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The American Home is a Chemical Minefield
Open your cleaning supply closet and grab any bottle in there.
Flip it over and read the list of chemicals contained.
Do you recognize any of those names?
And if you don't recognize the names, is it remotely possible that you know how those chemicals are affecting you?
Some years back, experts in their areas formed a collective called Project Tendr, dedicated to exposing the neurodevelopmental affect that household chemicals have on unsuspecting families. Among the experts were environmental epidemiologists, professors of environmental health, and other doctors, scientists, and policy advocates.
Since then, other organizations have gotten on board…
The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics came forward to discuss toxic environmental chemicals' effect on reproduction. The Endocrine Society, dedicated to researching hormones, came to the same conclusions.
The scariest part is…
These chemicals are in everything. They're in your food, plastics, cookware, carpets, tech, shampoo, food wrap, furniture, cleaning supplies, shampoo…
And while they cover a multitude of sins, today we're going to focus on endocrine-disruptors.
Endocrine-disruptors: chemicals that interfere with hormonal systems at certain doses. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, developmental disorders, reproductive issues, neurological diseases, and immune system effects.
They work by mimicking hormones that occur naturally in the body (leading to overstimulation), binding to receptors within cells and blocking the hormone from binding with other cells (preventing the normal signal and response within the body), or interfering with regular hormone production (altering its behavior or metabolism.)
There are lots of repeat offenders in the house — even contained in household names that your family may have been using for years unknowingly.
It's important to identify which chemicals are causing which kind of harm in order to demine the minefield that is the modern Western home.
This first one, you're probably familiar with…
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Bisphenol A (BPA)
This industrial chemical has been used in plastics and resins since the 1960s — specifically the kind often used to make water bottles and store food (like tin cans).
BPA is a mimicker. It tricks the body into thinking it's estrogen. Thus, it's been linked to breast cancer, reproductive maladies, obesity, heart disease, early puberty, and more.
Because it's so common in America, the government estimates that 93% of Americans have BPA in their systems.
Dioxin
Another industrially-released chemical, dioxin is largely contained in food supply. Meat, fish, milk, eggs, and butter are usually the contaminated culprits.
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