's it's telling us that
00:31:29
there's some kind of a set
00:31:32
point and if there's a set point that
00:31:35
would have to be programmed in during
00:31:37
development the whole system is under a
00:31:40
very tight control of of hormones that
00:31:43
are telling the body how many fat cells
00:31:46
to make and exactly when to make them so
00:31:48
if you get an environmental chemical to
00:31:51
come in and it can stimulate that
00:31:54
pathway when it shouldn't be stimulated
00:31:57
and therefore cause you to have more fat
00:32:00
cells and because that's happening
00:32:02
during development when the fat cells
00:32:04
are being made then that effect is
00:32:07
actually permanent
00:32:14
[Music]
00:32:24
[Music]
00:32:34
so the chemical is long gone but the
00:32:37
effect of that chemical lasts
00:32:42
forever we think what's happening is
00:32:44
that the endocrine disruptors are
00:32:45
actually stimulating the pathway to make
00:32:49
stem cells become fat cells so then you
00:32:53
have more fat cells and if you have more
00:32:55
fat cells they tend to want to be filled
00:32:58
up with
00:32:59
fat about 10 chemicals can make rats and
00:33:01
mice obese even at low doses several
00:33:05
pesticides bisphenol a and pero octanoic
00:33:09
Acid found in
00:33:11
Teflon so far there's actually quite a
00:33:14
small list because this whole field is
00:33:16
only about 5 years old but it looks like
00:33:20
every time you increase the female
00:33:23
hormone estrogen during development that
00:33:26
that Sensi es you for
00:33:39
obesity this is where the destiny of a
00:33:41
human being differs from that of the
00:33:43
laboratory rat we are indeed exposed to
00:33:46
endocrine disruptors imitating estrogens
00:33:49
blocking testosterone or disturbing
00:33:52
thyroid hormones at low doses but this
00:33:54
happens every single day of Our Lives
00:33:57
and above all at the same time a modern
00:34:00
style cocktail with no nice intoxicating
00:34:10
[Applause]
00:34:12
effect we are not exposed to One agent
00:34:15
at a time you and I we are exposed every
00:34:18
day
00:34:20
to 5,000 of chemicals certainly hundreds
00:34:24
of chemicals and and some of those will
00:34:27
will act in concert some of those may
00:34:30
not may may actually counteract each
00:34:32
other so it is extremely complicated
00:34:35
research question we're all exposed to a
00:34:39
cocktail however when we identify a
00:34:42
specific chemical that causes a problem
00:34:44
we need to understand not only how that
00:34:47
can affect us in isolation but how it
00:34:50
affects us in the presence of many other
00:34:52
chemicals so scientists are doing
00:34:54
studies now where they are looking at
00:34:56
mixtures of chemical
00:34:58
and trying to understand what they will
00:35:01
do and in many
00:35:03
cases when we are at environmentally
00:35:05
relevant doses we find that the effects
00:35:08
of chemicals appear to act in an
00:35:10
additive F fashion toxicology has the
00:35:13
tendency to evaluate the effects of
00:35:15
chemicals in isolation a single chemical
00:35:18
certain effects and for a long time it
00:35:21
has been neglected to ask the question
00:35:24
what happens when many chemicals work
00:35:26
together and this is where we uh uh made
00:35:29
a contribution and now it turns out that
00:35:33
it is possible that uh very low doses of
00:35:37
chemicals many chemicals together can
00:35:40
still have a pronounced
00:35:46
[Music]
00:35:50
effect in his laboratory Andrea Corton
00:35:53
Camp take such minute doses of endocrine
00:35:56
disruptors that they have no no effect
00:35:58
in a test tube or on baby
00:36:02
rats then he prepares a cocktail of
00:36:04
chemicals that block testosterone let's
00:36:07
say one phalate two pesticides and one
00:36:11
[Music]
00:36:13
drug and then these supposedly harmless
00:36:17
doses reduce the anogenital distance and
00:36:20
cause penis and test Mal formation
00:36:30
[Music]
00:36:39
now my colleague ER gray has called this
00:36:41
the new mathematics 0 plus 0 plus 0 is
00:36:46
something and
00:36:48
uh it is not really new mathematics but
00:36:51
it it itap encapsulates this uh this
00:36:55
quite nicely and quite provocatively
00:36:57
what it tells you is that if the effects
00:37:02
of combinations are ignored then we are
00:37:06
in danger of of making wrong assumptions
00:37:08
about real existing risks I feel many
00:37:11
people when they hear about mixtures
00:37:13
they uh bury their heads in their hands
00:37:17
and say oh this is too complicated too
00:37:19
many chemicals we don't know where to
00:37:21
start but I think we are now in a
00:37:24
position where we can bring back some
00:37:26
order in into this seeming chaos by
00:37:31
saying many of these effects are
00:37:33
predictable and also now we have the
00:37:35
tools to highlight chemicals that
00:37:38
contribute very much to to a mixture
00:37:40
effect the implications of our work for
00:37:43
for regulation and risk assessment is is
00:37:46
quite important there's no doubt that
00:37:49
when you take mixture effects into
00:37:51
consideration risk estimates will will
00:37:54
go up
00:38:04
I think all the data in animals and the
00:38:06
data we have in humans is is leading us
00:38:09
to believe that this is going to be a
00:38:11
significant problem in in human health
00:38:13
if it happens in mice and it happens in
00:38:16
rats and it happens in monkeys guess
00:38:24
what it will happen in humans most
00:38:27
likely
00:38:30
[Music]
00:38:41
the work that I've been doing and my
00:38:42
colleagues have been doing now
00:38:45
for 20 years I would say um his uh
00:38:51
finding more and more evidence that they
00:38:53
do have effects on our bodies and
00:38:56
particularly on The Unborn and fetus uh
00:38:58
significant effects that may be seem to
00:39:01
be related to a number of pretty
00:39:04
alarming Trends uh in
00:39:07
health in rich countries over the last
00:39:09
50 years these Trends in humans are
00:39:11
indeed alarming abnormalities of the
00:39:14
male genital tract have doubled test
00:39:16
cancer has become the first cancer
00:39:18
amongst young men fertility has
00:39:20
decreased by 50% prostate cancer is four
00:39:23
times higher on the women's side it's
00:39:26
not just breast cancer
00:39:28
the onset of puberty appears at around
00:39:29
eight or nine in Young American girls in
00:39:32
adults the polycystic ovary syndrome
00:39:35
endometriosis and miscarriages have
00:39:37
caused a raise infertility problems one
00:39:40
European child out of five and more than
00:39:42
one adult out of 10 is obese diabetes
00:39:45
increases by 5% every
00:39:47
year there are also cardiovascular
00:39:49
diseases immune system alterations
00:39:52
asthma and thyroid problems not to
00:39:54
mention hyperactivity learning defects
00:39:57
and behavior disorders that seem to be
00:39:59
increasing in children in other words
00:40:02
pretty much the same diseases as those
00:40:04
of laboratory animals exposed to
00:40:06
endocrine
00:40:10
disruptors I believe there is now
00:40:12
sufficient scientific evidence to uh to
00:40:16
move into taking action or considering
00:40:19
how how we should uh take account of
00:40:22
mixture effects and probably reform some
00:40:25
decision-making procedures it's a very
00:40:27
serious problem that we created and we
00:40:29
have to deal with so I think once all
00:40:33
this is said the Europeans came up with
00:40:35
the precautionary principle that is a
00:40:37
wonderful tool so why on Earth don't we
00:40:40
use it why don't we use
00:40:44
it accepting Denmark which has published
00:40:47
a guide for the information of pregnant
00:40:49
women public authorities are not really
00:40:51
reactive or even talkative about this
00:40:53
question so people have to sort things
00:40:55
out for themselves with Ms of
00:40:58
information it's impossible to be sure
00:41:00
if there are phalates in your holiday
00:41:01
flipflops bisphenol a in your razor or
00:41:04
pbd in the remote control of your TV and
00:41:07
when labels do exist they are minute and
00:41:10
incomprehensible for the average
00:41:13
person it's a constant struggle now for
00:41:16
us to try to figure out where these
00:41:18
things all are so we can get the word
00:41:21
out to help reduce the exposure
00:41:31
so what I do and what I recommend to
00:41:34
people is that to the extent you can eat
00:41:38
unprocessed
00:41:40
food it fits nicely with the message to
00:41:44
eat simply eat locally go to your
00:41:46
farmers's Market uh eat organically
00:41:49
actually phalates are in pesticides as
00:41:51
well um and
00:41:55
um then not to bring things into your
00:41:58
house uh that you don't actually
00:42:01
need um so do you really need all these
00:42:04
gadgets all this plastic all this
00:42:05
polyvinyl can you buy a wooden toy
00:42:08
instead of a a plastic toy we should be
00:42:11
careful with a plastic tubing and with
00:42:15
using uh fresh vegetables instead of
00:42:17
canned vegetables never microwaving
00:42:20
anything in
00:42:22
plastic things of that sort are simple
00:42:25
to use and there are websites now that
00:42:28
you can go to and and they will tell you
00:42:30
which cosmetics and which lotions and
00:42:33
things are are low in the kind of
00:42:34
chemicals that we think are endocrine
00:42:36
disrupting chemicals I would
00:42:38
particularly uh recommend that uh women
00:42:41
young women that intend to become
00:42:43
pregnant or in pregnant women that they
00:42:46
they should read as much as they can
00:42:48
about these things so they can avoid for
00:42:51
instance uh Cosmetics uh if I I was a
00:42:54
pregnant woman I'm not sure I would use
00:42:57
Cosmetics you and I could do a lot to
00:42:59
avoid some chemicals perhaps by getting
00:43:03
information about uh the products we eat
00:43:06
and uh you could get information about
00:43:09
cosmetics and so forth but we cannot
00:43:12
totally avoid getting these chemicals
00:43:14
into us because food is probably a major
00:43:18
source of chemicals for us that's very
00:43:21
surprising to people they say well how
00:43:23
could plastic be in our food
00:43:32
[Music]
00:43:36
any material that comes in contact with
00:43:39
food in the processing of the food in
00:43:41
the packaging of the food in the
00:43:43
shipping and the storage and the cooking
00:43:45
any product that contains PVC will allow
00:43:49
the food to pull off some of that PVC we
00:43:52
don't know exactly where this happens
00:43:54
but we do know by measuring food as has
00:43:57
been done in a number of studies that is
00:43:58
in there in British television they they
00:44:02
have made some experiments they looked
00:44:05
at measured certain chemicals in uh um
00:44:09
people who eat organic food and live a
00:44:12
very healthy life and compared this with
00:44:14
the people in urban situations and very
00:44:18
much to the shock of the people who eat
00:44:20
organic food that were higher in in the
00:44:23
levels of certain chemicals in their
00:44:25
blood they were very fr frustrated and
00:44:27
de
00:44:29
devastated how can this be this is
00:44:32
because there's certain exposure Roots
00:44:35
which we cannot control through
00:44:37
individual decision making
00:44:42
[Music]
00:44:46
[Applause]
00:44:56
[Music]
00:45:00
even with the greatest will in the world
00:45:02
we can't totally protect ourselves from
00:45:04
the great chemical Invasion unless we
00:45:07
decide to return to Our Roots and to our
00:45:08
caves or to become part of an Amish
00:45:11
community in the
00:45:15
USA we have studied a community near
00:45:19
here they don't use any plastic and they
00:45:22
grow their own food they don't actually
00:45:24
drive cars either we they're also thetes
00:45:26
and cars
00:45:27
um and they have very low levels of
00:45:29
phalates and bisphenol a one woman had a
00:45:31
higher level of one phalate because she
00:45:33
used hairspray even though it wasn't
00:45:35
really what she was supposed to be doing
00:45:37
we saw that in her in her urine um they
00:45:41
don't generally drive cars but the two
00:45:43
women that reported they had driven in
00:45:44
cars recently had higher levels of
00:45:46
someth so um we know that you can if you
00:45:51
went to extremes uh you know eliminate
00:45:55
these these are not permanent these are
00:45:56
not persistent chemicals they not like
00:45:58
DDT there's no way individual avoidance
00:46:03
action will not protect you from
00:46:05
exposure to these chemicals and that is
00:46:08
why it is so important that we need that
00:46:11
that we have concerted protective
00:46:14
political regulatory action it is not
00:46:17
possible without we try to work as
00:46:19
closely as we can with regulatory
00:46:21
agencies to produce the best data that
00:46:24
will be useful to them
00:46:27
but we don't have an ability to tell
00:46:31
them what to do it is often very
00:46:34
frustrating to see how little impact on
00:46:38
political or regulatory action a lot of
00:46:40
scientific work has
00:46:42
had this is true for the area I work in
00:46:46
which is the health impact of uh
00:46:50
chemicals um but it is also true say for
00:46:53
for other areas global warming climate
00:46:58
scientists um for years what they've
00:47:01
said had zero impact on political action
00:47:05
in an Ideal World we would have never
00:47:06
got to where we are today and I think we
00:47:09
got here because we just let industry
00:47:12
put out chemicals without proper testing
00:47:15
just to think that we can
00:47:19
have 200 types of detergent I I don't
00:47:22
think it's good I think that yeah from
00:47:24
the economical Viewpoint if I want to
00:47:26
make my
00:47:27
wealth or my life uh selling detergent I
00:47:32
will have to make a detergent that is
00:47:34
different from the one that Joe next
00:47:35
door is selling right but how does it
00:47:39
compare I mean my right to
00:47:42
make a dollar or to make a an euro with
00:47:47
the right of other people not to be uh
00:47:50
intoxicated so we have to decide certain
00:47:52
things that are basic rights it is not
00:47:56
helpful to enter this dialogue by saying
00:48:01
industrialists are vicious or personally
00:48:04
bad or saying the same to regulat us it
00:48:09
is the system hello I'm Mr Money
00:48:16
[Music]
00:48:17
[Applause]
00:48:20
[Music]
00:48:25
[Applause]
00:48:27
[Music]
00:48:35
I'm Mr money now it is understandable
00:48:39
that when we come along as scientists
00:48:41
and say excuse me we think you should
00:48:43
abandon production of this kind of
00:48:46
chemical uh we will not be welcomed with
00:48:49
open arms everyone can see this I'm a
00:48:52
little concerned that we are just
00:48:54
actively getting us to Extinction
00:48:56
because of the things we do in our
00:48:59
arrogance and it's a very bad
00:49:00
combination being arrogant and
00:49:03
ignorant yes chemistry has changed the
00:49:06
world we live
00:49:10
in if I developed a protocol and I would
00:49:15
expose pregnant women and small children
00:49:19
to small doses of pesticides the doses
00:49:22
that you would get in in food or if you
00:49:25
live nearby fields that are being
00:49:28
sprayed and the drinking water is uh
00:49:30
polluted a little bit um and I went to
00:49:34
the my University ethical Review
00:49:38
Committee and asked them please can I do
00:49:42
this
00:49:43
experiment they would say you're
00:49:46
crazy you cannot expose pregnant women
00:49:50
and little children to those sorts of
00:49:53
substances because there's a whisk
00:49:55
involved these substances may be
00:49:58
neurotoxic and my problem is this is
00:50:01
what's happening
00:50:03
already and therefore I think the only
00:50:06
conclusion is that we are
00:50:09
actually uh committing something
00:50:12
unethical this experiment that we are um
00:50:16
you know part of essentially is
00:50:19
unethical it takes a determination of a
00:50:21
society to make this change um I think I
00:50:25
have confidence that we can do this but
00:50:27
it's going to take everyone
00:50:29
understanding why the old way isn't
00:50:31
working
00:50:33
anymore it is a major change
00:50:37
yeah in this new world of industrial
00:50:40
chemistry The Horizon is unlimited
00:50:44
unexplored potentialities backing hidden
00:50:47
secrets of nature sound a call to this
00:50:50
young man the industrial chemist the
00:50:53
pioneer of tomorrow
00:50:57
a
00:51:01
[Music]
00:51:26
n
00:51:31
[Music]
00:51:41
[Applause]
00:51:44
[Music]
