Environmental Toxins Key Clinical Messages What is the Environmental Toxins Test? Vibrant’s Environmental Toxins test measures urinary excretion of environmental toxins, providing insight into environmental toxin exposure. Environmental toxins are ubiquitous. In 1994, the US released over 2 billion pounds of environmental toxins, which grew to nearly 5 billion pounds in 2002¹. While the US released 3 billion pounds of chemicals in 2020, this represents a 27% decrease since 2011.² The decrease is attributed to 34% reduction in air pollution from 2011 to 2020, driven by reduced air emissions from electric utilities.² The EPA inventory contains roughly 84,000 chemical substances that are in commerce, many of which have limited testing for their effects on humans or the environment³. Chemicals no longer authorized for use in the U.S. (e.g., DDT) continue to persist in the environment as persistent organic pollutants. Although the EPA is working to decrease levels, environmental toxins remain a serious problem.
Why Order the Environmental Toxins Test? Toxin exposures have been associated with several medical conditions and diseases. Individual risk varies based on the quantity of toxicant exposure, exposure time, genetic susceptibility, synergistic effects with other toxicants, and factors that influence detoxification pathways. Common areas of concern include cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, immune dysfunction, developmental disorders, negative reproductive effects, hormonal imbalances, and a host of relevant symptoms and negative health outcomes. It is believed that most people are dealing with a toxic burden at some level—it’s just a matter of how much that toxic burden is contributing to somebody’s current symptoms or disease state. Understanding the potential risks associated with environmental toxins allows individuals to be proactive with their health. Here are the basic steps to reduce toxin burden. Step 1: Identify exposure Step 2: Reduce exposure Step 3: Support biotransformation and detoxification pathways Step 4: Support excretion pathways *Steps 3 and 4 may be done simultaneously. Or in the event of impaired excretion, excretion pathways should be supported prior to biotransformation and detoxification
References: 1. Liska, PhD, D., Lyon, MD, M. and Jones, MD, D., 2010. Textbook of functional medicine. Gig Harbor, WA.: Institute for Functional Medicine, pp.275-294. 2. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2020 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) National Analysis. Available from: https://awsgispub.epa.gov/trina2020/execsum/#releases 3. Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine. Identifying and Reducing Environmental Health Risks of Chemicals in Our Society: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2014 Oct 2. 2, The Challenge: Chemicals in Today’s Society. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK268889/