TOXINS - INTRODUCTION:
People’s “body burden” of Contaminates

From 1973 to 1998, the overall incidence of cancer increased by almost 25%. In the last 20 years, asthma rates have skyrocketed almost 50%. Americans now spend billions every year to deal with allergic diseases, including a brand new one called multiple chemical sensitivity whose symptoms are currently reported by some 15-30% of the U.S. population.

Exposure to toxins in the air, water, and food are cumulative, the total of which scientists call a person’s “body burden.” The affects vary with the amount of the chemical a person is exposed to as well as their personal sensitivity.

Chemicals have poisoned all of the world, harming humans, wildlife, and plant life, on land, sea and air. Approximately 100,000 synthetic chemicals are now on the market, with one thousand new chemicals are added yearly.

There has not been a major regulation of a chemical in more than 15 years. Of the more than 80,000 chemicals that have been in commercial use since World War II, just five types are regulated: PCB's, halogenated chlorofluoroalkanes, dioxin, asbestos and hexavalent chromium.

Chemicals are never tested in combination, for once in the environment, compounds are altered in combination with others. Chemical companies are not required to tell EPA how their compounds are used or monitor where their products end up in the environment. Neither does U.S. law require chemical companies to conduct basic health and safety testing of their products either before or after they are commercialized. Eighty percent of all applications to produce a new chemical are approved by the U.S. EPA with no health and safety data. Eighty percent of these are approved in three weeks. The United States has the most poorly tested chemicals in the world, see http://www.chemicalindustryarchives.org/factfiction/testing.asp.

Hormone disruptors Testing chemicals for toxicity has always focused on the effect of large doses. However, researchers have now found that these synthetic chemicals can harm people with very small amounts, by confusing the messages of hormones in the body. In the embryo and fetus of all species, hormones guide the development of sexual organs, nervous and immune systems, the brain, and other tissues and organs.

Synthetic chemicals can interfere with this process, disrupting the normal hormonal function in wildlife and humans. This can happen in a number of ways: they can block natural hormones from binding with their cell receptors; they can mimic natural hormones and bind to the receptor, thus sending a message to cells at the wrong time; or they can alter the production and availability of natural hormones.

Scorecard by Environmental Defense. http://www.scorecard.org/ Search by issue and by zip code-for information about local air pollution and interactive maps. You can fax a polluting company, contact your elected representatives, or volunteer with environmental organizations working in your community. It ranks and compares the pollution situation in areas across the US. Scorecard also profiles 6,800 chemicals, making it easy to find out where they are used and how hazardous they are.

Compiled from World Wildlife Fund Canadahttp://wwf.ca/satellite/reduce-risk/c_h-dp.html and The Environmental Working Group - Body Burden: the Pollution in People http://www.ewg.org/reports/bodyburden/es.php

Here is a short list of problematic ingredients that are easily avoided, compiled from Green Seal, Seventh Generation, and Washington Toxics Coalition resources:

• Corrosives. Avoid products labeled "Danger. Corrosive." Corrosives include some of the most dangerous chemicals in the home, such as lye, hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid, and sulfuric acid — the active agents in many drain cleaners, oven cleaners, and toilet cleaners. These chemicals can burn the skin, cause internal burns if ingested, and explode if used incorrectly.
• Chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach is irritating to the lungs and eyes and contains trace amounts of organochlorines — extremely persistent and toxic chemical compounds known to cause cancer in animals, among other serious health problems. When mixed with ammonia, chlorine forms a potentially deadly gas.
  Background on Chlorine is at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=84419
• Ammonia. Many home recipes and commercial products contain ammonia, but it is a strong eye and lung irritant and should particularly be avoided by anyone with asthma or other lung sensitivities.
• Phosphates. Phosphates are naturally occurring minerals used in automatic dishwashing detergents as a water softener. When released back into the environment, phosphates can cause algae blooms in lakes and ponds that kill aquatic life. Look for "phosphate-free" dishwashing detergets, try a homemade recipe of half borax and half washing soda instead, or skip the dishwasher and use a dishpan and regular dish soap instead.
  Background on Phosphates is at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=84424
• Petroleum products. Many surfactants (cleaning agents) are refined petroleum products that are linked with health problems and require environmentally harsh methods to extract and distill. Seventh Generation estimates that "the average household contains 63 different synthetic organic chemical products which total approximately 10 gallons of potentially hazardous petrochemicals." A few specific ones to avoid: diethylene glycol, nonylphenol ethxylate, and butyl cellosolve.
  Background on Petroleum is at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=84420
• Pesticides See information at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=83941

From http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/greencleaning.php

There is a Chemical Glossary which gives products the chemicals are found in, at http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=83960

POPs - Persistent Organic Pollutants

A new category of pollutant is called Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which for the first time the many existing toxic compounds it includes have been grouped together under a single label. This shift marks an important change in the way we think about chemicals, the pollution they create, and the ways in which we might we regulate them.

Ever since synthetic chemicals first began to be mass produced in the early 20th century, they have been largely regulated on a case-by-case basis. When there were only a handful of compounds being manufactured in small amounts, this piecemeal approach worked reasonably well. But the swift growth of the chemical industry and the avalanche of new materials it unleashed soon rendered this strategy ineffective. Today, there are over 70,000 different chemical compounds in production and some 6 trillion total pounds being manufactured in the U.S. each year. Yet in spite of this variety and volume, an obsolete one-chemical-at-a-time approach to regulation continues.

Creating a new category of chemicals called POPs represents the critical first step toward developing a better and more effective regulatory system, one based not on controlling chemicals individually, but on regulating entire classes of compounds with a single set of rules. The POP category takes this approach one step further by using a new and different set of parameters to determine whether or not to assign this label to a particular chemical. Previously, science and government alike tended to group compounds together according to their chemical similarities. Membership in the POP family of chemicals, on the other hand, is determined by how a specific chemical behaves in the environment and in the human body.

POPs include many pesticides, industrial chemicals like PCBs,  organochlorines, and by-products of a variety of manufacturing and waste incineration processes like  dioxins. Because it is a new kind of chemical category based on health and environmental effects, not chemistry, any compound can be a labeled a POP as long as it has these characteristics:

• It resists biodegradation and therefore persists in the environment.
• It builds up in body fat and accumulates in ever higher levels as it migrates up the food chain.
• It travels efficiently throughout the atmosphere and global waters.
• Many POPs are linked to serious hormonal, reproductive, neurological and/or immune disorders. http://www.seventhgeneration.com/site/pp.asp?c=coIHKTMHF&b=84422

For more information about POPs visit:
Greenpeace International http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics International POPs Elimination Network http://ipen.ecn.cz/ United Nations Environmental Program http://www.chem.unep.ch/pops/