Chemicals called phthalates, found in soft plastic products we use every day, are so ubiquitous that traces of them can be found in everybody. Are they safe or harmful? Lesley Stahl of 60 minutes investigates.
Showing posts with label Phthalates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phthalates. Show all posts
Monday, November 8, 2010
What’s The Sense Worrying About Scents?
originally published in the February 2010 Tuscany Sun Community Newsletter in Calgary, Alberta
Last month, one of our residents wrote in about the fact that scent from dryer vents can be found everywhere and that this was affecting the quality of the air he, and others, are breathing. A number of residents responded positively but more weighed in that they are tired of hearing people complain, especially about something as ridiculously inane as bounce sheets. People who know me know that I tend to be pretty levelheaded. I don’t like jumping to conclusions, being reactionary or alarmist (not that I don’t slip up, sometimes!). But this issue of scents and untested chemicals being introduced into our environment scares me; really scares. It scares me because I’ve been woken up to an invisible threat by an “environmental barometer” in my life; my mother.
After decades of not “feeling well” with various symptoms of chronic pain, colitis, fatigue, muscle and nerve pain, migraines, persistent cold-like symptoms, memory loss and mood alterations, my mother suffered an almost total collapse of her immune system and was fully diagnosed with environmental sensitivity disorder. In short, her body goes into acute distress when she is exposed to some chemicals, especially those that are petroleum-based. She’s not alone. She is one of a growing trend of people that are being seen in many industries (healthcare being one of them and the industry she’d worked in since she was 16) and this illness is one of the many triggers behind the growth in environmental medicine. These people are the frogs of the human ecosystem – our environmental barometers – and are probably serving as a warning to everyone around us, if we’re ready to hear the message. In my mother’s case, she is now at the stage where she’s stable with treatment and with keeping her exposure to the majority of synthetic chemicals to a minimum but, when she comes to visit me, she usually can’t go out for a walk or garden with me in my yard because, if anyone is doing something as normal as drying their laundry, she is likely to go into anaphylactic shock. I know it sounds crazy but this is her life.
Before you stop reading because the extremeness of my mother’s illness indicates it has nothing to do with us and what we are choosing to put into our day-to-day environment, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned that’s made it easy to change what I bring into my home and, in particular, why I am careful about what my two children are exposed to.
The chemical industry is producing approximately 1000 new chemicals per year and few ever get tested. Concern is arising not necessarily due to exposure to one chemical but due to the combinations of chemicals that we are mixing (synergistic effects) and to the long-term affects of low exposure (cumulative). When I started to investigate these facts and looked at what I had in my home, I found that I was buying products that contained known (not maybe) carcinogens, respiratory irritants, reproductive disruptors and neurotoxins, to name just a few. On the heels of starting my research, The Nature of Things aired the “Toxic House” documentary and one part in particular has always stayed with me. An industrial air quality monitoring system was installed in a number of “normal” households. This system is used in industry to monitor air quality and, if it becomes hazardous to humans, the alarm rings and evacuation of the site ensues. In each of the houses, this system began to sound on every cleaning day due to the levels and combinations of chemicals that were entering the household environment. It was a huge illustrator to me that the very products I was using to keep things smelling fresh, make my home 99.9% germ free and spotless and, most of all, safe for me and my family were products that were quite possibly doing my family the most harm.
Here’s a list of a few of the toxins that can be found in any home on any day:
- Aspartame (artificial sweetener) – neurotoxin
- Styrene (found in all Styrofoam) – carcinogen
- Phthalates (found in most plastic, including most toys) – carcinogen, neurotoxin, reproductive system effects
- Benzene (perfumes, hairspray, shampoo, air fresheners, etc) – carcinogen
- Toluene (artificial vanilla scent) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- Silica (cleaners, powdered drinks) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- BHT (plastic, food) – carcinogen, immune disruptor
- Carbon disulfide (dry cleaning) – neurotoxin, carcinogen
Some Facts That Worry Me:
- 1 in 2 males will develop cancer
- 1 in 3 females will develop cancer
- Respiratory illness is the #1 reason for children being admitted to hospitals; rates of childhood asthma have increased 400%
- Outside of injury, cancer is the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 5 and 9
- Unprecedented numbers of fatal allergies are being diagnosed – dairy, bees, peanuts, strawberries, fish, etc.
- Cancer specialists are now suggesting the leading causes for many forms of cancer may be environmental contamination.
What I Choose To Do
I choose to limit my exposure to these products, with scents being only one area my family and I have targeted. Based on my family’s experience with increased health and well-being by eliminating these products from our lives and replacing them with naturally-based and safe products (which are so much more available than even 5 years ago), I am a firm believer that the more heavily marketed products being used in most households are a root cause of either our health or , rather, our lack of it.
In our not too distant past, parents sent their children running after DDT trucks so the powder would protect them from harmful mosquitoes. Doctors and patients didn’t fully understand how harmful it would be to use antibiotics for everything and anything. Smoking was seen as a cool past time and something that would keep you slim. People happily swam in the rivers and streams that industry was dumping its toxic waste into. Seems crazy, but that was life. But, in the not too distant future, I know (I hope) that we will all have become aware of what mass marketing and mass consumer acceptance of products that are dangerous to our health do to us all and we will think it’s crazy that products containing carcinogens and neurotoxins were ever on our shelves, let alone in our homes. It’s not just about bounce sheets, at least not to me. It’s about educating ourselves and then making informed choices that help us to breathe easy. A never-ending process, it seems.
Respectfully,
Michelle
Editor, Tuscany Sun
originally published in the February 2010 Tuscany Sun Community Newsletter in Calgary, Alberta
Last month, one of our residents wrote in about the fact that scent from dryer vents can be found everywhere and that this was affecting the quality of the air he, and others, are breathing. A number of residents responded positively but more weighed in that they are tired of hearing people complain, especially about something as ridiculously inane as bounce sheets. People who know me know that I tend to be pretty levelheaded. I don’t like jumping to conclusions, being reactionary or alarmist (not that I don’t slip up, sometimes!). But this issue of scents and untested chemicals being introduced into our environment scares me; really scares. It scares me because I’ve been woken up to an invisible threat by an “environmental barometer” in my life; my mother.
After decades of not “feeling well” with various symptoms of chronic pain, colitis, fatigue, muscle and nerve pain, migraines, persistent cold-like symptoms, memory loss and mood alterations, my mother suffered an almost total collapse of her immune system and was fully diagnosed with environmental sensitivity disorder. In short, her body goes into acute distress when she is exposed to some chemicals, especially those that are petroleum-based. She’s not alone. She is one of a growing trend of people that are being seen in many industries (healthcare being one of them and the industry she’d worked in since she was 16) and this illness is one of the many triggers behind the growth in environmental medicine. These people are the frogs of the human ecosystem – our environmental barometers – and are probably serving as a warning to everyone around us, if we’re ready to hear the message. In my mother’s case, she is now at the stage where she’s stable with treatment and with keeping her exposure to the majority of synthetic chemicals to a minimum but, when she comes to visit me, she usually can’t go out for a walk or garden with me in my yard because, if anyone is doing something as normal as drying their laundry, she is likely to go into anaphylactic shock. I know it sounds crazy but this is her life.
Before you stop reading because the extremeness of my mother’s illness indicates it has nothing to do with us and what we are choosing to put into our day-to-day environment, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned that’s made it easy to change what I bring into my home and, in particular, why I am careful about what my two children are exposed to.
The chemical industry is producing approximately 1000 new chemicals per year and few ever get tested. Concern is arising not necessarily due to exposure to one chemical but due to the combinations of chemicals that we are mixing (synergistic effects) and to the long-term affects of low exposure (cumulative). When I started to investigate these facts and looked at what I had in my home, I found that I was buying products that contained known (not maybe) carcinogens, respiratory irritants, reproductive disruptors and neurotoxins, to name just a few. On the heels of starting my research, The Nature of Things aired the “Toxic House” documentary and one part in particular has always stayed with me. An industrial air quality monitoring system was installed in a number of “normal” households. This system is used in industry to monitor air quality and, if it becomes hazardous to humans, the alarm rings and evacuation of the site ensues. In each of the houses, this system began to sound on every cleaning day due to the levels and combinations of chemicals that were entering the household environment. It was a huge illustrator to me that the very products I was using to keep things smelling fresh, make my home 99.9% germ free and spotless and, most of all, safe for me and my family were products that were quite possibly doing my family the most harm.
Here’s a list of a few of the toxins that can be found in any home on any day:
- Aspartame (artificial sweetener) – neurotoxin
- Styrene (found in all Styrofoam) – carcinogen
- Phthalates (found in most plastic, including most toys) – carcinogen, neurotoxin, reproductive system effects
- Benzene (perfumes, hairspray, shampoo, air fresheners, etc) – carcinogen
- Toluene (artificial vanilla scent) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- Silica (cleaners, powdered drinks) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- BHT (plastic, food) – carcinogen, immune disruptor
- Carbon disulfide (dry cleaning) – neurotoxin, carcinogen
Some Facts That Worry Me:
- 1 in 2 males will develop cancer
- 1 in 3 females will develop cancer
- Respiratory illness is the #1 reason for children being admitted to hospitals; rates of childhood asthma have increased 400%
- Outside of injury, cancer is the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 5 and 9
- Unprecedented numbers of fatal allergies are being diagnosed – dairy, bees, peanuts, strawberries, fish, etc.
- Cancer specialists are now suggesting the leading causes for many forms of cancer may be environmental contamination.
What I Choose To Do
I choose to limit my exposure to these products, with scents being only one area my family and I have targeted. Based on my family’s experience with increased health and well-being by eliminating these products from our lives and replacing them with naturally-based and safe products (which are so much more available than even 5 years ago), I am a firm believer that the more heavily marketed products being used in most households are a root cause of either our health or , rather, our lack of it.
In our not too distant past, parents sent their children running after DDT trucks so the powder would protect them from harmful mosquitoes. Doctors and patients didn’t fully understand how harmful it would be to use antibiotics for everything and anything. Smoking was seen as a cool past time and something that would keep you slim. People happily swam in the rivers and streams that industry was dumping its toxic waste into. Seems crazy, but that was life. But, in the not too distant future, I know (I hope) that we will all have become aware of what mass marketing and mass consumer acceptance of products that are dangerous to our health do to us all and we will think it’s crazy that products containing carcinogens and neurotoxins were ever on our shelves, let alone in our homes. It’s not just about bounce sheets, at least not to me. It’s about educating ourselves and then making informed choices that help us to breathe easy. A never-ending process, it seems.
Respectfully,
Michelle
Editor, Tuscany Sun
Last month, one of our residents wrote in about the fact that scent from dryer vents can be found everywhere and that this was affecting the quality of the air he, and others, are breathing. A number of residents responded positively but more weighed in that they are tired of hearing people complain, especially about something as ridiculously inane as bounce sheets. People who know me know that I tend to be pretty levelheaded. I don’t like jumping to conclusions, being reactionary or alarmist (not that I don’t slip up, sometimes!). But this issue of scents and untested chemicals being introduced into our environment scares me; really scares. It scares me because I’ve been woken up to an invisible threat by an “environmental barometer” in my life; my mother.
After decades of not “feeling well” with various symptoms of chronic pain, colitis, fatigue, muscle and nerve pain, migraines, persistent cold-like symptoms, memory loss and mood alterations, my mother suffered an almost total collapse of her immune system and was fully diagnosed with environmental sensitivity disorder. In short, her body goes into acute distress when she is exposed to some chemicals, especially those that are petroleum-based. She’s not alone. She is one of a growing trend of people that are being seen in many industries (healthcare being one of them and the industry she’d worked in since she was 16) and this illness is one of the many triggers behind the growth in environmental medicine. These people are the frogs of the human ecosystem – our environmental barometers – and are probably serving as a warning to everyone around us, if we’re ready to hear the message. In my mother’s case, she is now at the stage where she’s stable with treatment and with keeping her exposure to the majority of synthetic chemicals to a minimum but, when she comes to visit me, she usually can’t go out for a walk or garden with me in my yard because, if anyone is doing something as normal as drying their laundry, she is likely to go into anaphylactic shock. I know it sounds crazy but this is her life.
Before you stop reading because the extremeness of my mother’s illness indicates it has nothing to do with us and what we are choosing to put into our day-to-day environment, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned that’s made it easy to change what I bring into my home and, in particular, why I am careful about what my two children are exposed to.
The chemical industry is producing approximately 1000 new chemicals per year and few ever get tested. Concern is arising not necessarily due to exposure to one chemical but due to the combinations of chemicals that we are mixing (synergistic effects) and to the long-term affects of low exposure (cumulative). When I started to investigate these facts and looked at what I had in my home, I found that I was buying products that contained known (not maybe) carcinogens, respiratory irritants, reproductive disruptors and neurotoxins, to name just a few. On the heels of starting my research, The Nature of Things aired the “Toxic House” documentary and one part in particular has always stayed with me. An industrial air quality monitoring system was installed in a number of “normal” households. This system is used in industry to monitor air quality and, if it becomes hazardous to humans, the alarm rings and evacuation of the site ensues. In each of the houses, this system began to sound on every cleaning day due to the levels and combinations of chemicals that were entering the household environment. It was a huge illustrator to me that the very products I was using to keep things smelling fresh, make my home 99.9% germ free and spotless and, most of all, safe for me and my family were products that were quite possibly doing my family the most harm.
Here’s a list of a few of the toxins that can be found in any home on any day:
- Aspartame (artificial sweetener) – neurotoxin
- Styrene (found in all Styrofoam) – carcinogen
- Phthalates (found in most plastic, including most toys) – carcinogen, neurotoxin, reproductive system effects
- Benzene (perfumes, hairspray, shampoo, air fresheners, etc) – carcinogen
- Toluene (artificial vanilla scent) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- Silica (cleaners, powdered drinks) – carcinogen, respiratory irritant
- BHT (plastic, food) – carcinogen, immune disruptor
- Carbon disulfide (dry cleaning) – neurotoxin, carcinogen
Some Facts That Worry Me:
- 1 in 2 males will develop cancer
- 1 in 3 females will develop cancer
- Respiratory illness is the #1 reason for children being admitted to hospitals; rates of childhood asthma have increased 400%
- Outside of injury, cancer is the leading cause of death in children between the ages of 5 and 9
- Unprecedented numbers of fatal allergies are being diagnosed – dairy, bees, peanuts, strawberries, fish, etc.
- Cancer specialists are now suggesting the leading causes for many forms of cancer may be environmental contamination.
What I Choose To Do
I choose to limit my exposure to these products, with scents being only one area my family and I have targeted. Based on my family’s experience with increased health and well-being by eliminating these products from our lives and replacing them with naturally-based and safe products (which are so much more available than even 5 years ago), I am a firm believer that the more heavily marketed products being used in most households are a root cause of either our health or , rather, our lack of it.
In our not too distant past, parents sent their children running after DDT trucks so the powder would protect them from harmful mosquitoes. Doctors and patients didn’t fully understand how harmful it would be to use antibiotics for everything and anything. Smoking was seen as a cool past time and something that would keep you slim. People happily swam in the rivers and streams that industry was dumping its toxic waste into. Seems crazy, but that was life. But, in the not too distant future, I know (I hope) that we will all have become aware of what mass marketing and mass consumer acceptance of products that are dangerous to our health do to us all and we will think it’s crazy that products containing carcinogens and neurotoxins were ever on our shelves, let alone in our homes. It’s not just about bounce sheets, at least not to me. It’s about educating ourselves and then making informed choices that help us to breathe easy. A never-ending process, it seems.
Respectfully,
Michelle
Editor, Tuscany Sun
Phthalates
Excerpt taken from the Canadian Cancer Society Website, visit their website for more information and the full article.
What are phthalates?
Phthalates (pronounced THA-lates) are a group of chemicals that can make products – usually plastics – softer and more flexible. They are sometimes called “plasticizers.”
Phthalates are used in a range of products, including:
▪ PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastics (commonly found in shower curtains)
▪ Medical plastics, such as PVC IV bags and tubes
▪ Children’s toys and supplies
▪ Cosmetics, such as nail polish and perfumes
How you are exposed to phthalates?
In general, the average Canadian is exposed to fairly low levels of phthalates. You can be exposed to phthalates by using products containing phthalates. Phthalates aren’t chemically connected with the plastic that contains them, which means they could possibly leach out of the products.
People can be exposed to higher levels of phthalates during medical procedures because some medical tubing and other devices are made with PVC plastics. Children can be exposed to phthalates by sucking on toys made of plastics that contain phthalates.
Why there is concern?
The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) says that DEHP “is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen”. This means that it is probably something that could cause cancer in humans.
There is evidence that certain phthalates act as endocrine disruptors. This means they may mimic or behave like hormones and can interfere with the normal hormonal activity in our bodies. This can lead to physical abnormalities, fertility problems and certain types of cancer.
Research on phthalates has found that exposure to relatively high levels of these substances is needed to cause abnormalities in laboratory animals. Most Canadians are not exposed to these levels. These substances also seem to have greater effects on young and developing animals.
What you can do?
Tips to reduce your exposure to phthalates
These are areas where the Canadian Cancer Society is most concerned about the use of phthalates.
Medical situations
If you are pregnant or have a young child, ask your family’s healthcare providers to use phthalate free (non-PVC) tubing and IV bags if possible, especially for procedures such as blood transfusions, dialysis and ECMO (extra-corporal membrane oxygenation). Please remember, the use of traditional PVC plastics may be life-saving if suitable alternatives are not available.
Children’s toys and supplies
Canadian guidelines suggest that DEHP and DINP shouldn’t be used in items that are likely to be placed in children’s mouths. Manufacturers aren’t legally bound by these guidelines. Ask manufacturers if their products contain phthalates. If the manufacturer can’t, or won’t, tell you if the product contains phthalates, use something else.
Use plastic baby bottles and children’s plastic toys with recycling code 5 on the bottom. Recycling code 5 means the product is polypropylene, which doesn’t contain phthalates. You can also consider using glass bottles.
Other possible sources of phthalates
Food
Low levels of phthalates may be in food because the plastics used to prepare and package the product contain them. As well, they may already be present in food because of the phthalates released into the environment from human activities. We are not exactly sure how phthalates are getting into foods and need more research in this area. You may choose to avoid certain plastics for food storage. You may choose glass or plastic containers made of:
high-density polyethylene (HDPE; recycling code 2)
low-density polyethylene (LDPE; recycling code 4)
polypropylene (PP; recycling code 5)
Use soft plastics, like plastic wrap, made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE).
Based on what we know now these three types of plastics are preferable (recycling codes 2, 4 and 5)
Cosmetics and personal care products
Since all cosmetic products (for example, make-up, hairspray, body lotion) in Canada should be labeled with their ingredients, check for phthalates in your cosmetics using their full name. For example, dibutyl phthalate and diethyl phthalate.
Home
Ask manufacturers about non-vinyl hard flooring alternatives, and consider other types of materials such as natural flooring and fabric shower curtains instead of plastic ones.
Currently there are no regulations for listing ingredients on cleaning products. As a result, we do not know if cleaning products contain phthalates.
SC Johnson Product Ingredients Now Available
SC Johnson, the makers of some of your favourite household cleaners has finally released a website that gives YOU more information on what is in their products. This is BIG ... companies by law are not required to disclose the ingredients of their cleaning products unless it is seriously toxic. Why is that you ask?
It is because those ingredients are protected under "trade secrets". The SC Johnson website is a work in progress and is expected to have over 200 products on it by 2012.
Not all ingredients are disclosed as some information is still proprietary but now you can find out allot more about some of the chemical based cleaners in your home.
Some of the Major Brands by SC Johnson:
- Windex
- Fantastik
- Drano
- Pledge
- Shout
- Glade
- Nature's Source
- Toilet Duck
- Scrubbing Bubbles
- Bon Ami
- Armstrong
SC Johnson also reported that they are currently phasing out the use of ALL Phthalates in the fragrances they use in their cleaning products.
It is because those ingredients are protected under "trade secrets". The SC Johnson website is a work in progress and is expected to have over 200 products on it by 2012.
Not all ingredients are disclosed as some information is still proprietary but now you can find out allot more about some of the chemical based cleaners in your home.
Some of the Major Brands by SC Johnson:
- Windex
- Fantastik
- Drano
- Pledge
- Shout
- Glade
- Nature's Source
- Toilet Duck
- Scrubbing Bubbles
- Bon Ami
- Armstrong
SC Johnson also reported that they are currently phasing out the use of ALL Phthalates in the fragrances they use in their cleaning products.
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