Sunday, January 16, 2011
Toxic Chemicals finding their way into the womb
2:44 PM | 
Posted by
Modern Green Clean |
Five years ago Molly and Zachery Gray were in the midst of a dark, lonely spiral. It began with Molly's first miscarriage.
"It was a really emotional process of being so joyful and so happy and ready to make that step into parenthood and that being pulled away from you," said Molly, 32. "[The pregnancy is] happening and all of a sudden it's gone. It's really hard."
After a second miscarriage the Grays were on a desperate hunt for answers. After Molly got pregnant a third time, she heard about a small study to test the blood of pregnant women for chemicals. She signed up.
The Grays wondered, as many do, if chemicals in the environment could be to blame. The science on this matter cannot yet give them an answer.
A growing number of studies are finding hundreds of toxic chemicals in mothers' and, subsequently, their babies' bodies when they are born. While there is no science yet that demonstrates conclusive cause and effect between this mix of toxic chemicals children are born with and particular health problems, a range of studies are finding associations between elevated levels of chemicals in a baby's body and their development. Not definitive cause and effect, but associations.
Special Report: Toxic America
Despite her best efforts to avoid anything unhealthy while she was pregnant with her son, Molly's blood tested high for mercury, a heavy metal that can cause brain damage to a developing fetus.
"It's really scary and disheartening," said Molly. "Somehow my son was being exposed to mercury and that's a weight to carry because I feel like our jobs as parents is to protect them, to care for them, to nurture them and to keep them out of harm's way."
Scientists at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York City have been following hundreds of pregnant women over the past 12 years to measure chemicals entering the womb during pregnancy.
The women trudge through the city for 48 hours wearing special backpacks, each with a long tube that is slung over the shoulder. The tube, resting inches below the pregnant mom's mouth, sucks air into a special filter, giving an approximate measurement of the air that she is breathing. The backpack is designed to measure ambient toxics spewed by vehicles, pesticides, and chemicals from common household products.
"It surprised me when we analyzed the air samples [from the backpacks] and found 100 percent of them had detectable levels of at least one pesticide and the air pollutants we were interested in," said Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the CCCEH and professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. "Every single one."
The concern does not stop with mothers breathing in toxics. The CCCEH study suggests moms are passing on those toxic chemicals to their babies. So far, the toxics measured in the backpacks match what scientists are finding in the cord blood of the babies once they are born.
It is a finding that begs questions for scientists like Perera about how these chemicals might be influencing the baby - whose ability to fend off toxic chemicals is considerably less than adults - while it develops in utero.
Small studies by other groups are also finding common household chemicals in babies.
"We've measured hundreds and hundreds of toxic chemicals in the blood of babies that are still in the womb," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. "Flame retardants, the chemicals in consumer products like personal care products, makeup, shampoos. It's a very long list."
The EWG study found an average of 232 chemicals in the cord blood of 10 babies born late last year.
They are chemicals found in a wide array of common household products -- a list that is as long as it is familiar -- shampoos and conditioners, cosmetics, plastics, shower curtains, mattresses, electronics like computers and cell phones, among others.
"For 80 percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, and the other developing organs," said Dr. Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"It's really a terrible mess we've gotten ourselves into."
Perera and her colleagues are following the children in their study from in utero, to birth, up to their first several years of life. They recently published a study in the journal Pediatrics demonstrating an association between the chemicals they found in babies' cord blood, and later problems on IQ tests and development.
"Fifteen percent of children [in our study] have at least one developmental problem," said Perera.
The amount of chemicals measured in the cord blood of the babies seems to matter. The higher the concentration, the more the IQ among children seems to dip. The study is also being conducted among pregnant women in Poland and China, and finding similar results.
Molly Gray still struggles with the idea that mercury from her blood may have been passed to her baby. This concern about chemicals is something she can't shake.
"There's plastics, there's mercury, there's pesticides," said Molly Gray, who is also a practicing midwife. "The things that we're cleaning our homes with, the things we're building our houses with. I think the sheer volume of the things we have to worry about is a little overwhelming."
Even when their son Paxton, now 11 months old, was born healthy, the Grays remained vigilant. As Paxton grows and develops, they steer clear of any products with potentially toxic chemicals. Still, they worry about what is out there in the environment that they cannot control.
"Knowing that he got these chemicals from my blood it's really scary," said Molly Gray. "Scary that we don't know what this means. Paxton and all of our future generations are carrying around this burden that we don't know what it means yet. It's the huge sea of unknown."
While studies continue about potential health risks to children from chemicals, experts suggest ways to protect them from potential toxics, ranging from incorporating organic food into their diet, to keeping the home relatively dust-free (many toxic chemicals are conveyed in dust), to avoiding using toxic chemicals found in common household products.
Article Source
Modern Green Clean - Your source for Norwex online! http://www.ModernGreenClean.com
"It was a really emotional process of being so joyful and so happy and ready to make that step into parenthood and that being pulled away from you," said Molly, 32. "[The pregnancy is] happening and all of a sudden it's gone. It's really hard."
After a second miscarriage the Grays were on a desperate hunt for answers. After Molly got pregnant a third time, she heard about a small study to test the blood of pregnant women for chemicals. She signed up.
The Grays wondered, as many do, if chemicals in the environment could be to blame. The science on this matter cannot yet give them an answer.
A growing number of studies are finding hundreds of toxic chemicals in mothers' and, subsequently, their babies' bodies when they are born. While there is no science yet that demonstrates conclusive cause and effect between this mix of toxic chemicals children are born with and particular health problems, a range of studies are finding associations between elevated levels of chemicals in a baby's body and their development. Not definitive cause and effect, but associations.
Special Report: Toxic America
Despite her best efforts to avoid anything unhealthy while she was pregnant with her son, Molly's blood tested high for mercury, a heavy metal that can cause brain damage to a developing fetus.
"It's really scary and disheartening," said Molly. "Somehow my son was being exposed to mercury and that's a weight to carry because I feel like our jobs as parents is to protect them, to care for them, to nurture them and to keep them out of harm's way."
Scientists at the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in New York City have been following hundreds of pregnant women over the past 12 years to measure chemicals entering the womb during pregnancy.
The women trudge through the city for 48 hours wearing special backpacks, each with a long tube that is slung over the shoulder. The tube, resting inches below the pregnant mom's mouth, sucks air into a special filter, giving an approximate measurement of the air that she is breathing. The backpack is designed to measure ambient toxics spewed by vehicles, pesticides, and chemicals from common household products.
"It surprised me when we analyzed the air samples [from the backpacks] and found 100 percent of them had detectable levels of at least one pesticide and the air pollutants we were interested in," said Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the CCCEH and professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. "Every single one."
The concern does not stop with mothers breathing in toxics. The CCCEH study suggests moms are passing on those toxic chemicals to their babies. So far, the toxics measured in the backpacks match what scientists are finding in the cord blood of the babies once they are born.
It is a finding that begs questions for scientists like Perera about how these chemicals might be influencing the baby - whose ability to fend off toxic chemicals is considerably less than adults - while it develops in utero.
Small studies by other groups are also finding common household chemicals in babies.
"We've measured hundreds and hundreds of toxic chemicals in the blood of babies that are still in the womb," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. "Flame retardants, the chemicals in consumer products like personal care products, makeup, shampoos. It's a very long list."
The EWG study found an average of 232 chemicals in the cord blood of 10 babies born late last year.
They are chemicals found in a wide array of common household products -- a list that is as long as it is familiar -- shampoos and conditioners, cosmetics, plastics, shower curtains, mattresses, electronics like computers and cell phones, among others.
"For 80 percent of the common chemicals in everyday use in this country we know almost nothing about whether or not they can damage the brains of children, the immune system, the reproductive system, and the other developing organs," said Dr. Phil Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
"It's really a terrible mess we've gotten ourselves into."
Perera and her colleagues are following the children in their study from in utero, to birth, up to their first several years of life. They recently published a study in the journal Pediatrics demonstrating an association between the chemicals they found in babies' cord blood, and later problems on IQ tests and development.
"Fifteen percent of children [in our study] have at least one developmental problem," said Perera.
The amount of chemicals measured in the cord blood of the babies seems to matter. The higher the concentration, the more the IQ among children seems to dip. The study is also being conducted among pregnant women in Poland and China, and finding similar results.
Molly Gray still struggles with the idea that mercury from her blood may have been passed to her baby. This concern about chemicals is something she can't shake.
"There's plastics, there's mercury, there's pesticides," said Molly Gray, who is also a practicing midwife. "The things that we're cleaning our homes with, the things we're building our houses with. I think the sheer volume of the things we have to worry about is a little overwhelming."
Even when their son Paxton, now 11 months old, was born healthy, the Grays remained vigilant. As Paxton grows and develops, they steer clear of any products with potentially toxic chemicals. Still, they worry about what is out there in the environment that they cannot control.
"Knowing that he got these chemicals from my blood it's really scary," said Molly Gray. "Scary that we don't know what this means. Paxton and all of our future generations are carrying around this burden that we don't know what it means yet. It's the huge sea of unknown."
While studies continue about potential health risks to children from chemicals, experts suggest ways to protect them from potential toxics, ranging from incorporating organic food into their diet, to keeping the home relatively dust-free (many toxic chemicals are conveyed in dust), to avoiding using toxic chemicals found in common household products.
Article Source
Modern Green Clean - Your source for Norwex online! http://www.ModernGreenClean.com
Labels:
Warning: Toxic chemical triclosan can turn your toothpaste into chloroform
For years, I have warned people of the danger of personal care products. If you look at the ingredients manufacturers put in their products -- soaps, deodorants, toothpastes and so on -- you will be horrified.
These ingredients are highly toxic and cause cancer.
They promote leukemia, nervous system disorders and liver problems. Now, some new information has come from Virginia Tech. Researchers that have found that the chemical triclosan, which is found in a lot of antimicrobial soaps and toothpaste products, can react with chlorine in the tap water.
Guess what you get?
(This is the horrifying part.) Chloroform.
This is a toxic chemical that can give you cancer. In the old movies, you might have seen someone give a person chloroform to knock them unconscious. If you breathe enough chloroform, you will die.
If you are brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has triclosan in it, and you are rinsing with tap water that has chlorine in it, you are getting a little chemical reaction right in your mouth. What a wonderful gift from the toothpaste manufacturers. That's not to mention that some of the toothpastes contain fluoride that isn't really fluoride but fluorosilicic acid, which is a toxic waste product that is molecularly similar to fluoride but has a much different effect on the human body -- a toxic effect. When you wash your hands with antibacterial soap that contains triclosan, you are getting the fumes emitted from this chemical reaction.
Your home could be full of toxic chemicals
Most people's homes are toxic waste dumps. They have products that contain triclosan, deodorants that contain aluminum (absorbed right through your skin), shampoos that have toxic fragrance chemicals and hair coloring products that contain cancer-causing chemicals. There are perfumes and colognes that people just slather on like they are taking a bath in them. Their senses get dulled, and soon they can't even smell the stuff anymore.
People also put on clothes that have been washed in detergent loaded with fragrance chemicals. These people run around in these clothes and sweat, which helps the toxicity absorb into the skin and bloodstream where it promotes cancer. There are fake air fresheners and furniture polishes that contain toxic chemicals. These products are all promoted as being helpful when really they are quite deadly.
Toothpaste is supposed to help you clean your teeth, but the number one ingredient in toothpaste is calcium carbonate, which is just ground-up seashells that actually mar the enamel on your teeth, giving bacteria a place to hide out and replicate. Some toothpaste also has formaldehyde in it.
The answer to why you are diseased is that if you are the average American consumer, you are bathing and living in a system of toxic chemicals that you have purchased and brought home. You use dish detergents that contain toxic chemicals and then eat off of the plates that were washed in them.
How crazy are we in this country that we keep on making products that kill people and putting them on the shelves and printing little "25 percent off" coupons?
You are seriously misled if you think you can just wipe out all of the bacteria in your house with antibacterial soap. Do you think you are going to be germ free? Have you checked your doorknobs and your own skin? What about your toothbrush?
I bet there are more colonies of bacteria in your toothbrush than there are people in the entire city in which you live. These antibacterial products are useless. They have no value on the market or in your home. It is all a huge marketing gimmick.
You need immune distress to be healthy
Do you think the microbes on your counter are giving you the flu? That's not what is giving you the flu. You have the flu because you poison your body with all these other toxic products, metabolic disrupters in the food supply and poor nutrition. These poisons create a weak body and weakened immune system, allowing opportunistic bacteria to replicate that wouldn't stand a chance if you had a healthy immune defense in the first place.
Even worse, the use of antimicrobial soaps promotes the spread of superbugs around your house. If you want to be a healthy individual, you have to have a little immune distress. If you don't, your immune system doesn't learn how to defend itself. Your immune system makes a pattern of every invading microbe, and it remembers that pattern forever, so it knows how to beat that invader in the future.
If you try to maintain a sterile environment, then your immune system never gets to learn how to do its job. You need some level of exposure to these germs or mild infectious agents if you want to have an active immune system.
Let's talk about fragrances a little more. Even guys that wouldn't wear perfume go out and buy laundry detergent that has perfume in it. When I go to the grocery store, I can't even go near the aisle with all the detergents or I get a headache. I am very sensitive to this because of my sensory acuity. I can pick up subtle sights, sounds and smells thanks to a healthy nervous system.
The manufacturers of products that have triclosan in them keep saying that it is perfectly safe and that it only affects the nervous systems of various organisms. They also say it's safe because you don't drink it. Sure, we aren't swallowing the stuff, but we sure are touching it and bathing in it.
Do you think the skin is impermeable?
The skin absorbs chemicals, and it can certainly absorb something like triclosan as well. How do you think the nicotine patch works? If nothing was absorbed through the skin, then these patches wouldn't work.
Studies show triclosan is toxic to your health
This Virginia Tech study shows that triclosan is a real health hazard. However, the companies using it are going to say that the study was flawed, and the amount that is used is so minimal that it is well within the safety levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
They may claim some other silly nonsense, too, but the truth is this ingredient has no place in or around the human body. Only fools coat their body with products containing triclosan.
Unfortunately, most people are fooled by this chemical, and they don't understand its real dangers. Personally, I don't need to wash my mouth out with something that is going to create chloroform. This is basic common sense. The fact that these products are even being allowed on the shelves defies common sense. Where has the sanity gone in our consumer products industry? It has been replaced by the profit motive.
Triclosan is put into these products for the convenience of the manufacturers. It will stop their product from going bad, and it allows them to make ridiculous claims on the label.
For example, a label may say, "Proven to kill 99.99 percent of bacteria." This sells products, yet it isn't based on any kind of science whatsoever.
If you are new to all this and think everything I just said is crazy, doesn't make any sense or is overly worrisome, then do your research. Don't believe everything I just said -- start doing some reading on triclosan. Start reading about aluminum in deodorants and fragrance in shampoos and perfume, and then you will discover the truth for yourself. You can search Google for information right now. Just search for "triclosan" and see what you find.
If you do the research and are honest with what you find, you will quickly discover that these products are a hazard to your health. They are a threat to you and your family and should be outlawed. They should be reformulated without cancer-causing ingredients. Of course, that would cost Big Business a lot of money. Companies use these ingredients because they are cheap. Where do you think the color comes from in mouthwash? It's from an artificial color chemical. What most manufacturers care about is moving products, and until Congress demands they stop using harmful ingredients, they're going to keep doing so.
I encourage you to find out about more about triclosan and stop using products that contain the chemical. Shop at health food stores. Stop giving your money to manufacturers who are poisoning and exploiting you for profit.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
Mike Adams
Modern Green Clean - Your source for Norwex online! http://www.ModernGreenClean.com
These ingredients are highly toxic and cause cancer.
They promote leukemia, nervous system disorders and liver problems. Now, some new information has come from Virginia Tech. Researchers that have found that the chemical triclosan, which is found in a lot of antimicrobial soaps and toothpaste products, can react with chlorine in the tap water.
Guess what you get?
(This is the horrifying part.) Chloroform.
This is a toxic chemical that can give you cancer. In the old movies, you might have seen someone give a person chloroform to knock them unconscious. If you breathe enough chloroform, you will die.
If you are brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has triclosan in it, and you are rinsing with tap water that has chlorine in it, you are getting a little chemical reaction right in your mouth. What a wonderful gift from the toothpaste manufacturers. That's not to mention that some of the toothpastes contain fluoride that isn't really fluoride but fluorosilicic acid, which is a toxic waste product that is molecularly similar to fluoride but has a much different effect on the human body -- a toxic effect. When you wash your hands with antibacterial soap that contains triclosan, you are getting the fumes emitted from this chemical reaction.
Your home could be full of toxic chemicals
Most people's homes are toxic waste dumps. They have products that contain triclosan, deodorants that contain aluminum (absorbed right through your skin), shampoos that have toxic fragrance chemicals and hair coloring products that contain cancer-causing chemicals. There are perfumes and colognes that people just slather on like they are taking a bath in them. Their senses get dulled, and soon they can't even smell the stuff anymore.
People also put on clothes that have been washed in detergent loaded with fragrance chemicals. These people run around in these clothes and sweat, which helps the toxicity absorb into the skin and bloodstream where it promotes cancer. There are fake air fresheners and furniture polishes that contain toxic chemicals. These products are all promoted as being helpful when really they are quite deadly.
Toothpaste is supposed to help you clean your teeth, but the number one ingredient in toothpaste is calcium carbonate, which is just ground-up seashells that actually mar the enamel on your teeth, giving bacteria a place to hide out and replicate. Some toothpaste also has formaldehyde in it.
The answer to why you are diseased is that if you are the average American consumer, you are bathing and living in a system of toxic chemicals that you have purchased and brought home. You use dish detergents that contain toxic chemicals and then eat off of the plates that were washed in them.
How crazy are we in this country that we keep on making products that kill people and putting them on the shelves and printing little "25 percent off" coupons?
You are seriously misled if you think you can just wipe out all of the bacteria in your house with antibacterial soap. Do you think you are going to be germ free? Have you checked your doorknobs and your own skin? What about your toothbrush?
I bet there are more colonies of bacteria in your toothbrush than there are people in the entire city in which you live. These antibacterial products are useless. They have no value on the market or in your home. It is all a huge marketing gimmick.
You need immune distress to be healthy
Do you think the microbes on your counter are giving you the flu? That's not what is giving you the flu. You have the flu because you poison your body with all these other toxic products, metabolic disrupters in the food supply and poor nutrition. These poisons create a weak body and weakened immune system, allowing opportunistic bacteria to replicate that wouldn't stand a chance if you had a healthy immune defense in the first place.
Even worse, the use of antimicrobial soaps promotes the spread of superbugs around your house. If you want to be a healthy individual, you have to have a little immune distress. If you don't, your immune system doesn't learn how to defend itself. Your immune system makes a pattern of every invading microbe, and it remembers that pattern forever, so it knows how to beat that invader in the future.
If you try to maintain a sterile environment, then your immune system never gets to learn how to do its job. You need some level of exposure to these germs or mild infectious agents if you want to have an active immune system.
Let's talk about fragrances a little more. Even guys that wouldn't wear perfume go out and buy laundry detergent that has perfume in it. When I go to the grocery store, I can't even go near the aisle with all the detergents or I get a headache. I am very sensitive to this because of my sensory acuity. I can pick up subtle sights, sounds and smells thanks to a healthy nervous system.
The manufacturers of products that have triclosan in them keep saying that it is perfectly safe and that it only affects the nervous systems of various organisms. They also say it's safe because you don't drink it. Sure, we aren't swallowing the stuff, but we sure are touching it and bathing in it.
Do you think the skin is impermeable?
The skin absorbs chemicals, and it can certainly absorb something like triclosan as well. How do you think the nicotine patch works? If nothing was absorbed through the skin, then these patches wouldn't work.
Studies show triclosan is toxic to your health
This Virginia Tech study shows that triclosan is a real health hazard. However, the companies using it are going to say that the study was flawed, and the amount that is used is so minimal that it is well within the safety levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
They may claim some other silly nonsense, too, but the truth is this ingredient has no place in or around the human body. Only fools coat their body with products containing triclosan.
Unfortunately, most people are fooled by this chemical, and they don't understand its real dangers. Personally, I don't need to wash my mouth out with something that is going to create chloroform. This is basic common sense. The fact that these products are even being allowed on the shelves defies common sense. Where has the sanity gone in our consumer products industry? It has been replaced by the profit motive.
Triclosan is put into these products for the convenience of the manufacturers. It will stop their product from going bad, and it allows them to make ridiculous claims on the label.
For example, a label may say, "Proven to kill 99.99 percent of bacteria." This sells products, yet it isn't based on any kind of science whatsoever.
If you are new to all this and think everything I just said is crazy, doesn't make any sense or is overly worrisome, then do your research. Don't believe everything I just said -- start doing some reading on triclosan. Start reading about aluminum in deodorants and fragrance in shampoos and perfume, and then you will discover the truth for yourself. You can search Google for information right now. Just search for "triclosan" and see what you find.
If you do the research and are honest with what you find, you will quickly discover that these products are a hazard to your health. They are a threat to you and your family and should be outlawed. They should be reformulated without cancer-causing ingredients. Of course, that would cost Big Business a lot of money. Companies use these ingredients because they are cheap. Where do you think the color comes from in mouthwash? It's from an artificial color chemical. What most manufacturers care about is moving products, and until Congress demands they stop using harmful ingredients, they're going to keep doing so.
I encourage you to find out about more about triclosan and stop using products that contain the chemical. Shop at health food stores. Stop giving your money to manufacturers who are poisoning and exploiting you for profit.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of super bright LED light bulbs that are 1000% more energy efficient than incandescent lights. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
Mike Adams
Modern Green Clean - Your source for Norwex online! http://www.ModernGreenClean.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
