A French laboratory has made an incredible discovery in the hair of some of the country's top politicians.

Twenty-six members of France's Socialist Party, who sit in the upper house Senate, each passed a strand of their hair to a private laboratory last summer.

The results are in....and it makes for some pretty somber reading that may just alter the path of French environmental strategies.

A toxic cocktail of mercury, pesticides and rare earth metals were all found in the hair of the senators.

"If it's in our hair, it means we are contaminated," said Senator Angele Preville, an environmental campaigner who spearheaded the initiative to show the dangers of being exposed to chemicals found in everyday products and food.

After screening against 1,800 organic pollutants and 49 metals, the analysis revealed 93 percent of the senators had rare earths in their hair, much higher than the control population of the laboratory toxSeek. 

Rare earths are metals and metal compounds used in the manufacturing of high-tech devices like smartphones and electric car batteries. 

The laboratory said the high prevalence among the senators might be explained by their regular and extensive use of communication tools. 

Mercury, a metal found in dental amalgams and certain fish, was found in all senators tested. They were also contaminated by 45 pesticides, ranging from herbicides to insecticides, including carbofuran, which has been banned in Europe since 2008. 

The plasticizer di-n-octyl phthalate, used to make plastics more soft and flexible, was detected in 69 percent of the participants. 

"Our way of life weighs on our quality of health, it's clear," said Patrick Kanner, another senator part of the experiment. 

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With the exception of the rare earths, the results are "very consistent with what we usually see" in the population, said toxSeek co-founder Matthieu Davoli, indicating "repeated and regular" exposure through food, cosmetic and hygiene products. 

Long term exposure to these chemicals including endocrine disruptors which can interfere with the normal functioning of human hormones, can lead to chronic illness, auto-immune and neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, Davoli said. 

Yan Chantrel, one of seven senators found to have "significant contamination" of rare earths, has volunteered to be re-tested after changing some habits to reduce his exposure. 

He said the public health issue needs to be integrated into environmental policies.

"This questions the way we produce and consume in our society, which is ultimately creating new illnesses," Chantrel warned. 

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