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NEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 25, 2001: Bill Moyers believes so strongly in “Trade Secrets,” his documentary about the chemical industry, that he sheds blood for it. The veteran journalist rolls up his sleeve and offers an arm at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine to Dr. Michael McCally, who is conducting a study on the amount of man-made chemicals that have infiltrated the human body. The results are stunning. Of 150 different chemicals tested, traces of 84 are found in Moyers’ blood. Only one of those — lead — would have been found if his blood were examined 60 years ago, McCally said. There were 31 different kinds of PCBs in Moyers’ blood, 13 different dioxins and the pesticide DDT. At 66, Moyers figures the chemicals probably won’t do much harm. But what if he were younger? What would all the chemicals do in combination with each other? How much is too much? Neither Moyers nor McCally know the answers to those questions. Neither, they suspect, do the companies that invented and produced the chemicals. The blood test brings the findings of his hard-hitting documentary chillingly close to home. Moyers’ 90-minute report, followed by a half-hour discussion, premieres on PBS stations Monday, March 26, at 9 p.m. EST.

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