Tag Archives: health

How Acceptable Are Your Levels?

 Do you know that you have hundreds of toxic chemicals in your body right now?

Do you know that our bodies weren’t designed to deal with 24/7 exposure to the kinds of substances we are breathing, ingesting, and absorbing all the time now?

If you have MCS/ES, then yes, you know. If you are involved with the environmental health movement, then yes, you know. If you watched the interview with Bruce Lourie that I shared earlier this year, about his book ToxIn ToxOut, then yes, you know. If you or someone you know has a health condition that has been linked to chemical exposures and pollution, then maybe you know… Otherwise, probably not…

How many of you have any idea what kinds of chemicals are in your body now, and what kinds of health effects they might be having on you, or on your eggs and sperm?

Have you agreed to be a chemical experiment (and are any of you being paid for it, or receiving funding to deal with the adverse effects that might happen or are happening)?

If you are like most of us, then you are completely unaware of what we are all being exposed to and the effects these exposures are having on our health. We still believe that products have to be safe if they are being sold to us. It’s hard to believe otherwise.

Like so many others, we don’t question this belief until something goes wrong in our own lives. Ed Brown was no exception. But after his wife suffered a couple of miscarriages, he got to asking

WHY?

And he made a film about his quest for answers:

Unacceptable Levels

Continue reading

A Story That Needs To Be Heard: Part 1

beachy 1

I invite you to take 25 minutes of your life to listen to this audio documentary.

“Short Documentary of a Life With Health Challenges”

Continue reading

Here’s An Interview You Don’t Want To Miss!

An Interview With Bruce Lourie

Connie from the Breast Cancer Fund recently interviewed Bruce Lourie, who has (among many other things) co-authored two books with Rick Smith. Many of you will be familiar with their first book “Slow Death By Rubber Duck”. They recently released a new book “TOXIN TOXOUT”, which was written after repeatedly being asked what could be done about the chemical body burden they discovered and discussed in their first book. In this interview Bruce very candidly discusses some of the issues we all face regarding everyday chemical exposures, and touches on what we can all do about them.

toxINtoxOUT

I’m pretty sure you will want to buy the book after you check out the interview. I don’t have Kobo (just kindle for PC) and can’t read paper and ink books, so I am unable to read the book myself, but if I won a lottery, and wanted to gift everyone I know a book, based on what Bruce discusses in the interview, I think this would be the book.

Continue reading

Kim Palmer Was Allergic To the 20th Century

Kim was an award winning singer/songwriter/keyboardist originally from Toronto, Canada. She passed away October 23, 2006 after a long struggle with MCS, which developed after a gas leak and pesticide poisoning, among other things that she was exposed to during a short period of time.

She may have left us physically, but her music is still with us.

porcelain trailer

The following song is from her album titled “songs from a porcelain trailer”:

Continue reading

Pesticides in Shipping Containers and Contents

Did you know that there can be massive amounts of highly toxic pesticides used in the shipping containers, especially when products and materials are shipped over seas?

The Toxins Return

In a world where recycling is being encouraged, this presents some potentially serious  problems that aren’t being widely discussed. Some things have simply not been designed to be reused, and recycling toxic materials just spreads the contamination further afield, causing low level poisoning and some kinds of chronic health problems.

The trend to build all kinds of indoor furniture and garden beds out of pallets is quite troubling. The pallets used in these containers would also have absorbed the pesticides and be unsafe for re-use. This article describes other issues with pallets.

potentially dangerous pallet reuse google imagesScreen shot from google image search of reused pallets
Note potentially hazardous furniture for children and food use

Converting shipping containers into homes is another big trend (see below).

The following documentary depicts some serious problems related to clothing (as well as some other items that were shipped long distances) when saturated with health harming levels of pesticides. Manufacturing issues are also examined in this video.

Continue reading

Big News for Ontario

From the News Release:

“The province is providing nearly $560,000 to support two new annual fellowships over three years for a total of six new fellowships. They will allow family medicine graduates to complete an extra year of focused training in environmental health, and will help primary care providers like family doctors offer the right care to assess, diagnose and treat environmentally-linked health issues.”

 

“Environmental health is an emerging public health field that examines the relationship between the environment and human health. This includes the role of the environment in contributing to serious health conditions that can be disabling and even life threatening, such as environmental sensitivities, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and other chronic, complex disorders. ”

 

“There is a growing recognition that our environment and our health are connected. Through these new fellowships, we can develop greater understanding of the links between health and the environment in order to provide better care to those suffering from complex chronic illnesses.”

~
~ Deb Matthews
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

 

“The study of the environment’s effects on human health is an important emerging field of research. Support for investigating environmental impacts on health is emblematic of our government’s commitment to strengthen healthy communities.”

~
~ Jim Bradley
Minister of Environment

Full News Release:

Continue reading

There’s Petrochemicals in What?

We now breathe, drink, eat and wear petrochemicals every where, every moment, every day! There’s no getting away from them!

Where are they coming from?

“The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing petroleum products… Petroleum (oil) is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry)

So many of the things we use (and consume) are being made from petrochemicals.

eau de petrochemical pollutants

Check out these two charts:

Continue reading

Fragrance Decision Undermines EPA’s DfE Program

EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) Program (claims to) work “to reduce risk to people and the environment by finding ways to prevent pollution”, yet they recently began allowing DfE-endorsed products to contain fragrances.

Of the first 119 fragrance chemicals okayed for use, 93 have “hazard profile issues” such as being known sensitizers or lacking vital data!!!

“Researchers, pediatricians, and other health experts agree that “Scented chemicals increase risk that some per cent of exposed people will have allergic and hypersensitivity reactions. Allergic and asthmatic children are at especially high risk”

Those of us with MCS/ES, along with many others who now experience adverse or disabling health effects from fragrance chemicals rarely had them before being exposed to some supposedly safe petrochemicals (in everyday use) that tipped our bodies over an edge. For too many of us, it was from fragranced products that we first experienced and continue to experience chronic health problems.

So it is wonderful to see health experts formally urging the EPA to

SAY NO TO FRAGRANCES

No Fragrance

“Pediatricians and respiratory experts, including the American Lung Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote to the EPA Administrator today raising concerns about the health impact of the recent decision of the US EPA’s Design for the Environment program to allow fragrances.”

it is standard environmental health practice to discourage the use of air fresheners, scented products, and fragrances in homes and other indoor spaces.

We were surprised and deeply disappointed to learn that the Agency’s Design for the Environment program (DfE) created a “fragrance” category of chemicals for commercial and consumer cleaning products. The vast majority of chemicals listed — 93 of the 119 total — have “hazard profile issues” because they are identified in one of
Continue reading

Guide to Safer Salmon

While we are on the subject of food…

If you are still eating fish, especially salmon, then you need to know this:

farmed salmon detailsWhat’s in farmed salmon?

Diets of pregnant women contain harmful, hidden toxins

Know the Difference:

Continue reading

Report: RECOGNITION, INCLUSION AND EQUITY – THE TIME IS NOW

Many of us have been waiting for action for decades, let’s hope that this is the project that finally makes it happen. It has been a long time coming…

‘RECOGNITION, INCLUSION AND EQUITY – THE TIME IS NOW: PERSPECTIVES OF ONTARIANS LIVING WITH ES/MCS, ME/CFS AND FM’

Recognition Inclusion and Equity the Time is Now

From Varda Burstyn:

At long last, I am writing to let you know about four new groundbreaking reports – products of a 5-year initiative that I and colleagues began in 2008 – that present exciting new research on the three environmentally linked conditions of ES/MCS, ME/CFS and FM, and that develop a wonderful new model of care and support for those living with the conditions in Ontario.

Continue reading