A Toxic World - What You Should Know About Our Chemical "Body Burden"

In a study done in 2004, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested randomly chosen blood samples of ten Americans for toxic chemicals. By "toxic chemicals", I mean chemicals known to cause harm to our health, such as carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, teratogens, and the like. This study was the first attempt at getting a true look at the chemical "body burden" of modern Americans.

The results were astounding: each blood sample contained an average of 200 toxic chemicals, some as many as 287. Chemicals found included 100 different chemicals from food packaging, 133 linked to cancer in animal tests, 151 chemicals linked to birth defects, 153 hormone disruptors, 185 chemicals that can cause infertility, 130 that cause immune system toxicity, 157 neurotoxins, and over 30 chemicals that have been banned for over 30 years (like DDT)!

The most astounding thing about these findings were that the samples were taken from umbilical cord blood. That's right, from newborns. Our children are being exposed to toxic synthetic chemicals in what we think of as the safest, most protected spot on earth: the womb. Alarmed yet?

Experts around the world are waking up to the realization that our modern lifestyle , which immerses us in a literal bath of synthetic chemicals each day, is causing chronic and life-threatening health problems . As of today, one in three women and one in two men will develop cancer in their lifetime. The infertility rate has increased by 20% in the last 30 years, and childhood brain cancer has increased 40%. Autism, leukemia, birth defects, ADHD/ADD and other learning disabilities are on an unprecedented rise among children, and have been linked to chemical exposure.

As conscientious parents, we lock up our cleaning products, alcohol, and medicines thinking that this will keep our families safe from the harmful substances in our homes. Unfortunately, most of us don't realize that the air in our homes can be primary sources of toxic chemicals and harmful substances. In fact, indoor air can be as much as 11 times more polluted than outdoor air. Considering this generation spends up to 90% more time indoors than we do outdoors, we need to take a closer look at this "indoor air pollution".

Unknowingly, we may be contributing to indoor air pollution with the household cleaning products we use, furniture we buy, and ways we eliminate pests, among other things. For the past 50 or more years, chemical companies have been developing and releasing thousands of new chemicals each year, most of which have not been proven safe for use around humans. These chemicals are put in our cleaning products, our carpets, our furniture, our cosmetics, our personal care products, into everything.

The government has failed to protect us from these potentially harmful substances. The U.S. government has taken the stance that assuming a chemical is safe as long as it has not been proven otherwise. Operating under The Toxic Substance Control Act created in 1976, the government does not require any testing when a new chemical is introduced, and had only reviewed 200 of the 62,000 chemicals used at that time (30 years ago). It takes an enormous amount of time and effort to ban even the most toxic of chemicals (think how long it took to ban DDT, for example), even when we know the detrimental effects outright.

The chemical industry and large corporations that use these chemicals have tried to deny or cover up the facts, claiming that their chemicals are safe (and they come up with any number of studies, personally funded, to prove it). Think about the tobacco industry and how they denied smoking causes cancer, even though experts had suspected it for 30 years. This is what is happening now in the chemical industry.

The public has been kept in the dark about the dangers of chemicals contained in products we use every day. Without knowing, we may be using cleaning products, purchasing toys, or buying furniture that could be detrimental to the health of our families. Learn how to avoid these dangerous products in our next article "Tips for A Healthier Home: Protect Your Family From Toxins".