Since WWII more than 80,000 synthetic chemicals have been invented. Most have been created from petroleum and coal tar for the purposes of chemical warfare. The sad thing is that hardly any of these substances have been tested for safety, but have been added to our food, water and cleaning products without our consent and most often without informing us of any dangers. There is a lot of intentional suppression in this industry that adds approximately 1000 new chemicals each year.
According to the National Research Council, ”no toxic information is available for more than 80% of the chemicals in everyday-use products. Less than 20% have been tested for acute effects and less than 10% have been tested for chronic, reproductive or mutagenic effects.” More than 4.5 billion chemicals are known and 50,000 are commercially distributed. What’s worse is that tests are only done on single chemicals. There is never any testing done on combinations, which we are exposed to on a daily basis. It requires a team of scientists, 300 mice, more than $300,000 US, and 2-3 years to determine whether one single suspect chemical causes cancer.
Governments are at the mercy of economic agendas. Industry interests almost always win over issues regarding health or government regulation. Only 1% of toxins are required to be listed on labels. This is mainly because the products don’t make any claims about safety. Companies can also classify them as “trade secrets” to avoid listing them. Many of the ingredients labeled “inert” are actually more toxic than the active ingredients.
The retail consumer chemical companies spend billions of dollars each year advertising and promoting their brand name products. The EPA depends on industry-sponsored tests for approval. In 1981, one undisclosed company was found guilty of falsifying over 90% of more than 2000 studies. Those products are still readily available. It is difficult to realize that ninety-one percent of the population actually unwittingly brings these hazardous and dangerous substances into their lives by applying and using approximately 300 million pounds of these poisons annually, often indoors. City dwellers use more chemicals per acre than farmers and spend more than 1 billion dollars on them annually.
The effects of these toxic chemicals include: illness, allergies, asthma, ear infections, learning disabilities, nervous disorders, respiratory difficulties and much, much more.
When Congress passed the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide And Rodenticide Act, it assumed that all these agents were “toxic.” No guidelines were created for identifying “non-toxic” agents. In other words, they are all “toxic.” Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards require testing a chemical to a specified amount listed in the regulation. If it kills half of a group of test animals, the chemical is “toxic” by this definition. If the test animals survive after being exposed to an amount greater than that listed, the chemical is “non-toxic.” Not very strict or reassuring, is it? And there are no tests for long-term exposure on humans?
The American Cancer Society states “environmental pollution causes cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, coughing, asthma, nervous disorders, emphysema, wheezing, nasal congestion, burning eyes, headache, burning, tingling, skin flushing, muscle aches, irritability, mental confusion, uncoordination, hyperactivity and other debilitating illnesses.”
Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in “Chemicals Commonly Found in Homes” identified 150 chemicals as linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological abnormalities. Ten percent cause High Blood Pressure (HBP) and migraines and 20% are responsible for mental disturbances.
In various instances, indoor air quality has been found to have five times higher toxic chemical concentrations than outdoor air. This is also true in rural areas. A five-year study conducted by the EPA showed many indoor air samples to be 70 times more toxic than outdoor air samples. Could this be why almost everyone is sick, especially children and those working in public buildings little fresh air intake and air filters that are seldom changed? A scientific paper at the “Indoor Air Conference” in 1990 in Toronto stated “because of household cleaners, housewives have a 55% higher risk of contracting cancer.”
Children are at high risk when playing on indoor floors from the residue of formaldehyde, asbestos, and pesticides generated by common household products. Their respiration rates are three times higher than adults are and their detoxification systems are not fully developed and cannot filter these toxins out. Have you noticed how many children are on inhalers lately? This is akin to putting the fire out with gasoline. The older you are, the more years of accumulation of these toxins you will have in your system. There are tens of thousands of chemicals in use, but if you ever get tested, they will usually only test for 150 or so, and those are probably not the worst ones. They only test us for approximately .002% of all toxins that we can be exposed to in our lives.
With all these dangers well-documented and well-known, retail consumer chemical companies still spend millions of dollars each year to convince us that we need their products. One reason is that it would be very costly to re-formulate many of their consumer brand products that sit on your supermarket shelves. Another reason is that it would involve much more governmental regulatory oversight and resource investment to dispose of their existing, stockpiled toxic chemical ingredients in hazardous waste dumps than to retail them into your home through supermarket aisles.
Exposure to toxins has synergistic and cumulative effects. They are known as “xenobiotics” (foreign to the body). The body was not designed to eliminate them, so they accumulate. These toxic overloads have a price tag. Is it any wonder that our health care costs are skyrocketing while we keep getting sicker and sicker? There are huge profits being made at the expense of our health.
Another relevant term is “teratogen.” According to American Heritage, a “teratogen” is any agent, such as a virus, a drug, or radiation, that adversely affects and causes malformation of a developing embryo or fetus. Chemicals can cross not only our blood-brain barriers but also blood-placental barriers. Many pesticides fall into this category…and so do chemical ingredients used to concoct synthetic scents in our personal care and conventional cleaning products. For example, take “Fetal Coumarin Syndrome”. Women during pregnancy are told NOT to use coumarin as an anticoagulant. However, coumarin is a common fragrance ingredient in perfumes and moves swiftly into the body. “Teratogens” often cause serious birth defects.
Most of the chemicals we use today are derivatives of chemical warfare. The first chemical warfare agent was chlorine. World War II ended with a surplus of this cheap chemical. In the name of huge profits, it was added to our water supply and many other products. Chlorine is the number one cause of breast cancer and can be lethal. Scientists won’t handle chlorine without protective gloves, facemasks, and ventilation, yet it is in most store-brand cleaners, including dishwasher detergents. The harmful effects are intensified when the fumes are heated, as in the shower. It is in our drinking water, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, and any other place that we want disinfected.
Fluoride is worse and there is no research to indicate that it has proven benefits for tooth decay and it’s extremely poisonous!
Still don’t believe these claims? Then, try this test! Take any Brand X dish soap and spill it without dilution on the grass outside your home. Immediately soak the treated area with water until there are no more suds. About a week later, return to the area and notice, in most instances, that the treated grass is dead. If it kills grass, IMAGINE what it is doing to us? After all, we are nothing more than walking vegetation.
Many household products contain harmful chemicals. For example, formaldehyde is in almost all cleaning products, including laundry detergents, toothpaste, and shampoo.
Laundry detergents contain phosphorus, enzymes, ammonia, naphthalene, phenol, sodium nitilotriacetate, and countless other chemicals. These chemicals can cause rashes, itches, allergies, sinus problems, and more. The residue left on your clothes, bed sheets, etc. is absorbed through your skin, as is everything else you touch…thus, the success and popularity of transdermal patches. Don’t fall prey to the bombardment of advertisements strongly suggesting that you absolutely need these products. You don’t, but their profit margins do.
Air fresheners interfere with your ability to smell by releasing nerve-deadening agents or coating nasal passages with an oil film, usually methoxychlor, a pesticide-type, that accumulates in fat cells and over-stimulates the Central Nervous System. Laundry dryer sheets fall into this category. They are extremely toxic. Avoid them. (The only reason you require fabric softeners is because the chemicals in laundry soap create the static. It may take several washings with chemical free detergents to eliminate the chemical residue static. Your patience will be well rewarded.) Some other common “toxic” air freshening ingredients include: P-dichlorobenzene,naphthalene and formaldehyde. Conversely, fresh, organic citrus juices, vinegar, spices, and essential oils will do a better job, risk free.
Oven cleaners are one of the most toxic products people use. They contain lye and ammonia, which eat the skin, and the fumes linger and affect the respiratory system. Then there is the residue that’s intensified the next time you turn your oven on. Use sea salt and baking soda instead.
Household pesticides are the #2 cause of death by poisoning in this country. Their residual action can linger for more than 30 years. Inhalation can lead to nausea, cough, breathing difficulties, depression, eye irritation, dizziness, weakness, blurred vision, twitching, convulsions and more. They are stored in body fat. Long-term they damage liver, kidneys, lungs, and lead to paralysis, sterility, immune suppression, brain hemorrhages, decreased fertility, sexual dysfunction, heart problems, and coma. On December 5, 2000 the EPA announced the phase-out of “diazinon”, one of the most widely used organophosphate pesticides in the United States – for indoor use, beginning in March 2001, and for all lawn, garden, and turf uses by December 2003.
Since 1996, the EPA has targeted a large group of older, riskier pesticides called “organophosphates” for review because they pose the greatest potential risk to children. In August 1999, the EPA announced action against “methyl parathion” and “azinphos methyl” to protect children from pesticide residues in food. The Agency reached an agreement to halt the manufacture of “chlorpyrifos”, or “Dursban”, for nearly all residential uses by December 2000. “Diazinon” – used in homes, on lawns, and in gardens – is another organophosphate pesticide being completely phased out by 2004-05.
“Organophosphates” can affect the nervous system. The effects from “diazinon” vary depending on the dose, but symptoms from over-exposure can include nausea, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, and general weakness.
“Diazinon” was the most widely used pesticide by homeowners on lawns, and was one of the most widely used pesticide ingredients for application around the home and in gardens. It was used to control insects and grub worms. Diazinon’s use on turf poses a risk to birds, and it is one of the most commonly found pesticides in air, rain, and drinking and surface water. Its elimination will reduce the amounts to approximately 15 million LESS pounds of undesirable pesticides in the environment annually.
The federal EPA continues to aggressively target for elimination those pesticides “that pose the greatest risk to human health and the environment, and especially those posing the greatest risk to children… this action is another major step toward ensuring that all Americans can enjoy greater safety from exposure to harmful pesticides… it will significantly eliminate the vast majority of organophosphate insecticide products in and around the home,” reported Carol M. Browner, EPA Administrator during the Clinton Administration.
These same household pesticides trigger these allergic reactions: asthma, bronchitis, eczema, migraines, death, hives, joint and muscle pain for 16 million people in this country and the numbers are growing. For the record, “antibiotics” are technically “pesticides “. You may be surprised to find out just how many everyday products contain this type of “pesticide” in them, such as toothpaste and shampoo.
Regular shampoos contain these harsh chemicals. Baby shampoos advertised as gentle and “no tears” contain some of the worst chemicals, including anesthetizing agents to cover up the burning sensation that would otherwise be caused when the chemicals contact the eyes. Imagine what effect these agents have on the eyes and brain, especially after repeated uses!
Sodium laurel sulfate and other forms of this substance lower brain acuity and attribute to blindness, yet they are commonly used in shampoos, toothpastes and other personal hygiene products.
Lice shampoo is a pesticide and may be absorbed into the brain through misuse. “Lindane”, the main ingredient, causes convulsions, seizures, cancer, and death. You can use your favorite shampoo several times a day, every day. The lice will be gone in less than a week.
Regarding your pets, flea collars are “pesticides” too and release a continuous supply of dangerous substances into the bloodstream of your pet. In addition to the great harm caused to your pet, it is absorbed through your skin every time you touch your pet. Leave your pet a dish of brewer’s yeast; it will instinctively eat it as needed and repel fleas naturally. PROTECT YOUR PET against chemical exposure.
You, your pets and children walk on and absorb the harmful chemicals applied to lawns and gardens. Avoid them. Weeds grow where soils are barren and deficient in certain nutrients — the very ones that these weeds provide. They have longer roots that reach lower into the ground to provide those hard-to-reach nutrients, while preventing soil erosion. If you don’t want them to spread, at least cut off the buds/flowers. It is usually the chemical dependent lawns that attract the weeds and produce larger ones.
The main ingredient in most weed killers is 2,4-(dichlorophenoxyacetic acid). When combined with 2,4,5-T (trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) it forms “Agent Orange”. Use of these products creates more resistant weeds while harming us. These chemicals eventually end up in our water table and in edible crops planted in the vicinity. When was the last time you saw bees, butterflies, dragonflies or ladybugs? They are almost extinct because of the overuse of these and other similar chemicals and pesticides. Are we next on the endangered species list? The effects of these chemical poisonings are often given names and treated as “new diseases”. We know differently. Treat your lawn by spraying it with a solution of 100% organic dish soap, coke and beer, diluted with water every month or so and use a mulching mower.
Longer grass shades weed seeds. Plant basil to keep mosquitoes and other pests away. There are many books available about companion planting and beneficial insects, to keep the unwelcome ones away without compromising you.
These chemicals affect your lawn the way drugs affect you. The more dependent you are on drugs, the sicker you become and the more drugs you take. It’s a never ending, vicious cycle of addiction. The less drugs a person takes the stronger their immune system is, and the healthier they are. It’s best to avoid them all. The same goes for your lawn. It may take a couple of years for the “withdrawal symptoms” to subside, but the wait will be more than worth it. There is an entire ecosystem below the surface that works interdependently to ensure your soil, and your crops, flourish. The chemicals also kill all these beneficial microorganisms, worms, etc. Nature is our friend, treat it as such.
Beware of Toxic Chemicals… The danger doesn’t end with their use. Everything that goes down your drain eventually ends up in your drinking water supply. This is multiplied by what your neighbors and every other person and industry put down their drains. More than four million pounds of household cleaning chemicals go down Canadian drains each year. Whatever goes down the sewers on the streets goes directly into the rivers. Whatever goes into the rivers, comes back to us in our drinking water! What we do to the planet, we do to ourselves.
Everything that goes down our drains and toilets ends up at the water treatment plants where they are mixed with even more toxic chemicals, recycled and returned to us via our water taps. Hence the huge market for bottled water and point of use filter systems.
If a product is not friendly to the environment, it cannot be friendly to us. If a product requires special handling or ventilation, don’t expose yourself or your environment to it. This is where you, your family and friends have to live and breathe. Next time you or someone you know feels ill, instead of rushing off to the doctor to get treated, why not look for the cause in a household chemical or food additive and eliminate it? This can save a lot of grief and more “toxic overload”, which will probably be labeled as some type of serious illness without looking for the cause.
In closing, many personal care and cleaning products are “toxic”, especially if misused or misapplied. Prior to WWII they didn’t exist, homes were clean, and people, it seems, had fewer chemically-related health problems. How many “toxic bombs” are lurking in your home? There are many safe, chemical free cleaning products on the market today, or if you prefer — use the basics; baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar and water. You’ll be amazed at what a wonderful job they do.
Please do your own research and use the products that are the safest and best for your families. There are numerous books on these subjects. Don’t leave your fate in the hands of multibillion-dollar retail consumer chemical industries whose only concern is profit. Your shopping habits create a demand. If you don’t like what is contained in the products offered in your stores let it be known and switch stores and products. Encourage the retail consumer cleaning chemical industry to be responsible for their products, as we must be with our purchases. Educate your friends, neighbors and loved ones. Don’t ever give anyone authority over your body or your health. It’s your responsibility to be informed. What you don’t know CAN harm you, and even kill you.
Staying Well in a Toxic World
A rapidly growing number of people here in the United States and worldwide, have the condition known as environmental illness/multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). These chemically injured people are like the coal mine canaries and their condition should be a warning to us all. Their symptoms vary greatly; in kind and in severity: some of them can lead a fairly normal life, with precautions; others cannot go out or function at most jobs. When the latter come into even brief contact with people wearing scented products, walk into a room that is newly carpeted or has been treated with a pesticide or cleaned with a toxic cleaner, or eat any food containing even a trace of pesticide, they may become incapacitated, experience muscle weakness, faint, and/or feel dizzy. Many have to live in their own, special, air filtered rooms, drink totally clean filtered water, and eat only “organic” food, which has been grown without any pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Unfortunately, standard medicine does not recognize MCS because it is not taught in medical schools. Modern medicine is also getting more specialized with the result that many MCS patients have been referred by their primary doctor to specialist after specialist, spending years of time and thousands of dollars on expensive, but useless drugs and tests, until their “mystery illness” is finally referred to a psychotherapist. There again, they can spend many years and thousands of dollars, all in vain, without finding the true causes of their symptoms. The “mystery illness” suffered by many veterans from the Gulf War is a prime example.
Standard medicine emphasizes drugs as symptom suppressants and assumes humans are basically the same: X symptom needs Y drug. Specific drugs for specific contagious diseases have been exceedingly effective in the past. However, when chronic diseases are exacerbated by environmental exposures, symptom-suppressing drugs are only a palliative and often worsens the patient’s underlying condition. Chemically sensitive patients usually react to all the products of the petrochemical industry. In our present society these products are ubiquitous. Many drugs and their by products are petroleum-based and gradually or sometimes quickly worsen the condition of chemically sensitive patients. Environmental medicine requires more work, but uses the uniqueness of each individual to identify the root causes of symptoms, and removes them. Some causes turn out to be side effects of previously prescribed drugs!
Since World War II, the number of chemicals that industry produces annually has doubled every eleven years. The overwhelming majority of these chemicals have not been tested for long-term human health effects, and even fewer are properly tested by truly objective, publicly (not industry) funded testing laboratories. Even worse, virtually no testing is done at all on the synergistic (combined) effects of two or more of these drugs and chemicals. As a matter of fact, it would be unbelievably complicated—if not impossible—to test the combined and changing effects of our multiple toxic exposures.
A 1984 study by the National Academy of Sciences, which concludes that “some 80 percent of the sixty-five thousand industrial chemicals then in use had ‘no toxicity information available ‘”! These chemicals are a factor contributing to chronic symptoms such as headaches, nausea, drowsiness, and fatigue that at times affect all of us—if not totally incapacitating us, at least lowering our productivity at work and making our daily lives miserable.
A quotation from the spring 1990 Kellogg Report: The Impact of Nutrition Environment & Lifestyle on the Health of Americans by Joseph D. Beasley, MD:
The chronic diseases—both social and medical—are really symptoms of a much more vast underlying problem. They are the final culmination of years of inadequate nutrition, a toxic environment, sedentary lifestyles, familial and social disruptions, and dependence on artificial agents (from cigarettes to coffee) for happiness. Every cell in our bodies— from the brain to the immune system— is affected by these abuses. The effects are particularly devastating in developing children— both in and out of the womb.
In our toxic environment, there are five primary sources of synthetic chemicals: (1) pesticide residues on our food, (2) drugs, both prescription and non-prescription, (3) indoor air pollution (sick building syndrome) primarily from rugs, cleaners, and building materials, (4) personal grooming products (used by both men and women), detergents, and fabric softeners, and (5) auto exhaust and other outdoor air pollution.
What action can we take to reduce these sickening exposures and the entrenched bureaucracies that continue to proliferate and produce all these toxic drugs and chemicals?
In our personal choices, we can simplify our lifestyle, gradually eliminate the toxic things that surround us, and buy new things carefully. Every purchase of a pesticide treated food gives a message to the farmer and the distributor that it is all right to put poison on our food and into the earth and the air. Similarly, every purchase of toxic clothing and other products gives the message to the manufacturers to go on producing the same things. If instead we purchase less toxic products, ultimately we can have a revolutionary impact on agricultural methods worldwide, on the production of truly nontoxic environmentally safe products, and on the incidence of chronic health problems that have been caused by the toxic exposures.
Trouble with the Law
The many findings now available from multiple studies of people’s everyday exposure all point to a single conclusion–that the same air pollutants covered by environmental laws outdoors are usually found at much higher levels in the average American residence. This situation has come about, at least in part, because the U.S. has made remarkable progress in improving the quality of outdoor air over the past three decades by controlling automobile and industrial emissions. Of the hundreds of air pollutants covered under existing U.S. laws, only ozone and sulfur dioxide remain more prevalent outdoors.
So it is peculiar that more attention has not yet shifted toward indoor pollution, the main sources of which are not difficult to identify. In fact, they are right under people’s noses–moth repellents, pesticides, solvents, deodorizers, cleansers, dry-cleaned clothes, dusty carpets, paint, particleboard, adhesives, and fumes from cooking and heating, to name a few. Sadly, most people–including officials of the U.S. government–are rather complacent about such indoor pollutants.
If truckloads of dust with the same concentration of toxic chemicals as is found in most carpets were deposited outside, these locations would be considered hazardous-waste dumps. In view of the scientific results comparing indoor and outdoor exposure, it would seem that the time is now ripe for a major rethinking of the nation’s environmental laws and priorities. The initial version of the Clean Air Act, written in 1970, focused on outdoor pollution. Even in its 1990 revision, the law has not changed much. It does not address the fact that Americans spend 95 percent of their time inside: despite all the evidence available today, the act still relies exclusively on measurements taken at outdoor monitoring stations. Many other U.S. laws pertaining to air pollution, hazardous waste, toxic substances and pesticides are similarly flawed, because they do not require accurate information on the levels of exposure people receive.
Although the absolute level of health risk posed by many toxic pollutants may be elusive, scientists can now accurately measure the exposure caused by different sources. Hence, to protect public health best, the broad suite of environmental laws should be reexamined and judged by how effectively they reduce people’s total exposure rather than by how they reduce total emissions. That effort would surely be substantial, both to recast a large body of legislation and to monitor how well the laws work to reduce exposure. But the payoff would be a dramatic reduction in health costs as well as an improvement in the economy and effectiveness of environmental regulation.
Americans concerned about toxic substances do not have to wait for their government to make these far-reaching changes. Reducing exposure normally demands only modest alterations in one’s daily routine. Yet people cannot take the simple steps required without adequate knowledge. So increased education is needed. Laws requiring more detailed labeling would also help: If a product contains a dangerous pollutant, should not the manufacturer be required at least to list the chemical by name on the package? Armed with a better understanding of the toxic substances found in common products and in other sources at home, people could then make their own informed choices.
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