Chemical Hazards from Multiple Sources

The news of a statewide ban on phthalates follows several other alarms sounded recently about the presence of chemical dangers to health to which the public and wildlife are commonly exposed, in everyday consumer products and even new forms of advertising.

Wetlands advocates and other environmental groups have issued warnings and public safety requests to Bay Area residents to forgo phthalate- and bisphenol-containing plastics, cosmetics, and cleansers because the chemicals in these products find their way into runoff that kills or harms wildlife in the Bay. As for human health, phthalates – linked to cancer, birth defects, and neurological damage – were found in 75% of urine samples tested in a 2003 study on safety (http://www.environcorp.com/img/media/Phthalates.pdf).

Meanwhile, perfluorinated compounds – used in Scotchgard, Gortex, and nonstick surfaces like Teflon, are showing up in marine life literally throughout the world – the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic, the Ganges in India, the Midway Atoll in the Pacific, Korea, Canada and the US, and even as far away as Antarctica . These chemicals have caused hormone disruption, immune compromise, and devastating neurological effects. They have been linked to cancer in whales and dolphins, a disease previously unheard of in cetaceans (http://assets.panda.org/downloads/causesforconcern.pdf).

 

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Tags: advertising, brain, cancer, chemicals, environment, perfumes and fragrance, pheromones, phthalates, pollution, SF Bay, toxicity

Statewide Ban Enacted: Phthalates

Front-page news last week from the California Assembly highlighted passage of a statewide ban on phthalates, a softener in plastics (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/16/07). A nationwide push to ban phthalates is currently taking place in nine other states as well, according to the advocacy group Environment California. Though common in the US in items ranging from baby bottles, toys and teething rings to hospital IV bags, household cleansers and cosmetic fragrances, phthalates are banned in fourteen countries, as well as the European Union.

“Death by Perfume”

Long suspected of causing adverse health effects, phthalates in items ranging from plastics to perfumes have been linked to hormone disruption in animals, developmental damage in young children, and breast cancer (Gretchen Lee, Breast Cancer Fund, op cit). In the class of phthalates is the substance that “fixes” the scent in perfumes, making their smell linger. Phthalate enables molten acrylic to soften, and its noxious volatile odor is what causes nausea, headaches and other neurological symptoms in susceptible people when exposed to the smell of acrylic nails being applied in manicure shops.

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Tags: cancer, environment, perfumes and fragrance, pollution, toxicity

Even if your local climate affords a gloriously extended Indian summer, it is autumn now, and your body takes note even if you don’t. Afternoon temperatures may be peaking in the 70’s and 80’s, but changes in sunlight – both the amount of available light each day, and the increasingly slanted angle of the sun – have registered on your brain. Changes in light are what cause leaves to change color and drop off, birds to fly south for the winter, flowers and weeds to go to seed.

The pineal gland, in the center of the cranium at the base of the brain, receives sunlight at dawn through your closed lids, secreting melatonin in response to the light and waking you up. Your internal clock is set by this mechanism. So precise is this clock that it will wake you at the same time each morning with or without an alarm. It will wake you even at an odd hour, if you mentally program yourself to get up then.

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Tags: brain, cycles, fish oils, melatonin, mental health, nutrition, pineal, seasons, sunlight, Vitamin D