Home Is Where The It All Begins

"Home Sweet Home", or is it? The home contains many toxins that we are unaware of, some of those toxins we actually bring into the home ourselves.  It is reported that 90 percent of the poisonings each year is caused by toxins found in and around the home.  These figures are from medicine to household bleach.  What they don't include is long term exposure to certain toxins.

Here is a list of some of the chemicals we use in our homes and expose our families to not knowing the harmful affects.

• Carbon monoxide caused by an unserviced furnace burning propane, butane or oil.

• Arsenic is still used in many household pesticides and is increasingly used as a wood preservative.  Low levels of non organic arsenic "may increase lung cancer risk."

• Vinyl chloride Also known as that new car smell. PVC pipes in your house with water sitting in them all night can have vinyl chloride leaking into the water making the water contaminated, which can cause severe liver damage. (Run the water if it hasn't been used in a while to flush out the standing water.)

• Disinfectants: Phenaols, which include biphenyl, phenolics and the perservative pentachoraphenol, are found in disinfectants, antiseptics, perfume, mouthwashes, glues and air fresheners.

• Formaldehyde off gases (evaporates) from cushions, particle board and adhesives and to manufacture most inexpensive wood bases products.  This can cause eye and upper respiratory irritation.

There are more but these a just a few of the things we bring or have in our homes.  This list was found on Marthedal. 

Its In The Air

Children are more susceptible to chemicals in their surroundings, they breath faster then grown-ups so the are inhaling more.  They are touching surfaces then putting their hands and toys in their mouths exposing them to not only to germs which is always the first thing that parents think about but to any toxic product that has been used on that surface or sprayed into the air that has coated the surface with it’s droplets.

In the home we spray, spritz, wipe down surfaces or think we are cleaning the air, when indeed we might be irritating our children’s bronchial tract.  They might be inhaling toxins directly into their young lungs.  Surfaces that are cleaned with chemical products SHOULD ALWAYS BE RINSED OFF!

Adults have choices Children don’t… If you use spray deodorant or air fresheners. Also keep in mind the young ones that will be inhaling everything you put into the air.  Keep in mind what ever you wash their clothing or yours in can also contain harmful chemicals.  Many fabric softeners can be absorbed into your skin so not only are you inhaling but your bodily absorbing these products. 

Read Labels check out the chemicals they contain be informed, help others be informed. We might have clean environments with less germs but what is the price our families are paying.  We Are Not As Safe As We Think. 

Click to see Short Video Take Out Toxics

Lotion Potion

Fragrance in the products we use can be harmful to your health and that of your unborn child. 

There are two types of musk used in fragrances, personal care products, and cosmetics. 

One is nitromusks, which include musk keytones and polycyclic musk which are Galaxolide and Tonalide.

Synthetic musks (Galaxolide and Tonalide) are used in many personal care products, such as lotions, perfumes, colognes and body sprays. 

There is evidence that exposure to synthetic musk have been shown that they can affect androgen and progesterone receptors. 

Tonalide is also identified as a photo sensitizer – what does that mean for us? 

 It means it is releasing toxins into our bodies, and into the bodies of our unborn children.  Synthetic musks have been found in the umbilical cord blood and 7 out of 10 babies have been born with Tonalide and/or Galaxolide already in their blood.

Synthetic musks have been found in the blood of young adults and also in mothers breast milk.  So the next time you spray on that fragrance, or lather that body lotion on to soften your skin, you might want to think about what else it might be doing to you and your loved ones…

Further Information can be found in these articles:

http://www.safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=887

i. Parker RD, Buehler EV, Newmann EA. 1986. Phototoxicity, photoallergy, and contact sensitization of nitro musk perfume raw materials. Contact Dermatitis. 14(2): 103-9.


ii. Environmental Working Group (EWG) 2009. Pollution in Minority Newborns. Available: http://www.ewg.org/minoritycordblood.


iii. Seinen W, Lemmen JG, Pieters RH, Verbruggen EM, Van der Burg B. (1999). AHTN and HHCB show weak estrogenic but no uterotrophic activity. Toxicol. Lett. 111, 161–168.


iv. Schreurs RH, Sonneveld E, Jansen JH, Seinen W, van der Burg B. 2005. Interaction of polycyclic musks and UV filters with the estrogen receptor (ER), androgen receptor (AR), and progesterone receptor (PR) in reporter gene bioassays. Toxicol Sci. 83(2): 264-72.


v. Bitsch N, Dudas C, Körner W, Failing K, Biselli S, Rimkus G, Brunn H. 2002. Estrogenic activity of musk fragrances detected by the E-screen assay using human mcf-7 cells. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 43(3): 257-64.


vi. European Union Risk Assessment Report. 2008a.1-(5,6,7,8-TETRAHYDRO-3,5,5,6,8,8-HEXAMETHYL-2-NAPHTHYL)ETHAN-1-ONE (AHTN) CAS No: 1506-02-1 or 21145-77-7. Available: http://ecb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home.php?CONTENU=/DOCUMENTS/Existing-Chemicals/


vii. Steinberg P, Fischer T, Arand M, Park E, Elmadfa I, Rimkus G, Brunn H, Dienes HP. (1999). Acute hepatotoxicity of the polycyclic musk 7-acetyl-1,1,3,4,4,6-hexamethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphtaline (AHTN). Toxicol Lett.,111(1-2), pp151-60.


viii. Rimkus, G.G. and M. Wolf, Polycyclic musk fragrances in human adipose tissue and human milk. Chemosphere, 1996. 33(10): p. 2033-43.


ix. Hutter HP, Wallner P, Moshammer H, Hartl W, Sattelberger R, Lorbeer G, Kundi M. 2005. Blood concentrations of polycyclic musks in healthy young adults. Chemosphere. 59(4): 487-92.


x. Hutter, HP, P Wallner, H Moshammer, W Hartl, R Sattelberger, G Lorbeer and M Kundi. 2009. Synthetic musks in blood of healthy young adults: Relationship to cosmetics use. Science of the Total Environment 407:4821-4825.


xi. Lignell S, Darnerud PO, Aune M, Cnattingius S, Hajslova J, Setkova L, Glynn A. 2008. Temporal trends of synthetic musk compounds in mother’s milk and associations with personal use of perfumed products. Environ Sci Technol. 42(17): 6743-8.


xii. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). 2009a. Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) Data for 2006. Available: http://www.epa.gov/iur/


xiii.

Dietrich DR

and Hitzfeld BC. 2004. Bioaccumulation and Ecotoxicity of Synthetic Musks in the Aquatic Environment. In: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, volume 3, part X: 233-244 (Springer Berlin/Heidelberg).


xiv. Chen D, Zeng X, Sheng Y, Bi X, Gui H, Sheng G, Fu J. 2007. The concentrations and distribution of polycyclic musks in a typical cosmetic plant. Chemosphere. 66(2):252-8.


xv. Rüdel H, Böhmer W, Schröter-Kermani C. 2006. Retrospective monitoring of synthetic musk compounds in aquatic biota from German rivers and coastal areas. J Environ Monit. 8(8): 812-23.


xvi. Kannan K. Reineer JL, Yun SH. Perotta EE, Tao L, Johnson-Restrepo B, Rodan BD. 2005. Polycyclic musk compounds in higher trophic level aquatic organisms and humans from the United States. Chemosphere 61: 693–700.

CLEANING THE HOUSE IS KILLING ME...Maybe It Really Is!

Valentines Day isn’t even here yet and I noticed Easter items in the stores.  That made me think of Spring cleaning, and all the chemicals we will be exposing ourselves and our precious little ones to.

If I had known then what I know now I would have handled it very differently as I do now.  Thought I had allergies along with the children, that no longer happens, but I no longer use the harsh chemicals that I once thought to be safe.

Some of our cleaners contain 2-butoxyetanol those are window cleaners, carpet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners and all purpose cleaners etc.  Long term use this chemical can be linked to cancer, liver damage, kidney damage and can affect the reproductive organs.

  

Formaldehyde can be found in air fresheners, carpet shampoo, carpet stain remover, deodorant, dishwashing liquids, make-up, perfume, and fabric softener which stays in your clothes and against your skin and you inhale it all day.

Read those labels protect yourself and your family make educated choices not those imposed on us by those catchy commercials.  I am attaching one of many links that you can look up to see what is in the products you are using.  Keep in mind we might be using several of them in one day.

http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm

Remember just because they sell it, doesn’t mean its safe….