The Toxic Evidence Piles Up and Doesn’t Wash Away
We all breathe the air. We all drink water. We all eat. We all wash ourselves.
We should be able to do this safely.
SO WHY ARE
so many toxic chemicals used in everyday products and materials, and found in our air, in our water, in our food, and in our brains and bodies?
Did you consent to this?
New reports have been released about toxic chemicals and health harm from products and materials most of us are exposed to a multitude of times on a daily basis…
Personal care products and pesticides
“Poisoning Our Future: Children and Pesticides”
PAN AP launched a (free) book on insidious effects of pesticides on children
http://www.panap.net/en/p/post/pesticides-campaigns-npuw-2013/2381
Here’s a link to a page you can download it from after reading a little bit about it: http://www.panna.org/blog/protecting-kids-around-world
The following link is a direct link for a large (26.4MB) PDF file download.
Click to access Poisoning-Our-Future-Children-and-Pesticides.pdf
For a short intro on the adverse health effects caused by pesticides, see this page:
Pesticide health impacts
http://www.panap.net/issues/pesticides-health-and-environment/pesticide-health-impacts
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From “Poisoning Our Future: Children and Pesticides” Conclusions:
The problems we have today with children’s lives being blighted by pesticides are because of an institutional failure to acknowledge that pesticides are not necessary.
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Most governments and many scientists assume, without any evidence, that pesticides are necessary. But good science and a wealth of observational data have shown repeatedly that farmers can make more money, and improve their food security and the health of their families and the environment by not using pesticides and practising instead biodiversity- based ecological agriculture. Many farmers already know this and they are leading the way forward, but governments are very slow to follow…
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Pesticides are also one of the most common causes of MCS/ES.
Then there are the toxic personal care products that can make our lives a living hell… Please don’t think all these groups are exposing the toxic secrets of these products because of how they affect those of us with MCS/ES… No, it’s because these things have ingredients (usually petrochemical) that are harming everyone, one way or another! It just takes longer for those impacts (eg cancer and birth defects) to manifest.
Taking Stock: How the cosmetics industry ranks on toxic chemicals
Environmental Defence (Canada) ranked the Big 5 cosmetics companies in Canada against each other based on the following criteria:
1. Whether they have targets for eliminating harmful ingredients;
2. How they are addressing concerns about chemicals in their products;
3. Whether they disclose fragrance ingredients on their product labels.
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.http://environmentaldefence.ca/reports/taking-stock-how-cosmetics-industry-ranks-toxic-chemicals
Ask cosmetics companies to improve their chemical policies
http://environmentaldefence.ca/ask-cosmetics-companies-improve-their-chemical-policies
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More ways to Take Action
http://www.womensvoices.org/take-action/
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And please, at least choose fragrance free products!
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Remember that almost all the products you use get washed down the drain.
Municipal water systems were not designed to remove most toxic chemicals and these pollutants are coming back to us in our drinking water. Here is yet another new report:
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New report: Unregulated contaminants common in drinking water
Traces of 18 unregulated chemicals were found in drinking water from more than one-third of U.S. water utilities in a nationwide sampling, according to new, unpublished research by federal scientists. Included are 11 perfluorinated chemicals, an herbicide, two solvents, caffeine, an antibacterial compound, a metal and an antidepressant.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/unregulated-water-contaminants
The perfluorinated compounds were at similar concentrations in the untreated and treated drinking water, suggesting that treatment techniques are largely unsuccessful.
Only one plant was successful at removing them, and it used activated carbon treatment.
Activated carbon, ozone and UV treatments are generally better at removal than traditional chlorine treatment, but such techniques are often prohibitively expensive, Glassmeyer said.
“People resent having to pay anything for water,” she said. “There’s the thought that there’s a God-given right to have as much as we want but, if you want the cleanest water, these techniques take money.”
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What???
I don’t think so…
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Only half of drugs, other newly emerging contaminants removed from sewage
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/november/emerging-contaminants-report
Studies: Endocrine disruptors, cocaine common in Minnesota waters
http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/05/13/studies-endocrine-disruptors-common-in-mn-waters/
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And yet another issue with personal care products is the addition of plastic microbeads!?!
5 Gyres Publishes First Scientific Paper On Plastic Pollution In The Great Lakes
“We found high concentrations of micro-plastics, more than most ocean samples collected worldwide. These were of similar size, shape, texture and composition to plastic microbeads found in many consumer products used as exfoliants, giving us circumstantial evidence that these products, designed to be washed down the drain, are not adequately being captured by sewage treatment.”
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There is no away!
We are already paying for this pollution with our health and a degraded environment, and future generations will pay even more unless we change things soon..
The good thing is that together, we actually have a lot of power.
If we collectively demand that companies make safe products or we won’t buy them, they usually listen, or risk going out of business. A number of them have recently made commitments to reduce or eliminate some of their hazardous chemicals.
If we collectively demand that our politicians ban pesticides, they also have to act, and a number of municipalities and provinces have enacted cosmetic pesticide bans (despite HUGE industry opposition).
If we collectively demand effective water filtration that removes toxic chemicals until the toxic chemicals are banned from uses which pollute our water and health, and if we collectively demand “polluter pays” laws for the filtration, then we can make it happen.
A LOT more needs to be done (re toxic chemicals, GMOs, EMF/EMR, fracking and other ridiculously harmful forms of fossil fuel extraction to name a few) if we want to be able to breathe easy and pass on a healthy livable planet to future generations, and the good news is that we can do it if we put our minds and bodies to it and do something!
Future generations depend on it.
In the meantime, maybe we should all have whole house or minimally kitchen sink water filtration devices installed and get tax deductions for the costs until industries are made to behave responsibly and stop polluting! Perhaps prescriptions from doctors would help with that. Same for air purification equipment. End use filtration is a poor, and much more expensive substitute to having safe, clean air and water in the first place, but has become a necessary step in addressing these toxic trespass issues until changes are made that put public health and well-being ahead of corporate profits.
For a look at how else we can change things, please watch
Charles Eisenstein and Polly Higgins: A Conversation
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What you can do to help make Ecocide a crime
http://eradicatingecocide.com/get-involved/
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“Activism is the Rent I Pay for Living on This Planet”
~ Alice Walker
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Taking Stock photos are from Environmental Defense’s facebook page (one has been altered from their original): https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentalDefenceCanada
Seriously "Sensitive" to Pollution 