The Lack of Chemical Testing
With over 84,000 known chemicals in the world, only 1% have been tested for safety. We are in an Era of Toxicity, and we don’t even know what harm most of these chemicals cause. Whether airborne in sprays, in our household cleaners, or in our skincare and cosmetics, toxins are all around us. They can cause infertility to cancer and plenty in-between. It is because of this range of effects that it is so important for us to look at the ingredients in our things. Unfortunately, our own government, which should theoretically want to protect its citizens from cancers, infertility, birth defects, etc, is not able to protect against chemicals in cosmetics, is not able to due to The Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (article). This Act places companies in charge of ensuring consumer safety, and anything from lipsticks to creams can go to market largely unregulated unless they contain ingredients on the FDA banned list. Currently, that list only contains 11 ingredients compared to the Europen Union’s 1,328 (source).
“ A child born in America today will grow up exposed to more chemicals than any other generation in our history.”
Irritable Bowel Syndrome & Toxins
“Any toxins are eliminated from our bodies through our bowels. All of the fat-soluble toxins like solvents, plastics, pesticides, heavy metals like mercury come out this way. If a person is overexposed and/or has a genetic susceptibility to poor detoxification, these toxins can build up and cause trouble [causing IBS].” (article)
Toxins are one of many causes for IBS, but they still contribute do systems. The world has been paying attention to toxins such as pesticides in our food ever since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring and started the modern-day environmental movement in the 1950s. And yet toxins such as plastic s
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson wrote about the lasting effects of pesticides and documenting the impact pesticides have on communities and the environment. Pesticides alter nature, and as a result can impact the rest of the environment.
She ultimately concluded that just because humanity has the ability to make something easier — like reducing the number of bugs that can pray on crops — doesn’t mean they should saying, “the road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”
I try to shop as clean as possible because I believe Rachel was right. When we use products that are not natural, they are still absorbed through our skin, and can have lasting effects. I’d like to live a long and healthy life and I can’t do that if I am asking my body to fight off a multitude of toxins daily.
“ If we are going to live so intimately with these chemicals eating and drinking them, taking them into the very marrow of our bones - we had better know something about their nature and their power.”
