BRUSSELS, Belgium, September 21, 2006 (ENS) - Traces of potentially harmful synthetic chemicals are in a wide array of food across Europe, including butter, milk, Scottish salmon, Greek cheese, Spanish ham and Italian salami. The report from WWF said the findings illustrate the pervasiveness of industrial chemicals and underscores the need for tighter chemical regulation.

"It is shocking to see that even a healthy diet leads to the daily uptake of so many contaminants," said Sandra Jen, director of WWF's DetoX Campaign. "Breaking this global chain of contamination will require a strong commitment from EU politicians to human health and the environment."

WWF found traces of manmade chemicals in every one of 27 food items tested, including dairy products, meat, fish, bread, honey and olive oil. The samples were purchased in supermarkets in seven EU countries - the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Finland and Poland.

The samples were analyzed for eight different groups of man-made chemicals - organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated chemicals, phthalates, organotins, alkylphenols and artificial musks.

The findings ranged from phthalates in olive oil, cheeses and meats, organochlorine pesticides in fish and reindeer meat, artificial musks and organotins in fish, and flame retardants in meats and cheeses.

PCBs were found in all samples analyzed and a metabolite of DDT was found in 16 of 27 samples. Brominated flame retardants were found in 19 of 26 samples, with the highest concentrations in meat and phthalates were found in 16 of 21 samples.

Although people will not necessarily become ill by eating these food items, the report said, there are serious concerns about the potential effects of long-term, low levels exposure to chemicals in the diet, especially on the developing foetus, infants and young children. And it is not so much the exposure to low levels of one pollutant that raises health concerns, but rather exposure to a mixture of chemicals.

"Nowhere near enough is known about the long term effects of exposure to multiple chemical contaminants," said Paul King, director of campaigns for WWF-UK. "While each item of food we tested is probably safe to eat on its own, taken together over long periods of time the food we eat contributes significantly to our body burden of chemicals."

Food is one of the most important routes for human exposure to pollutants, the report said, and this is particularly true for chemicals that persist and accumulate in the environment, such as DDT, PCBs and brominated flame retardants.

"Being at the top of the food chain, humans are particularly exposed to chemicals in food," said Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson, coordinator of CASCADE, a European network focusing on endocrine disrupting chemicals in food, and who is supporting the WWF report. "As some of these chemicals are similar to hormones, they interfere with our endocrine system and may be a risk factor for diseases like obesity, different forms of cancer and diabetes as well as reduced fertility."

The report shows that food is a crucial link in "a global chain of contamination," WWF said, and echoes findings of chemical contamination in wildlife and the environment.

"Many creatures at the top of the food chain are seeing these sorts of chemicals build up in their bodies," King said. "We have seen stark evidence of the levels of contaminants in arctic predators, like polar bears and killer whales."

The report said that chemicals also enter the environment in many other ways - as a result of leakages during manufacture; transport or storage, direct applications, and a wide variety of uses in products such as computers, TVs and toiletries.

WWF said the report demonstrates the need for stricter chemical regulation and the group is urging the European Union to adopt stronger rules, including requirements for chemical manufacturers to provide regulators with safety data on chemicals and a provision to replace the most hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives whenever available.

The upcoming decisions on the chemical legislation, known as REACH, "offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to tackle the problem of food chain contamination by driving the substitution of persistent, bioaccumulative and endocrine disrupting chemicals with safer alternatives."

The European Parliament is set to vote on the REACH plan this fall.