Six Chemical Classes
The 6 Chemical Classes are both the most commonly found in consumer products AND highly toxic - most of us have probably heard about the potential health effects of these chemicals at some point
1) Highly Fluorinated Chemicals
These are mainly found in non-stick products, such as cookware, and in waterproof products. When you start to think about the products that are water proof, the list continues to grow. I personally knew that certain non-stick cookware was harmful, but I had not idea prior to watching this video that waterproof items were also harmful. And what's worse is these chemicals never break down so they continue to accumulate in the environment.
2) Antimicrobials
Intuitively, antimicrobials sound like something we want in our daily products. This is likely why they were added to thousands of products without testing to ensure they were safe or without proving they were providing any benefit to consumers. It turns out that many of these antimicrobials are doing much more harm than good. The FDA recognized this and banned the use of 19 antimicrobials in soaps, but they can still be added to building materials and consumer products. We need to continue to work to ban these harmful chemicals from our homes and our products.
3) Flame Retardants
I just wrote my lit review on this topic so I knew a lot about these prior to watching this video. What continues to shock me is that the flame retardants added to most furniture does not really provide much benefit when they actually is a fire and it can make the fire more toxic. It almost seems that somebody thought this was a good idea so started added it to furniture without testing to make sure it actually worked. Then, once it was normal to add to furniture the manufacturers didn't stop even once it was proven to be very toxic to humans, wildlife and the environment. Luckily, regulations were passed that require furniture to have a TB117 label and state if the furniture contains flame retardants. I checked my couch and it does not have added flame retardant - I was very happy to learn this!
4) Bisphenols and Phthalates
BPA, a bisphenol, has been a hot topic for the last few years and so luckily many Americans are aware of the potential health hazards and have called for the removal from products. Because of this, many companies have started to remove BPA from their plastics. Unfortunately, many companies will label their product as "BPA-Free" but have replaces BPA with a similar bisphenol, such as BPS, which may be just as harmful if not more harmful than BPA. While phthalates are less known about, they cause similar effects. As a society I think we need to use less plastic. Plastics are used so commonly it is actually very difficult to avoid it. I recently made an effort to reduce my use of plastics and have found it very difficult. So many food products are sold in plastic that sometimes if you want to eat a certain food you are forced to purchase it in a plastic container.
5) Solvents
Not all solvents are toxic, but many of them are. I think it's fairly easy to tell which solvents are toxic because they smell bad when you are exposed to them. For example paint thinner and nail polish remover have a pungent and repulsive smell. Some solvents have added fragrance to cover up the bad smell. For example household cleaners and markers. This is concerning because the natural bad smell tells us to avoid these products, while covering them up with a better smell makes us want to use them more.
6) Certain Metals
The toxic metals covered in this video were mercury, arsenic, cadmium and lead. I personally knew quite a bit of information about all the metals expect for cadmium. These metals are all found naturally in the Earth, but it doesn't mean we should be exposed to them every day. The negative health effects from exposure to these metals is extreme. Most of the mercury exposure in humans today is from contaminated fish - especially tuna fish. Recently, I was happy to find a company that sells tuna fish that not only practices sustainable fishing but tests the tuna for mercury and only uses fish that have very low levels of mercury.
1) Highly Fluorinated Chemicals
These are mainly found in non-stick products, such as cookware, and in waterproof products. When you start to think about the products that are water proof, the list continues to grow. I personally knew that certain non-stick cookware was harmful, but I had not idea prior to watching this video that waterproof items were also harmful. And what's worse is these chemicals never break down so they continue to accumulate in the environment.
2) Antimicrobials
Intuitively, antimicrobials sound like something we want in our daily products. This is likely why they were added to thousands of products without testing to ensure they were safe or without proving they were providing any benefit to consumers. It turns out that many of these antimicrobials are doing much more harm than good. The FDA recognized this and banned the use of 19 antimicrobials in soaps, but they can still be added to building materials and consumer products. We need to continue to work to ban these harmful chemicals from our homes and our products.
3) Flame Retardants
I just wrote my lit review on this topic so I knew a lot about these prior to watching this video. What continues to shock me is that the flame retardants added to most furniture does not really provide much benefit when they actually is a fire and it can make the fire more toxic. It almost seems that somebody thought this was a good idea so started added it to furniture without testing to make sure it actually worked. Then, once it was normal to add to furniture the manufacturers didn't stop even once it was proven to be very toxic to humans, wildlife and the environment. Luckily, regulations were passed that require furniture to have a TB117 label and state if the furniture contains flame retardants. I checked my couch and it does not have added flame retardant - I was very happy to learn this!
4) Bisphenols and Phthalates
BPA, a bisphenol, has been a hot topic for the last few years and so luckily many Americans are aware of the potential health hazards and have called for the removal from products. Because of this, many companies have started to remove BPA from their plastics. Unfortunately, many companies will label their product as "BPA-Free" but have replaces BPA with a similar bisphenol, such as BPS, which may be just as harmful if not more harmful than BPA. While phthalates are less known about, they cause similar effects. As a society I think we need to use less plastic. Plastics are used so commonly it is actually very difficult to avoid it. I recently made an effort to reduce my use of plastics and have found it very difficult. So many food products are sold in plastic that sometimes if you want to eat a certain food you are forced to purchase it in a plastic container.
5) Solvents
Not all solvents are toxic, but many of them are. I think it's fairly easy to tell which solvents are toxic because they smell bad when you are exposed to them. For example paint thinner and nail polish remover have a pungent and repulsive smell. Some solvents have added fragrance to cover up the bad smell. For example household cleaners and markers. This is concerning because the natural bad smell tells us to avoid these products, while covering them up with a better smell makes us want to use them more.
6) Certain Metals
The toxic metals covered in this video were mercury, arsenic, cadmium and lead. I personally knew quite a bit of information about all the metals expect for cadmium. These metals are all found naturally in the Earth, but it doesn't mean we should be exposed to them every day. The negative health effects from exposure to these metals is extreme. Most of the mercury exposure in humans today is from contaminated fish - especially tuna fish. Recently, I was happy to find a company that sells tuna fish that not only practices sustainable fishing but tests the tuna for mercury and only uses fish that have very low levels of mercury.
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