What to do with white hair An analysis of the hair of 26 socialist senators brings to light a worrying cocktail of poisons: mercury, pesticides, plasticizers, but also rare earths, i.e. metals used in smartphones and other high-tech objects, were found. In July 2022, elected officials entrusted a lock of hair to the private and independent laboratory tocSeek, which analyzed 1,800 organic pollutants and 49 metals. The results were released on Tuesday, June 27th.

“It is a warning we send”decodes the Senator of Lot, Angèle Préville, who initiated this study. “If it’s in our hair, it means we’re infected”, adds the politician-elect, who is very committed to the environment, especially against plastic pollution. The one in which the lowest levels of pollutants were found is selected.

“Significant contamination” with rare earths

Analysis revealed the presence of rare earth elements (lanthanides) in 93% of the Senators, more than the lab’s control population. Rare earths are metals and metal compounds used in the manufacture of high-tech items that have invaded our daily lives: smartphone chips, laptop screens, batteries for electric and hybrid cars, LEDs… This prevalence is likely larger than the general population According to tocSeek, this is due to the extensive and regular use of communications by elected officials.

Seven senators have commented on these rare earths “Significant contamination”, including Yan Chantrel, who represents the French living outside France, in this case Canada. After changing his habits—turning off Wi-Fi at night and no longer using his phone as an alarm clock—he agreed to be tested again next fall. Two of his colleagues reported symptoms that could be related to an intolerance to magnetic fields (severe tiredness). , headaches, etc.). But the senator insists they are public health issues “Fully Integrated” in environmental policy. “This calls into question our society’s modes of production and consumption, which ultimately create new diseases”he warns.

Unsurprisingly, all Senators tested found mercury, that heavy metal found notably in dental amalgams or certain fish. Also, they are all “contaminated” with at least one pesticide. 45 different products (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides) were identified, including a pesticide that has been banned in Europe since 2008, carbofuran. Finally, the plasticizer “di-n-octylphthalate” (DNOP) was detected in 69% of the elected representatives. Plasticizers are used to add flexibility to plastics.

“Our way of life affects our quality of health”

“Our way of life affects our health quality, that’s clear”states the leader of the socialist group, Patrick Kanner, who is one of the tested senators. “When I’m in Paris, I eat outside morning, noon and night and have no control over what I eat.”testifies the Northern senator, who combines rare earths, mercury, pesticides, phthalates – chemicals used as plasticizers – and parabens – a preservative used primarily in cosmetics.

For Matthieu Davoli, co-founder of the tocSeek group, the results are rare earth except “corresponds very well to what we normally see” in the population. This shows an exposure “repeatedly and regularly” for harmful substances in food and cosmetic or hygiene products. That’s what he points out“Long-term contamination can induce endocrine disruption and lead to chronic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer…”

The National Assembly is no exception. On Wednesday, deputy ecologist Nicolas Thierry will present to the press the results of an analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS), better known as “perennial pollutants”, carried out in the hair of 14 MEPs. Already in 2017, seven personalities of ecology, including Nicolas Hulot, José Bové, Yannick Jadot and even Delphine Batho, had undergone a hair analysis that had shown the presence of endocrine disruptors.