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Of all the toxins we are exposed to in our homes and communities, phthalates (pronounced "THAL-ates") may be the most insidious. Despite the increasing evidence on the dangers the general population continues to be oblivious to the toxins lurking in the plastics and fragrances in their homes. Like BPA and Parabens, there are currently no regulations in the US to protect us from manufacturers ignoring the dangers.
Consumers in the US have to start insisting on safer products for our families. It's been estimated about a billion pounds of phthalates are produced worldwide annually. Wow. It's hard to comprehend how they can be avoided. It's currently up to us to do the hard work to find alternative products. Hard, because phthalates are in so many things. Phthalates are in our bodies, our homes and our water. They are used as plasticizers to soften plastics, especially PVC plastic (#3) and to make nail polish flexible and chip-resistant. They're in shower curtains and hair spray, soft vinyl toys for pour children and pets. They are also used in body products to make the product penetrate the skin more easily, and in fragrances, hand creams, deodorants, laundry detergents perfumes and colognes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) measured human phthalate exposures in 2000 and found high levels of phthalates in every single one of the 289 people tested (Blount 2000). What do they do? One effect is the disruption of the production of testosterone. They block male hormones responsible for making a male into a male. A common pthalate, dibutyl pthalate has been proven in animal studies to contribute to low sperm count, and birth defects of the testicles and penis. Another, diethyl phthalate (DEP), has been correlated by Harvard researchers with DNA damage in male sperm which can lead to infertility or birth defects. DEP is common in cosmetics, colognes and perfumes. Studies have not been conclusive, but as a hormone disrupter phthalates (along with parabens and other toxic chemicals) are suspect in estrogen positive breast tumors. Part of the problem in conducting definitive studies is the lack of full disclosure of ingredients in the US. Products have to independently tested first to determine what's in them. What You Can Do: ~ Stop using products with fragrances other than certified natural organic oils (although you should be aware some folks are sensitive to these as well). Get rid of the dryer sheets, perfumes, scented hand lotions and diffusers. Here's a good series of updated articles on the health hazards of fragrances in our cleaning and body products. ~ When you have to purchase plastic, look for plastic products such as toys and Shower Curtain Liners that are PVC and phthalate free. If they have that "plastic smell", don't buy them. ~ Purchase natural and organic body products and cosmetics. Check the ingredients at the Cosmetics Database. Note that starting in June 2011, Whole Foods will not keep any cosmetic or body product on their shelves that claims to be organic if it isn't actually certified as organic. ~ Read labels. Many won't tell you all the ingredients, but some will. Find safer products on one of the many sites now available, a few are listed here for you: EWG's Skin Deep and the Cosmetics Database.com LessToxicGuide.ca Dangerous Household Chemicals ~ Support legislation to get our products regulated. There are currently two in the US, HR 5820, The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2013 (TCSA) and the Kid Safe Chemical Act. Find the name and addresses of your representatives, and write to them. ~Keep up with the issues, some good sites are: The Alliance for a HealthyTomorrow Teens Turning Green Not a Guinea Pig Campaign for Safe Cosmetics National Resources Defense Council Washington Toxics Coalition Health and Environmental Alliance Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families ~ Let companies know why you aren't purchasing their products. Comment on their products on their websites. This is a great way to flex your consumer muscle. ~ Good books on the subject include: Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?--A Scientific Detective Story The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-Being I'll keep you "posted".
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Toothpaste, mouthwash, soap and "hand cleansers" are among those products we use every day containing the dangerous antibacterial triclosan. I've written about the concerns with these antibacterial products before in my post entitled Triclosan -- Avoid It!. Here's yet another reason to stop using these products. A study at the University of California at Davis indicates high levels of triclosan may impair the ability of the heart and skeletal muscles to contract. The authors expect that this would only be a possibility for those who have an existing heart condition, but why take chances. A chemical that has already been found to be creating super bugs and is suspect in cancer isn't worth having in our homes.
Speaking of the super bugs, antibiotic type medications for TB are just one of the treatments that arebecoming less and less effective because of the new strains of organisms that have developed because of our use of the antibacterial products. As the NIH puts it, "TB bacteria evolve to outwit the TB antibiotics". Many of our old time antibiotics are no longer effective. Some health experts are calling this a serious health crisis. There are plenty of products out there without these dangerous antibacterials in their ingredients. Shop around and, as they say, be apart of the solution. There are so many good books about green living out there that I stopped picking up every one I see years ago. I have my favorites that I consider classics, Debra Lynn Dadd’s original Nontoxic and Natural (I’ll talk more about her another time) among others. Now I've added a new one to my list of classics. I picked up Renee Loux’s Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home primarily because her book on raw foods, Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods is on my cookbook shelf. Honestly, I’ve never seen her show so I didn’t realize she was also a natural living expert.
I'm glad I picked it up, as it is a book that anyone interested in starting or furthering a natural lifestyle should own. It is priceless as a resource book. It’s particularly valuable because the information isn’t likely to become obsolete as some books in this genre do. This is because she doesn’t just rely on identifying safe brand names and products in the market place. She also gives detailed lists of chemicals to avoid and make it yourself alternatives. She lists the dangers of the chemicals or contaminants in each area, everything from laundry detergents to bedding. She explains very clearly what to look for, what to avoid, and what the alternatives are. You can probably guess from my writing I particularly enjoy the new homemade formulas she offers to add to my repertoire. I highly recommend this book for those starting on the path to discovering natural health as well as seasoned natural health gurus. Antibiotics, hormones, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers & tranquilizers, typical contents of a locked hospital supply room. It may also be the contents of your drinking water. It’s also likely it contains insecticides, detergents, artificial sweeteners fire retardants, plasticizers and triclosan. All in very small amounts, but nevertheless there. Today I want to focus on pharmaceuticals.
Numerous studies have been done to assess the quality of our drinking water. In recent years many of these studies have focused on pharmaceuticals. An Associated Press investigation in 2008 determined pharmaceuticals such as these have been found in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million Americans. The US Geological service has identified pharmaceuticals in 80% of the country’s rivers and streams. Similar findings have been reported in Canada, Japan, Great Britain, the list goes on. How does this happen? We are using more and more medications and naturally the waste is excreted and goes into the water system. Up until recently, people were advised to dispose of all unused medication by flushing it down the toilet; now it’s only recommended for more dangerous medications that need to be disposed of quickly and “permanently”. Some medications are resistant to treatment in our waste water plants & many old septic systems leak the waste. They’re treated in a waste water plant or a septic system, and the remnants are released into the local stream and aquifer, where the water is pulled back up for us to drink. Some pharmaceuticals are even made more toxic when combined with chlorine. Many bottled water companies don’t test for pharmaceuticals or purify the water before bottling, so that’s another possible source. Are there cattle grazing in the local stream? Many are being treated with steroids or antibiotics. The stream is connected to an aquifer that’s connected to a water supply. You get the picture. Naturally the water downstream of hospitals, retirement facilities and nursing homes has been found to have a particularly high level of pharmaceuticals. Aquatic life is already being affected by the contaminants in our water, and as drought conditions become more common, the contaminants become concentrated. Frogs develop deformities at relatively low levels of contamination, and they are being affected; in Colorado’s Boulder Creek studies by the University of Colorado at Boulder found that 50 percent of the male white suckers have developed female sex tissue, and the female fish outnumber the males more than five to one. Evidence suggests this is because of the estrogen and other chemicals causing esogenic (hormone mimicing) effects in the water. What can we do? First of all - don’t make it a habit to drink unfiltered water. Don’t flush unused medication down the toilet. You can contact the manufacturer or your pharmacist to find a local take back program. Some doctor’s offices have a receptacle to take your expired and unused medication. Your local or county health department or police station may have a disposal site or a collection day. If none of these options pan out for you, you can dispose of pills and tablets in the garbage if your garbage goes to an incinerator, liquids can be disposed after pouring them in a plastic bag with absorbent kitty litter or sand. This is clearly not a great option, but the best we have. Support efforts to make pharmaceuticals that degrade quicker, currently in the early stages of research. The best solution is to combine all of these efforts with more effective technologies at our waste water plants, but the cost to make them effective is currently prohibitive for most communities. So stay tuned as the environmental and health communities continue to search for viable solutions. Did you know there's a "Green Guide" published by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)? The guide was last updated in 1998. There has been such a proliferation of green companies and green-washing claims in the ensuing years that updating the guide was actually initiated ahead of schedule. The comment period was closed last fall, and we're awaiting the new version.
A summary of the proposed changes can be seen here. Modifications to the older version will include adding newer terms such as carbon offsets. Looking at the older version, it's actually pretty interesting reading. Entitled a "Guide for the use of Environmental Marketing Claims", it outlines numerous terms and product implications that might be used to market an alleged "green" product or service, with examples of how the terminology should be used, as well as where it would be misleading and therefore not acceptable. For example in 260.6, under the category of (c) Overstatement of environmental attribute, one example is: "A package is labeled, “50% more recycled content than before.” The manufacturer increased the recycled content of its package from 2 percent recycled material to 3 percent recycled material. Although the claim is technically true, it is likely to convey the false impression that the advertiser has increased significantly the use of recycled material." Because the Green Guides are administrative interpretations of the law, they don't have the force and effect of law and they are not independently enforceable. However, if a marketer makes claims that aren't in keeping with the Guides, the FTC can take corrective action under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices. Their site has a place where complaints can be made, but they wisely recommend researching first to make sure a complainant understands the parameters of what the FTC does and what can be accomplished by filing a complaint. The site gives a lot of information about the FTC and the areas it covers, of particular interest to me are the consumer protections. Also of interest, if you'd like a current list of environmental marketing cases or copies of individual cases you can call the FTC Consumer Response Center at (202) 326–2222. |
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