Researchers tested 33 volunteers from seven families, each spanning three generations. Surprisingly, the children had more hazardous chemicals in their blood than the older generations. In its report, Contaminated: the next generation, the WWF says there were 75 different chemicals in children compared with 56 in the grandparents.
Over half the children tested positive for brominated flame-retardants, used in electrical appliances. All volunteers showed evidence of the industrial chemicals PCBs and DDE, a byproduct of the pesticide DDT which was banned in the UK a decade before the children were born.
Justin Woolford, WWF chemicals and health campaign director, said, 'These results are a wake-up call to the Government to ensure that these chemicals are banned and replaced with safer alternatives.'
