Toxins – Small Amounts Matter
February 12, 2010 by Tania
Filed under Green Living, Infant & Childcare, Label Reading PHD, Personal Care Products, Preservatives & Additives, Why Bother?
Why should the average person be worried about toxins in their home, additives, preservatives and contaminants in their foods.
Even if we are being exposed. The exposures are so limited.
They can’t be of any consequence. Right?
Are you sure?
Toxins are measured in measured in parts per billion.
Amazing what can be done with a few grains of sand ~ Image by Wonderland
One part per billion has been illustrated recently by the chemical companies as the equivalent of a single pancake in a stack of pancake 4000 miles high.
Surely limited amount wouldn’t impact our bodies. It’s “too low” to matter the to chemical companies argue.
The EWG studied to blood of an Sustainable Furniture Maker named Jesse who lives in New York.
He is arguably an average American. This is what was found in his blood. Measured in parts per billion (ppb):
The Blood Content of our “Average American”
- 97.5 ppb – Badge 40H (Liner in canned foods)
- 45 ppb – PFC’s
- 21 ppb – Lead
- 1.11 ppb – Mercury
- .29 ppb – PBDE’s
Common Drugs that impact our body, as they measure in our blood as parts per billion (ppb):
- 30 ppb – Cialis (one dose)
- 30 ppb – Paxil (one dose)
- 2.1 ppb – Albuterol (one dose)
- 35 ppb – Nuvaring – birth control
At small doses – Cialis side effects include a sudden decrease in hearing or vision. Users are directed to call their doctor taking Cialis if they get an erection lasting more than 4 hours.
Drugs are effective at the very same parts per billion that the chemical companies claim are inconsequential in their product. Drugs are designed to be effective at low doses.
Chemicals are not tested to ensure their safety or their absence of side effects at low doses.
Chemicals are consumed without unknowingly and we don’t know if we are putting ourselves, our families and our unborn children at risk.
The evidence is gathering that we are putting them at risk.
We are seeing an alarming increase in disease that can’t be explained by better diagnostics:
- Hypospadias has doubled from 1968 – 1993 – 1 in 125 baby boys
- 62% increase in acute lymphocytic leukemia over short period of time
- 40% increase in Brain Cancer – this is not a matter of better diagnostics, we didn’t miss brain cancer in the 1960′s, 70′s, 80′s & 90′s.
- 1-150 Children – if this is due to better or more frequent diagnosis - where are the Autistic adults?
- Fertility difficulties are rising in women under the age of 25.
- We have the highest rate of cancer in the world and if someone moves here from another country their likelihood of cancer increases – according to the American Cancer Society.
Over and above the Human Cost there is a monitory Cost of to Disorder
- $ 43.4 Billion – Lead poisoning
- $ 9.2 Billion – Neurobehavioral disorders, autism etc.
- $ 8.7 Billion – IQ loss from mercury
- $ 35 Billion – Asthma in Children
What can we do daily to lower our exposure?
Kid Safe Chemical Act:
Help Get it passed!
Most of the figures for this article came from a presentation by EWG president Ken Cook ~ 10 Americans. It’s a great presentation, well worth the time it takes to watch.
Hello! I like the design of your blog (and content too btw) and I would like to know what theme are you using? Is it your own design or free theme? thanks in advance, regards Pete
Hi Pete,
I’m glad you like both. I’m using the nature theme… there is a link in the footer, with a custom image courtesy of photographer Rich Evanhouse.
Thanks for the positive feedback.
Great post. After I read “Natural Cures They Don’t Want You to Know About” I started taking steps to reduce toxins in my body and lifestyle. Many toxins we cannot avoid, but for the ones we can, we definitely should! Thanks, Tania and the EWG for all the great work you do.
Fantastic post (and a bit terrifying) except that there were minor grammatical errors I found distracting, such as in: ”What can we daily to lower our exposure?”
Thank you! I’m in desperate need of an editor!
With this particular post I keep trying to fix not only the grammar, but some of the formatting too.
My new theme keeps making the half of the article disappear – forcing me to go back to a previous version with the uncorrected grammar!
Regardless – keep pointing them out when you find them!
There are links to my source for this post. Most of the data for this piece was from a presentation called “10 Americans” – The President of the Environmental Working group – one of the leading organizations for advocacy in the area of toxic research.
Nothing from this piece came from Wikipedia.
Cancer rates are going down and life spans are going up. These so called toxins don’t seem to be doing that much harm.
I became aware of the issues with toxins in our daily products when I was intoduced to Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, a full line of completely safe skincare and cosmetics. At 16 years old, Ava Anderson opened my eyes to the EWG and the cosmetics database. While I am one of the lucky ones, whereas I am pretty healthy at 34, I have still cut out as many toxins out of my products as possible. My skincare is of course all Ava Anderson, my cleaning products are all wowgreen and I have just swtiched my shampoo/conditioner to Salon Naturals. All are a zero on the cosmetics database.
There is no reason other than cutting costs for these companies to have ANY of these ingredients whether the parts per billion or parts for trillion! The fact that they put carcinogens in baby products and that the cord blood of newborns have over 300 harmful chemicals in it is just disturbing and WRONG! Europe bans 1300 and the U.S. bans 10 ingredients? What is wrong with this picture?
Oh and I am not just talking about carcinogens. These harmful chemicals have been linked to endocrine disruptors, ADHD, blindness, Alzheimer’s, Autism, just to name a few. These toxins we CAN control!