Understanding Chemical Contaminants and Their Health Impact
Toxic Compounds in Our Environment
Hard to believe, but our bodies are becoming a sort of central waste repository. No less than 300 chemical contaminants are concentrated throughout our anatomy. Our daily routines are filled with substances hazardous to health, even those we use for cleaning or personal care.
It’s not only environmental pollution; even house cleaning, applying makeup, or eating certain foods can become real attacks on health if we don’t choose the right products.
“We live in a chemical world,” as denounced by environmentalists. And the figures speak for themselves: the amount of chemicals produced by humans and released into the atmosphere has increased from 1,000 kilos in 1930 to more than 400 million tonnes of dangerous and abundant technical compounds, and some others.
Household and Personal Care Contaminants
Surely, if you look at the cleaning and hygiene products stored in your bathroom cabinets and kitchen, you will find that your home is a miniature source of contamination. Artificial fragrances, antibacterial agents, and solvents are just some of the most common components found in toilet cleaners, colognes, or makeup.
According to WWF’s website, “to buy these products is a lottery,” because it’s often hard to find pollutants listed among the ingredients on labels, even though they are part of the composition of many of these products.
Triclosan: A Common Antibacterial Agent
This is the case of triclosan, an antibacterial agent present in toothpastes and cleaning products, among others. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) includes it within its list of pesticides and recognizes the existence of certain human health risks, WWF says. This product is a chlorophenol, a substance used in various industries. According to studies published in the journal Nature, this substance could have the ability to develop strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.
Categories of Hazardous Substances
The substances most hazardous to our health are often divided into two very different groups:
Bioaccumulative Substances
These are substances that have the ability to persist for a long time without their long-term effects being fully understood, because once emitted into the atmosphere, they are not destroyed.
Each month, more than 600 new chemical substances appear.
Endocrine Disruptors (EDCs)
These may interfere with the functioning of certain human hormonal systems (e.g., estrogen, androgen, thyroid), potentially resulting in substantial neuronal or reproductive damage.
Concerns Over Lax Regulation
Environmental groups complain about the lax regulation in force in the European Union. Among their protests, they highlight the fact that the EU does not recognize the damage EDCs can cause even with very small amounts, nor the special sensitivity of children to these types of contaminants.
Scientific Consensus and Warnings
A group of sixty scientists from various institutions across Europe recently signed the WWF declaration on these substances. Thus, while they stressed that bioaccumulative products are “undesirable” due to their many effects on human health, they added that it would be “prudent to eliminate, or at least minimize, human exposure to EDCs” because of the irremediable effects they can cause in living organisms.
Personal Exposure: A Case Study
Two years ago, Elizabeth Salter Green underwent a test to determine the level of contaminants in her body. She had a child and wanted to make sure she wasn’t a ‘wandering dump’. Elizabeth, a conscious Londoner, avoided pesticides in her garden and ate healthy foods, no different from millions of her fellow citizens. However, when she saw the laboratory results, she could not believe it. Her body carried pesticides and contaminants banned in the West for some decades, but which arrive here through imports from other parts of the world.
The Ever-Growing List of Substances of Concern
The list of substances of ‘concern’ is almost endless.