Blissful ignorance, oh how I miss thee.
Once upon a time I ate whatever I felt like, without checking labels. I used whatever products were affordable and readily available on the shelf. I didn’t give a second thought to freezing and subsequently melting a bottle of water in a plastic bottle and then drinking it.
Those days are long gone, because once you wake up to the dangers in literally everything around us, it’s impossible to go back to pretending like we don’t know and just haphazardly living without giving these situations serious thought.
Do me a favor. Think back and compare. How many instances of cancer, auto-immune disease and “mystery illnesses” did you hear about growing up? How many people did you know who died of one of these illnesses 20-30-40 years ago? The numbers don’t lie. The instance of diseases are increasing exponentially and the US is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to unhealthy residents.
we are being systematically poisoned
Most chemicals currently used in the United States have never been sufficiently tested for their effects on human health.
Food, furniture, cosmetics, household cleaners, toys, everything we use and consume on a daily basis is comprised of over 80,000 chemicals currently being used to create our goods, without regard for how it can and will affect our bodies.
“What we don’t know can really hurt us. And there’s a lot we don’t know… In the United States, chemicals are innocent until proven guilty. And, the only way they are proven guilty is by health effects turning up in people who have been exposed, often years later. In some ways, that makes us all guinea pigs.” – Sanjay Gupta
There was a study done by Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health that followed hundreds of pregnant woman over the span of 12 years and tested the quality of air they consumed throughout their day. Dr. Frederica Perera, director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health. “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.” – Perera
WHY ARE WE SO BEHIND?!
There are toxic ingredients being used in literally everything we consume. The rest of the world seems to be eons ahead of the US when it comes to banning harmful substances. Let’s look at the cosmetic industry, for example. While we ban 11 ingredients, he European Union bans over 1,300!!!
“In the European Union, they take more of a precautionary approach, so if an ingredient is presumed to be hazardous, or thought to cause health harm, they’ll restrict or prohibit it,” says Nneka Leiba, Vice President of Healthy Living Science at the Environmental Working Group. “That’s not America’s approach. Here in the U.S., the laws haven’t been updated since 1938.”
NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT WAS ALMOST 100 YEARS AGO. Have we learned nothing in that time?
In the European Union, if there’s a chance that an ingredient may be linked to cancer and/or birth defects they very simply BAN them. They do not wait and see if “enough” people get sick and/or die before taking action to prevent further loss. They do not mess around with concentration levels and exceptions. They straightforwardly ban chemicals that can cause detrimental health issues.
The EU Cosmetics Directive (76/768/EEC) was adopted in January 2003 and most recently revised in 2013. The EU law bans 1,328 chemicals from cosmetics that are known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation, reproductive harm or birth defects. Unlike the United States, EU law requires pre-market safety assessments of cosmetics, mandatory registration of cosmetic products, government authorization for the use of nanomaterials and prohibits animal testing for cosmetic purposes. [1]
Exposures from a typical daily diet in the western US
Results from various studies show that the average person living in the Midwestern United States can expect to be exposed to toxic ingredients an average of 63 times per day. Below you’ll find exposure rates for the different regions of the country as well as for a traditional holiday dinner.
- Midwest US: 63 exposures per day
- North east US: 64 exposures per day
- South east US: 70 exposures per day
- Western US: 66 exposures per day
- Holiday dinner: 38 exposures in a single meal [2]
Another interesting study shows the detriment of pesticides on the health of farmers along their lifespan. Here is one of the findings of the study from 2015 – Present:
- Age-related macular degeneration was associated with using chlordane, DDT, malathion and captan.
- Daily use of diesel tractors was associated with increased rates of lung cancer.
- Protective glove use and hygiene practices were associated with a reduced rate of Parkinson’s Disease among farmers using paraquat, permethrin, and trifluralin.
- Alachlor use was associated with higher rates of laryngeal cancer. [3]
Looking to switch over to clean products? Let’s connect, let me know where you want to start and I’ll recommend my favorite clean alternatives!
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REFERENCES
[1] Swanson Elizabeth 1,300 Cosmetic Ingredients Are Banned in the United Kingdom, Compared to 11 in the United States—Here’s Why (https://www.safecosmetics.org/get-the-facts/regulations/international-laws/)
[2]Schafer K S, Kegley S E Persistent toxic chemicals in the US food supply ( https://jech.bmj.com/content/56/11/813#xref-ref-1-1 )
[3] Agriculture health study ( https://aghealth.nih.gov/news/2018.html#p4)
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