A toxic celeb campaign

Forget Celebrity Love Island - what about the toxic celebs starring in "I'm A Celebrity, Get It Out of Me"?

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Cooperative Bank have launched a chemicals awareness-raising campaign under that very title. They tested the blood of such stellar luminaries as former Page 3 girl Melinda Messenger and comedian David Baddiel, to demonstrate that dangerous manmade chemicals are all around us, and in our blood. They found anywhere between 10 and 30 'dangerous' chemicals in the blood samples taken, including banned pesticides, PCBs from electrical equipment, and flame-retardants found in furniture.

Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies said, 'Everyday products in the home and the office contain hazardous man-made chemicals that harm wildlife, build up in our bodies and can interfere with our children's development.'

In reality, the findings of these tests are a measure of the ability of modern equipment to detect infintessimally small amounts of a substance in our bodies. Even if these substances were harmful, and their effects are invariably overstated, the quantities involved are so small that even cyanide would be harmless.

It is clear that these stars have never heard the old adage, 'the dose makes the poison'. But then, since when did celebs allow the fact that they don't know very much stand in the way of a profile-raising campaign?

I'm a celebrity, get it out of me!, WWF (UK), 16 May 2005

Risk, cancer and manmade chemicals, by Bruce Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold