“We have already started taking samples, we have samples from the first 52 children, and more will gradually be added,” Andrea Krsková from the Center for Health and the Environment of SZÚ, who leads the domestic project, told Novinkám.
Chemicals enter the body daily – through inhalation, food, through the skin. While in adults, scientists detect them in blood and urine, in children they analyze urine and hair samples.
Primary schools from Prague, Karvinsk, Pilsen, Vysočina and South Moravia were selected for this purpose, from which a total of two hundred pupils from 6 to 11 years of age will participate. With the permission of the parents, the researchers will take samples of their hair, on which they will monitor the presence of mercury, and in the urine they are interested in traces of bisphenols, phthalates, pesticides and other toxic substances.
Everyone comes into contact with bisphenols, for example on receipts. The problem is that the level of harm is difficult to determine. According to Krsková, it depends on how long a person is exposed to the substance and what its current amount is in the body.
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However, the impact on health can be significant. “The most famous of the bisphenols is the so-called bisphenol A, the presence of which has already been banned in baby bottles by the European Union,” Krsková described.
“Its danger lies in the fact that it can mimic the functions of hormones in the body and, as a result, disrupt the body’s own hormonal system. They can also affect the nervous system, which can affect hyperactivity in children,” explained the scientist.
Contact with phthalates is even more intense. They appear in toys, vinyl floor coverings, food packaging or even in soft plastic sports equipment. Excessive exposure to some phthalates contributes to the development of obesity, asthma or insulin resistance.
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The two-year research is part of the European project PARC (Partnership for the Assessment of the Risks of Chemical Substances), in which 28 other countries are involved. How the Czechs are doing will become clear after 2026, when the states will stop collecting data. The effect of seasonality or people’s lifestyle will also be taken into account.
“In general, this European project is intended to support a joint strategy of zero pollution, which also applies to our republic. We hope that if we detect elevated values for any of the monitored substances, it will subsequently be possible to evaluate and possibly set measures to reduce exposure for the population in the given area,” explained Krsková.
In later years, there is a noticeable decrease in the presence of lead in the blood of children and adults.
That this is a best practice has been proven several times in the past. Some toxic substances have been monitored by the SZÚ in children and adults for thirty years.
The effect of properly targeted measures will become apparent only after years, but the benefit is evident. This can be seen in the ban on the lead component in gasoline, which took place in the Czech Republic in 2000. “In later years, there is a noticeable decrease in the presence of lead in the blood of children and adults,” pointed out Andrea Krsková.
While in 1995, adult blood lead levels were at 48, twenty years later it is just sixteen micrograms per liter.
The ban on the use of chlorinated pesticides in the 1970s had a similar development. “We have been monitoring their presence in breast milk for a long time, and even there we can see their significant decrease over the years. These substances are bound to a person’s fat tissue and are excreted slowly from the body, the decrease is gradual,” she explained.
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Tags: Receipts packaging Scientists investigating toxic substances Czechs bodies
