Of course there are times when I do need or want to purchase something new. In that case there are a couple key parts of the production process that I focus on. I ask: Were toxic ingredients used to make it? What was it like to be one of the factory workers who helped create it? Was any part of the production so distasteful that rich countries with higher standards refused to do it?
Here’s a little of what I’ve learned along the way by asking those very questions.
Dangerous Materials
Industrial production facilities today use a mind-boggling array of hazardous chemicals. Some are part of the production process, like solvents employed for diluting other compounds, or cleaning and drying machinery, while others are mixed into the product, like lead or phthalates, which help to create a certain texture or color.
Chemists and industrial designers and activists use all sorts of complicated systems to classify materials. But I figure that what’s really important to us as individuals is whether or not any of the materials used in our Stuff are dangerous. So although it’s unorthodox by scientific standards, I’m going to lump all the toxic materials together—heavy metals mined from the earth, like lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and mercury, alongside synthetic organic compounds, like the organochlorines (dioxin, DDT), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, used as a water repellant), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs, the flame retardants).
Another term you’ll frequently hear is POPs, or persistent organic pollutants. To decode that: “Persistent” means they don’t break down. They stay inside the tissues of living creatures, often bioaccumulating, which means they lodge in fat cells and get passed up the food chain at ever-increasing concentrations. “Organic” means they contain carbon, which means they can interact with the cells of living things (all of which contain carbon) in a variety of insidious ways. “Pollutant” means that they’re toxic—disruptive to the endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems and also a source of neurobehavioral disorders.*
Let’s look at the naturally occurring heavy metals. Even though these all occur in nature, the scale at which we’re extracting them, putting them into consumer goods, and distributing them around the planet is unnatural and devastating. As a case in point, global emissions of lead from industrial sources are twenty-seven times higher than lead emissions from natural sources.108 There’s a reason nature secured these metals underground rather than circulating them in biological systems: they are supertoxic to all life forms. Scientists have amassed piles of studies concluding beyond a doubt that even low-level exposure to these chemicals is causing widespread neurological, developmental, and reproductive problems. Many of the heavy metals are biopersistent, which means that once they are inside a living organism, they remain there for a really long time—we’re talking decades—before passing out of the body. Many of them also bioaccumulate.
Lead, for example, is a neurotoxin, which means it poisons the brain and the nervous system. It’s been linked to learning disabilities and reproductive disorders. “We’ve learned that virtually any level of lead is associated with neurodevelopmental impacts. It’s a continuous impact beginning from non-zero levels and on up. So, for any of us, if we are exposed to lead, there’s an impact. It may be small in the lower exposure range, but it’s there,” says scientist Ted Schettler of the Science and Environmental Health Network.109 In spite of this, lead is still in widespread use in Stuff like car batteries, PVC plastic, roofing materials, lipstick, and toys. In their 2007 study, the Washington Toxics Coalition found lead in 35 percent of 1,200 children’s toys tested, with 17 percent of the products containing lead levels above the 600 ppm federal recall level for lead paint.110 Brain-harming poison in children’s toys: it sounds like a bad horror movie, except it’s real.
Another notorious toxin we surround ourselves with is mercury. There is a reason my mother warned me not to touch the irresistible silver liquid that oozed out of broken glass thermometers. Mercury exposure impairs cognitive skills; in large doses it messes with your lungs and eyes and can cause tremors, insanity, and psychosis. It’s also been linked to cancer, cell death, and diabetes.111 Children and babies are especially vulnerable to mercury because their nervous systems are still developing. A baby exposed to mercury in the womb can be born with neurological problems, physically deformities, or cerebral palsy. The United States government estimates that more than 15 percent of children born in the United States could be at risk for brain damage and learning difficulties due to mercury exposure in the womb.112 According to a 2005 study, the IQ of 316,000 to 637,000 children per year is lowered by mercury exposure.113
We’ve heard a lot about mercury contamination from fish in recent years. Already in my daughter’s kindergarten, these tiny kids matter-of-factly explained to one another that they couldn’t have any tuna fish sandwich because they’d already had one that week. The reason that mercury in fish is such a big deal is that when mercury emissions from factories, coal-burning power plants (which provide power for the factories), and incinerators (which burn the Stuff made in factories) sink into the sediment of lakes, rivers, and oceans, anaerobic organisms turn those emissions into methylmercury.114 This form of mercury is a far more powerful toxin than even the original mercury, and it bioaccumulates, meaning it builds up from small fish to larger and larger ones, with concentrations becoming much higher near the top of the food chain, ending with humans.
While it’s true that we metabolize and move mercury out of our bodies, the ubiquity of it means we’re re-exposing ourselves and taking in more every day. There’s also significant disparity between individuals as to how fast that clearing-out process can go—for some people it’s 30 to 70 days, but for others it can be nearly 190 days!115 The difference in clearing time appears to be written in your genes, and until the brand-new field of envirogenetics (which studies the interplay of genetics and environmental factors like diet or toxics exposure) matures, it’s hard to know what your body’s mercury timeline is.
Meanwhile, government warnings and stark statistics about mercury-contaminated fish have become so routine that we barely take note. I have to ask: why have these warnings been aimed at getting people to cease eating fish, rather than at getting the industries to stop putting mercury into our environment? Finally in February 2009, near-global consensus was reached: more than 140 countries convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) unanimously agreed to create an international mercury treaty. They also urged immediate action through a voluntary Global Mercury Partnership while the treaty is being finalized.116 Getting mercury out of our production processes will be hard work and it will cost money, for sure. But investments in eliminating mercury are investments well spent. UNEP estimates that every kilogram of mercury taken out of the environment can lead to up to $12,500 worth of social, environmental, and human health benefits.117
It’s high time, because about 6,000 tons of mercury are released into our environment every year.118 Some of this is a by-product of a primary process, as with coal-fired plants, chlor-alkali plants involved in papermaking, and the especially stupid practice of burning municipal waste. But much is also released consciously in the primary process—in gold mining, as I mentioned in the last chapter, as well as in the manufacture, use, and disposal of medical equipment, fluorescent and neon lighting, dental amalgams, vaccines and other pharmaceutical products, and even mascara. Yes, mascara.
Synthetic Offenders
In addition to the naturally occurring heavy metal poisons, there are the synthetic ones. While synthetic compounds have been made since cavemen experimented with mashing materials together, the large-scale development and use of synthetics has really exploded since the mid-twentieth century. Sometimes the drive to invent new materials has come from a specific requirement for the product, such as the need for paint that won’t wash off in the rain. Other times the production of synthetic compounds has been motivated by the need to find a use for the by-product of another chemical reaction or industrial proce
ss (often the refining of petroleum and natural gas). This type of material is often called a sink—someplace to pour what you don’t want.
THE MAKEUP OF YOUR MAKEUP
I’m not huge on makeup, perfume, or “beauty products” myself. Maybe you are, and maybe you’re not. But at the very least I bet you use soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. I do. Collectively this Stuff is also known as personal “care” products—but I put “care” in quotes because it’s pretty questionable how much “caring” is going on here.
Here we are, rubbing these products into our pores, sometimes on our lips and eyes. So what’s in them? A lot of nasty surprises and industry secrets is what. Have you ever turned your shampoo bottle or tube of sunscreen around to read the ingredients? Once you get your magnifying glass out, it might as well be written in Klingon, right?
It turns out that every day of her life, the average American woman uses a dozen products that contain 168 chemical ingredients. The average guy is using six products a day, with 85 chemicals in them—with the use of products among men rising.119 Whether they’re drugstore purchases, indulgences from the ritziest cosmetics counter, or even “natural” and “organic” products from your local health food store, they’re almost certain to contain hazardous chemicals.
A 2005 study of thousands of personal care products found that:
One-third of them contained at least one ingredient linked to cancer
Nearly half of them contained an ingredient that is harmful to the reproductive system and to a baby’s development
60 percent of them contained an ingredient that mimics estrogen or can disrupt hormones
More than half of them contained “penetration enhancer” chemicals, which help other chemicals move into the body deeper and faster.120
By law, companies are allowed to keep their trademark scents a secret; they show up on ingredient lists as the mysterious “fragrance.” One example of what’s lurking behind the word are phthalates—proven to disrupt the production of testosterone and cause babies of contaminated mothers to be born with malformed and malfunctioning testicles and penises.121 Even with what we know about these chemicals, in 2002 researchers still found (unlabeled) phthalates in three-quarters of the seventy-two products they randomly tested, including hair spray, deodorant, hair gel, body lotion, and perfumes.122
Other surprises: as the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics put it in a Valentine they sent me last February, “Roses are red, Lipsticks have lead...” In 2006, random tests of lipsticks (again, at all price ranges) found lead at two to four times the levels permitted by the FDA for candy.123 There is absolutely no reason a product that gets applied, eaten away, and then reapplied to our lips should have a neurotoxin like lead in it! Meanwhile, baby shampoos often contain a carcinogen called 1,4-dioxane—it’s in most adult shampoos too, often hidden as an ingredient called sodium laureth sulfate.124
There are particular dangers for specific populations, too. Nail salons overflow with potent toxins; the women who work in them are overwhelmingly nonwhite, often Asian, with an average age of thirty-eight—which means many are of childbearing age.125 The skin-whitening products so popular in Asia frequently contain a carcinogen called hydroquinone, as well as the heavy metals chromium and mercury.126 And the hair relaxers aggressively marketed to African-American women are very toxic. Products that change the shape and color of your hair are right up there at the top of the most hazardous list.127
Isn’t someone regulating this Stuff? The 2005 study found that 87 percent of ingredients have not been assessed for safety by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) panel.128 Now, the CIR is the only body responsible for testing the safety of these products. The FDA doesn’t have the authority to require companies to do safety tests; it can’t even recall personal care products when they’ve been proven to be defective or harmful! As it turns out, the CIR is funded and run by the cosmetics industry through its trade association, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association. Their tests focus on immediate health effects like rashes and swelling. Unfortunately, they really need to test for long-term effects, as well as what happens when different chemicals interact with one another and with genes.
This information gets overwhelming fast. Thank goodness some activists have created powerful resources that enable us to inform ourselves and to push for change. The Environmental Working Group created and maintains Skin Deep, a huge database of more than forty thousand products and their ingredients.129 You can enter in the name of many cosmetics and personal care products and find out what’s in them. Visit their site at cosmeticsdatabase.com so you can avoid as many chemicals as possible, especially if you are pregnant or planning on getting pregnant.
You can also look out for companies that have signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, a pledge to replace ingredients linked to cancer, birth defects, and hormone disruption. More than one thousand companies have signed it to date.
For example, in making ethylene, which is needed to produce the plastic product polyethylene, the by-product propylene is created. If this byproduct can be put to use as a sink, or a raw material for something else, the cost of making ethylene goes way down. So inventors cast around for something to do with propylene and discovered it can be turned into something called acrylonitrile, which can be made into those acrylic outdoor carpets. And so acrylic outdoor carpeting was born as a substitute for natural ground covers.130 It’s not like we needed a replacement for mosses or grass and set our most brilliant minds to come up with one. Instead there was a strange backward development process, driven by profit.
TOXINS GET PERSONAL
In the summer of 2009, I had my own “body burden” tested to find out which of the chemicals that I’d been investigating for years were present in my own body.a The testing was organized by Commonweal’s Biomonitoring Resource Center and the results were analyzed by Dr. Ted Schettler from the Science and Environmental Health Network.
Not surprisingly, the test uncovered dozens of toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, pesticides, and the chemicals used in industrial production that are present in everyday items. While certain lifestyle choices, like avoiding nonstick pans and eating organic food, have likely reduced my exposure to some compounds, there is still a disturbingly high level of toxins inside me. Even more unsettling, no one can say for sure how they got there, because it’s impossible to link contaminants to a specific route of exposure. For example, although I avoided a toxic source like a vinyl raincoat, I may have been exposed to the same chemicals it contains and offgases—through the air, the water, or my food.
Here is an overview of some of the chemicals in my body, along with some of their most widely known sources:
Bisphenol A (BPA)—BPA is an endocrine disruptor, which means that it can interfere with the body’s hormones. It causes a variety of health problems, particularly to the reproductive system. BPA is used in many everyday products from baby bottles to plastic water bottles to the linings of most canned food containers. When buying your refillable water bottle, make sure to check for the BPA-free label.
Lead—(see pages 73–74) a neurotoxin that was once widely used in gasoline and paint and is still used in many consumer products, from lipstick to electronics to children’s toys.
Perflorinated compounds (PFCs)b—a probable cause of many cancers as well as liver and kidney damage, and reproductive problems, PFCs are used to make Stuff resist sticking and staining. They are found in microwavable popcorn bags, Teflon pans, and in some waterproof clothing and carpets.
Triclosan—linked to endocrinological problems, asthma, and allergies in animal studies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has listed triclosan as “could be” and “suspected to be” contaminated with dioxins.c Triclosan is used in many antibacterial products including soaps, cosmetics, household cleaners, and increasingly in a host of products advertised as “antibacterial,” like socks, toys, and blankets, even though it isn’t needed to fight disease causing microorganisms and m
ay even be helping to develop stronger strains of those very organisms it seeks to destroy.
My body also carries organochlorine pesticides, some with names you may recognize (DDT, Chlordane, Mirex) alongside others that are less familiar (including Hexachlorobenzene, beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, Oxychlordane, t-Nonachlor, Heptachlor epoxide). They are neurotoxins and carcinogens and are associated with a range of chronic diseases. Many of the organochlorines were banned decades ago, yet they break down so slowly that they persist in the environment, our foodchain, and our bodies. My levels of these toxins were actually relatively low. When I asked Dr Schettler why, he guessed that I don’t eat much meat—which is a primary route of exposure for fat-soluble pesticides. He was right. Starting at age fourteen, I didn’t eat meat for twenty-four years. Today I occasionally eat chicken or fish but never red meat.
Mercury is devastating to the brain and nervous system (see pages 74–75). So it’s bad news that the levels in my body are far higher than average; in fact I’m in the top 10 percent of people studied by the Center for Disease Control. After his many questions about potential exposure routes, Dr Schettler surmised that the mercury entered by body via my periodic tuna sushi splurges. Since receiving my test results I’ve renewed my commitment to avoiding eating large fish. Because our bodies eliminate mercury faster than more persistent pollutants, I should be able to lower these levels.
THE STORY OF STUFF Page 14