DEMOCOPHES: environmental contaminant burden in mothers and children in Berne, Switzerland

In the framework of the European human biomonitoring (HBM) study DEMOCOPHES, cadmium, mercury and metabolites of different phthalates were not found at levels likely not to pose a public health risk. The Federal Office for public Health in Switzerland had evaluated hair and urine samples of 120 mother and child pairs for contaminants such as mercury, cadmium, cotinine (a metabolite of nicotine in tobacco) and metabolites of phthalates, which are used as plasticizers in food packaging.  However, BAG states that the sample was not representative for the Swiss population.