– For us, it’s about using common sense and going back a bit to naturopathy, says Silje Kristiansen Sekse. When she had her first child three years ago, she suddenly became more aware of what she, her husband and daughter ate and surrounded themselves with. She wanted to avoid the family ingesting too many environmental toxins. – We took small steps, such as eating more raw materials and using metal lunch boxes, says the mother of two. Last week, FHI was able to announce that children and young people have many environmental toxins in their bodies. Sekse has taken some simple measures in the hope of reducing environmental toxins. Eating more raw materials and using wooden felts rather than plastic felts are some of the things she does. Photo: Tale Hauso / news Little you can do yourself The various environmental toxins are harmful to health and can, among other things, affect the immune system and the ability to reproduce. Social media abounds with tips and well-intentioned advice on how to avoid getting environmental toxins into the body. But how good this advice actually is, there is little research into it, says senior researcher at FHI, Line Småstuen Haug. Line Småstuen Haug researches environmental toxins at FHI. Photo: Private – There is simply little you as a consumer can do to avoid ingesting environmental toxins. This was shown by the investigation by FHI Children and young people have many environmental toxins in their bodies. A large proportion have higher levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), than what is considered safe. Almost all (99.6%) of the 669 children in the survey had a level that exceeded what is considered safe for BPA, and for PFAS the figure was close to a third (28.6%). The substance accumulates in the body over time, because they are excreted slowly. An example of this is PFAS, which FHI is particularly concerned about. The collection was done in 2016–2017. The Environmental Biobank at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health collected urine and blood samples from children and young people living in different parts of Norway. Getting it through the food Haug explains that many environmental toxins get me mostly through the food. It is difficult to say which foods one should stay away from because environmental toxins are often found in many types of food. Environmental toxins often end up in food because they have been released into nature. One example Haug highlights is that the environmental toxin PFAS has been used in firefighting foam at airports and the substance has then leaked into the environment and even onto the vegetables in the nearby fields. She believes that stricter national and international rules are the best solution if you want to reduce the amount of toxins in your body. – By banning the substance, you prevent us from releasing more of the substance into nature. Then there will also be less of them in our food, says Haug. Another measure could be to introduce limit values for foodstuffs and drinking water. A little research on metal versus plastic Some of the tips that Sekse has used, among others, is to use lunch boxes and drink bottles made of metal, rather than plastic. In addition, there are many who write that one should avoid clothing with Goretex or frying food in pans with a Teflon coating. There is little research there, says Haug. – There is no good documentation that it helps to avoid these products. There is too little research on it so far, so I cannot say that it will not be of importance. The children of Silje Kristiansen Sekse have metal lunch boxes. Photo: Tale Hauso / news It is difficult to know what is right. Haug is nevertheless clear that it is not stupid to use metal lunch boxes or certified, Swan-labelled products. She says that if we use as few products as possible that contain environmental toxins, then in the long term we will release fewer environmental toxins into nature. This will in turn lead to us taking in less through food. – But it is not easy for consumers to know which product contains which chemicals. It also applies to me, even though I have worked with this for many years. It is very difficult. Silje Kristiansen Sekse says it can be difficult to deal with all the information you get about various dangers. – I think you have to do what you yourself think is sensible. It is difficult to cut out everything that is or could be dangerous. Now you know that plastic is not good, and then it’s okay to replace it with something else anyway, she says.
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Children and young people have environmental toxins and plastic in their bodies – there is little you can do about it – news Vestland
