Toxic Food for Thought...

According to Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., and Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., in "Raising Children Toxic Free", since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are, by default, conducting a massive clinical toxicology trial, and our children and their children are the experimental animals.

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The United States of America Federal Code of Regulations (USA FCR: Section 1910.1200C, Title 29, Section 1500.82 2Q1A) exempts manufacturers from full labeling of products if used for personal, family or household care. Therefore, the average consumer is oblivious to just how many toxic chemicals suspected to cause brain damage, birth defects, and many other serious health problems are currently in many of our homes in the form of products marketed for our personal and household use. Warning labels on containers also usually refer mostly to toxic hazards from ingestion of the product; however, only 10% of health problems from chemicals are caused by ingestion, while 90% of health problems are caused by the inhalation of vapors and absorption of particles.

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According to a United States House of Representatives Report, of the chemicals found in personal care products: 884 are toxic, 146 cause tumors, 778 cause acute toxicity, 376 cause skin and eye irritations, 218 cause reproductive complications, and 314 cause biological mutations.

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According to the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) 150 chemicals found in the average home are connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological disorders. CBS Network news telecast recently revealed these same environmental toxins in home products can cause birth defects such as brain abnormality in newborns, especially when exposure occurs during the first month of pregnancy. Autism has now quickly become an epidemic in American born children and these multiple environmental toxins from household chemical products, as well as our food, water, and air have been implicated as likely causes.

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Diseases that are suspected to be associated with DNA mutations resulting from the use of toxic household chemical products are escalating annually. The over 6,000 known genetic diseases ultimately result due to mutations to specific genes which control every biological function in our bodies, from growth to brain function. These genetic mutations are most often the result of environmental pollutants. These environmental pollutants are more than anywhere often encountered inside our homes as numerous studies have proven.

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The EPA recently made the following statement about children and genetic mutations: "Because these mutagens damage DNA, children are even more at risk than adults because as they grow, children's cells divide more rapidly than the cells of adults, perpetuating that damage." "Faster division of cells for children is normal." "Of course, the problem is that cells mirror and make copies. A cell containing the mutant, or altered gene will never again make a cell with the perfect gene and will continue copying the imperfect gene." This concept of rapidly dividing cells also explains why certain tissues are common sites for cancer from environmental toxins in food, water, and air - in adults as well as children. For example, colon cells and blood cells are rapidly renewed; therefore, environmental toxins in our blood may lead to leukemia and toxins inhaled (what we breath is ultimately swallowed if you think about it) or ingested which end up in contact with our gut lining may mutate the DNA of rapidly dividing colon cells ultimately leading to colorectal cancer. Studies have also shown that the risk for leukemia increases by four to seven times for children, ages 10 and under, whose parents use home or garden pesticides.

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The risk of childhood brain cancer is associated with the use of pesticide "bombs" in the home, pesticides to control termites, flea collars on pets, insecticides in the garden or orchard, and herbicides to control weeds in the yard, including exposure to two common pesticides available in garden shops - carbaryl and diazinon.

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Diseases that used to occur later in life are now appearing at younger ages. Diseases that used to be rare are more frequent. For example: There has been a 28% increase in childhood cancer since the addition of pesticides into household products. And Cancer is now the #2 killer of children – second only to accidental poisonings. Since 1977 the rate of cancer among American children has been steadily rising at a rate of nearly 1% each year according to the National Cancer Institute.

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A 1989 study by the state of Massachusetts concluded that 50% of all illness is due to poor indoor air quality! Likewise, scientists have in thousands of studies over the last several decades correlated pollutants breathed and absorbed from our water, air, and household products with a mounting epidemic of health problems. According to Doctor Philip Landrigan, Chairman of Preventive medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine: "We are conducting a vast toxicological experiment, and we are using our children as the experimental animals. Not a single child today is born free of synthetic chemicals."

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There is a dark side to capitalism and a society in which corporations having rights greater than citizens. Economics and the drive to increase shareholder value and the bottom line dictates that anxillary by-products from various manufacturing industries, such as the petroleum industry to name but one example, are incorporated into household products and marketed as safe and effective solutions for specific use in our homes. With little oversight, insufficient toxicological test data, and lack of legal mandates for listing toxic "trade secrets" - there are often hundreds or thousands of products in our homes that greatly contribute to our toxic home environments. It's the way of things in our industrialized world, conspicuously consumptive society, and disposable culture. So think about the cosmetics and beauty product residues on your skin, the household cleaners in your cabinets, the parafin candles or "air fresheners" spewing toxic residues into your air, the tar in the shingles on your roof, the asphalt under your tires, the plastics in contact with your food and water, the PVC in your shower curtain, water pipes, or vinyl siding. Every aspect of our lives brings us in contact with toxic chemical gases, solids, and liquids - but corporations in bed with government prevents full disclosure or due diligence as to the true toxic legacy of this toxic "economy of scales".

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Production rates for synthetic petrochemicals skyrocketed from 1 billion pounds per year in 1940 to over 400 billion pounds per year in the 1980s. Approximately 70,000 chemicals are now in commercial production, many of which are used in household products. Many of these chemicals accumulate in the human body and cause cancer and other diseases, yet they have been inadequately tested or remain completely untested for their safety. Only about 600 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer.

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In 1990, more than 4,000 toddlers under age four were admitted to hospital emergency rooms as a result of household cleaner-related injuries. That same year, 18,000 pesticide-related hospital emergency room admissions were reported with almost three-fourths for children age fourteen and under.

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According to Environmental Health Perspectives, June 1997; 105 (6), Childhood asthma has increased by more than 40% since 1980. Also, according to "Environmental Health Threats to Children", Environmental Protection Agency 175-F-96-001, September 1996, Asthma death in children and young people increased by a dramatic 118% between 1980 and 1993. Furthermore, in 1997 the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the average child visited the doctor 23 times in the 1st 4 years of life, with the most common complaint being respiratory ailment.

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Following a 5 year study surveying 600 homes in six U.S. cities The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that indoor air pollution is one of the most serious environmental health risks. The EPA study showed that peak concentrations of 20 toxic compounds - some linked with cancer and birth defects - were up to 500 times higher inside some homes than outdoors. This is of particular concern for the elderly or house-bound people who may spend more than ninety percent of their time indoors.

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In a Jan. 30, 2003 study conducted by scientists at the MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE found that all the adults participating in the study had traces of 53 chemicals known to cause cancer in human or animal tests. Their bodies were also contaminated with 62 man-made chemicals which are proven to be neurotoxins, and 55 which have been correlated to causing birth defects. All people are now contaminated with toxic chemicals usually resulting from exposure in air, water, food, and drug. Many people have detectable levels of hundreds of man-made chemical toxins in their bodies even if they live far away from any chemical industry or output source of the chemical. Many of these chemicals have now been detected in air and water in every corner of the globe.

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The New England Journal of Medicine published a Swiss-German-American study which makes a very strong case that eating disorders may be caused by a genetic mutation related to environmental exposure to toxic chemicals. This may help to explain the reasons for an epidemic of obesity (not to mention the ubiquitous use of high fructose corn syrup as a cheap preservative in most foods.) Obesity is strongly linked to heart disease, diabetes, and many other ailments.

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Other research shows chemicals in children are in much greater quantities than the amounts found in adults. One Sinai researcher said, "It is believed that both the mutant genes and the chemical levels are passed on to the next generation at the time of conception through the egg and sperm and continue to compound. . . . feeding synthetic chemicals through the umbilical cord. The levels raising. . . . . Generation to generation. . ."

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Methylene chloride, the propellant used in many aerosol products, is carcinogenic. Some products containing methylene chloride have been pulled from the market, but the carcinogen continues to be found in many consumer products such as spray paint and stripper. More recently, it was learned that indoor latex paints used widely for decades contained highly neurotoxic mercury-based fungicides. But it was not until 1990 that manufacturers finally removed most of these potent neurotoxins.

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According to the American Cancer Society: In 1901, cancer was rare, about 1 out of 8,000. Since the Industrial Revolution, the cancer rate today has risen to 1 in 3 for women and 1 in 2 for men. Though direct causal links to the toxic chemical ingredients of household products is difficult to prove, scientist are growing increasingly concerned that growing rates of cancer and autism may indeed be linked to man-made chemicals now found in our blood, fat, bones, urine, saliva, and tissues. Residues of more than 400 toxic chemicals - some found in household products and foods - have been detected in thousands of human test subjects across the United States of America.

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Autism is a new and clear epidemic in America. According to Wendy Stone, clinical psychologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn: "Autism is a genetic disease and affects the developing of components of the body and brain prior to birth". The growth rate of Autism cases in children is truelly alarming. In 1980 autism in America was practically unheard of. In 1990 the rate of autistic newborn babies in America was 1 in 10,000. In the year 2000 the rate has increased at an astonishing 1 in 450 newborn babies. At the end of 2002, the rate was 1 in 187. Extrapolating out this rate of Autism cases by the year 2010 one in 5 babies born in America will be born autistic! Autism is a mounting societal catastrophe.

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Not a single cosmetic company warns consumers of the presence of carcinogens in its products - despite the fact that a number of common cosmetic ingredients are carcinogenic or carcinogenic precursors. Also, some experts estimate that 20 percent of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases among women are attributable to their use of hair dyes, some of which emit strong volatile chemical fumes and contain harmful metals such as lead.

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According to the "Guide to Hazardous Products Around the Home", Household Hazardous Waste Project, household bleaches (Sodium Hypochlorite) which claim to disinfect are classified as pesticides under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Inadvertently mixing bleach with other cleaners that contain ammonia produces a toxic chloramine gas. These toxic gases can cause coughing, loss of voice, a feeling of burning or suffocation, and even death.

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In the book "Toxic Brew" Dr. Gideon Koren, a pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto Canada states, "How can we, as one of the most advanced countries in the world allow these [chemicals] to enter our household for small children, without the appropriate testing to see that it’s safe?" ... "Vision is one of the functions of the human brain, so it means that these chemicals find themselves through the mum, through the umbilical cord, into the baby, into the developing brain, and damaging functions there, and the baby is born already with a problem". The mushrooming Autism crisis is certainly a very visible and devistating example of this toxic legacy now affecting new-born children.

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According to "Your Children and Ritalin", The Detroit news (March 8. 1998), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in adults and children is also rising – in 1993, 4.5 million children took the drug Ritalin so they could sit still long enough to learn. By 1998, 11.4 million children were being drugged with this powerful Class-2 narcotic. According to Environmental Health Perspectives 106 Supplement 3:787-794 (June 1998), even small doses of neurotoxins, which would be harmless to an adult, can alter a child’s nervous system development. In addition to Autism, the biological effects of small neurotoxic chemicals in rapidly developing child brains may also explain this rise in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), low scores on test of reasoning ability, and behavioral disorders in children.

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Many chemicals used in household products are volatile, meaning they become gaseous at room temperature or are sprayed from an aerosol can or hand pump and thus take the form of microscopic particles that are easily inhaled. They can cause damage to the lungs or other organs as they are taken into the bloodstream where they are distributed and stored throughout the body, later to possibly cause cancer. In fact, A 17 year EPA study showed that women who work in the home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who work outside of the home. This is suspected to be related to exposure to carcinogens in household cleaners and other commonly used products in the average home. An example of one such carcinogenic chemical can be found in most laundry detergents in the form of NTA. NTA is a substance we may reasonably anticipate to be a carcinogen according to the Merck Index. Dr. Lee Davis, former advisor to the Secretary of Health, said that just by reducing (not eliminating) environmental carcinogens alone, we would save at least 50,000 lives taken by cancer annually.

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According to the Consumer Protection Agency, 150 chemicals found in the home have been connected to allergies, birth defects, cancer and psychological disorders. As more toxic chemicals have been introduced to our everyday environment in greater amounts over the last 20 to 30 years, the level of toxins stored in adipose tissues (fat cells) of our bodies have risen. Bioaccumulation studies have shown that some toxins store in our bodies for life. Greater and greater amounts are being stored at younger ages. One study showed that in the fat of 100% of the people tested was 1,4-Dichlorobenzene, a chemical found in most household deodorizers and room fresheners.

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According to the Consumer Federation of America, Asthma was once a very rare disease. Now the condition is extremely common – the asthma rate has tripled in the last 20 years with nearly 30 million Americans currently afflicted. Likewise, the Center for Disease Control has reported that in one decade, there has been a 42% increase in asthma (29% for men, 82% for women). The higher rate for women is believed to be due to women’s longer exposure times to household chemicals.

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One in five people are sensitive to formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a highly toxic substance. It is a known cancer-causing agent. It damages the neurological connectors in the body. Formaldehyde is commonly found in: perfumes, waxes, hair setting lotions, shampoo, drugs, mouthwash, hairspray, cosmetics, cleaning products, toothpaste, laundry spray starch, air fresheners, fungicides, fingernail polish, floor polishes, dry cleaning solvents, and antiperspirants. There has been a recent controversy over high levels of Formaldehyde in FEMA trailers supplied to Hurricane Katrina victims. Many Katrina victims have reported the same health symptoms associated with Formaldehyde inhalation and tests have confirmed that the FEMA trailer Formaldehyde emmisions have indeed exceeded EPA limits. Many lawsuits over the whole Formaldehyde in FEMA trailer fiasco have likely been filed by Katrina families.

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Government regulations require that only the most EXTREMELY toxic substances must contain a warning label. Labels that say the following should be removed from your house immediately: "Danger!" (means that as little as 5 drops can harm or kill an adult), "Warning!" (may mean that as little as 1 teaspoon of product can harm or kill adult), "Call physician immediately", "Harmful or fatal if swallowed", "Do not induce vomiting", or "Corrosive – rinse from skin immediately".

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According to network news Research Scientists have discovered that the chemicals in home cleaning products are causing brain damage in developing brains. This means damage not just to childrens' brains, but also adult brains since studies have proven that the human brain continues to develop past age 50. More alarming a recent random neurological testing of a sampling of six year olds revealed more than half with signs of brain damage.

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Symptoms such as runny nose, itchy eyes, a scratchy throat, headaches, fatigue, dizziness, skin rash, and respiratory infections are all common reactions to indoor air pollution. Left untreated, long-term exposure to indoor pollution can result in lung cancer, or damage to the liver, kidney and central nervous system. Young children are especially vulnerable to impaired lung function and respiratory infection. Rates of asthma in children is yet another epidemic born in the last several decades out of our industrialized culture and chemical-filled lives.

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According to a National Academy of Sciences workshop, approximately 15 percent of the American population suffers from chemical sensitivity. Researchers have traced this increased sensitivity to the proliferation of synthetic chemicals in consumer products and furnishings.

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DEA is diethanolamine, a chemical that is used as a wetting agent in shampoos, lotions, creams and other cosmetics. DEA is used widely because it provides a rich lather in shampoos and keeps a favorable consistency in lotions and creams. DEA by itself is not harmful but while sitting on the stores shelves or in your cabinet at home, DEA can react with other ingredients in the cosmetic formula to form an extremely potent carcinogen called nitrosodiethanolamine (NDEA). NDEA is readily absorbed through the skin and has been linked with stomach, esophagus, liver and bladder cancers.

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Source control and ventillation is by far the most effective method of elliminating toxic chemical gases and particles from indoor air. Air cleaning is the third method that may have some effect; however, home air purifiers used to clean indoor air are not nearly as affective at removing chemical air pollutants because not all air cleaners are created equal. Some have subpar HEPA filters that don't capture the very small and most damaging particles that make up most indoor air pollutants. And many don't contain gas-phase filters which contain special absorbant media like activated carbon, magnesium permanganate, or zeolite. Most home air purifiers also clean indoor air to a variable extent depending on the condition of the filters, placement of the air purifier, and the rate of air exchanges per hour. There are always corners and eddies of indoor air which resist movement through air cleaning devices and purifiers, thus it's impossible to capture much of the indoor air pollutants with just and air purifier. All three methods together are the most effective plan, in this order: source control first, then ventillation, then air cleaning. Elliminate as many sources of toxic household products by substituting with non-toxic alternatives or performing more tasks with fewer and safer products. Our home environment is the only environment where we have significant and immediate power to make any appreciable changes. You'll save money and your health by reducing your use of dangerous household chemical products!

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Phenol is an extremely caustic chemical that burns the skin. Absorption of phenol through the lungs or skin can cause: vomiting, skin irritation, kidney or liver damage, pneumonia, neuralogical damage, respiratory infection, numbness, and can even death. Phenol is a very common chemical and is regularly found in the following common products: hair setting lotions, lice shampoo, polishes, cleaning products, detergents, furniture polish, mouthwash, aspirin, solvents, acne medications, antiseptics, calamine lotions, lip balms, sunscreen and lotions, insecticides, cough syrups. Phenol is also found in: cold capsules, all-purpose cleaners, carnex, cosmetics, aerosol disinfectants, anti-itching lotions, disinfectant cleaners, bronchial mists, chloroseptic throat spray, deodorants, hand lotions, air fresheners, aftershave, feminine powders & sprays, hair spray, and decongestants.