Are you a toxic time bomb?
Why the chemicals in your cosmetics and cleaning products could be making you ill
Toxins are the chemicals you get in industrial waste, right? Wrong. They're in the food we eat, the make-up we use and the air we breathe. Some have been linked to cancer and infertility, and chances are your home is full of them.
When career girl Lucy Russell started to feel unwell in 2002, she blamed her work-hard-play-harder lifestyle. Like many 20-somethings, she loved to socialise and go clubbing with her friends, enjoyed a drink, smoked and had an average diet.
So when she started to suffer constant throat and chest infections, aching joints and extreme lethargy, she was worried she was seriously ill. Lucy, then 27, went to see her GP, who diagnosed ME.
Within months, she had to quit her job with social services and was often unable to get out of bed. Her condition, she believes, was a direct result of the toxins not only in her diet, but also in her home.
Over recent years, increasing numbers of environmental campaigners have been trying to raise awareness of the dangers of chemicals being used in everyday life.
Some experts believe the cocktail of chemicals we're exposed to in modern life could have serious effects on our health.
And worryingly, it's not just people working in jobs where they come into contact with chemicals that are affected.
One recent study showed the average woman will absorb almost 5lb of chemicals through her skin every year from make-up and personal hygiene products.
Tests have been carried out on individual chemicals, pesticides and other compounds that are used to keep our society clean, extend the shelf life of foods, and produce new technology, products and even medicines. But what campaigners are concerned about is the effect the combination of these substances could have.
And Lucy believes this is what caused her illness. She started to strip chemicals out of her life. "My body felt toxic," she says. "There was no treatment for my ME, so I started looking at my diet - and reading the ingredients of everything I was putting in to my body.
"I stopped drinking and smoking, and switched to mineral water. I discovered milk had hormones in it, and the fruit I'd been eating had been sprayed with chemicals. I stopped using a lot of cleaning products because I could feel I was inhaling chemicals."
She embraced a green lifestyle, and within a year she was well enough to work again. Two years ago, she and her husband, Richard, set up an organic skincare company, www.lucyrussellorganics.co.uk . A year later they had a baby boy, Thomas. Now, Lucy, from Battle, East Sussex, says she lives her life as chemically free as possible - and feels healthier for it.
Research has found that pregnant women and children appear most at risk of health problems from exposure to airborne chemicals. Children's brains and nervous systems are still developing so they are more vulnerable.
Just last month, a study by China's Fudan University and The Rockefeller University in New York discovered chemicals in some shower curtains, vinyl flooring and even children's toys could increase the risk of having a baby with a low birth weight.
Earlier this year, a disturbing report revealed how these and other chemicals in food, household products and cosmetics were 'feminising' baby boys and were one of the leading causes of decreased fertility in Western males.
And a study by the World Wildlife Fund even suggested these chemicals could be why cases of breast cancer have risen by 81 per cent in the last 30 years.
All in all, the studies paint a pretty grim picture. Recently US research found that another group of chemicals - perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, found in some food packaging and carpets - were making it harder for women to conceive. One suggested reason is that they could interfere with female hormones.
And once you're pregnant, chances are your baby will be exposed to a cocktail of chemicals while still in your womb.
Chemicals are absorbed through the skin into the blood, and then pass through the placenta to the foetus, although most scientists would argue that the levels involved are too tiny to be harmful.
Now, Professor Andreas Kortenkamp from The University of London's School of Pharmacy, is calling on the Government to help protect pregnant women and their children against this chemical overload.
"In Denmark, the Government gives leaflets to pregnant women advising them on how to limit chemical exposure during pregnancy," he says.
One possible chemical culprit is bisphenol A - a substance used to make babies' bottles and to line the inside of tin cans. Last year, a study linked it in high doses to heart disease and diabetes in humans.
Canada has announced baby bottles containing this chemical will be banned, and the US is said to be reconsidering its safety levels, but the European Union argues that the levels we are exposed to are too low to be harmful.
The European Union has made noises about tightening regulations on chemicals, and REACH, a European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use, is supposed to address the risk posed by combined chemicals - but no action has been taken yet.
Meanwhile our bodies may carry on bearing the toxic burden - possibly harming us in the long-term by contributing to cancer, heart disease and decreased fertility.
"Many chemicals in isolation may not pose a dramatic health risk," says
Professor Kortenkamp, "but with so many in circulation, no one yet knows the
long-term effect of the cocktail of these chemicals."
For
more information about chemicals and toxins, visit Friends Of The Earth at Foe.co.uk.
'MY BODY WAS FULL OF CHEMICALS'
Mum-of-two Elizabeth Salter Green, 45, a toxicologist with campaigning group the CHEM Trust, volunteered to be a chemical guinea pig.
She had her blood and urine tested, and was horrified when they were found to contain 22 chemical substances. Among them were high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, which have been linked to hormone disruption and brain, heart and immune-system problems.
Six types of pesticides and four types of flame retardants were also found. These are used in televisions and computers to prevent them setting on fire and the particles are released into the air and can then be inhaled. They can accumulate in breast milk and have been found in animal studies to cause neurological problems, as well as reproductive issues.
While Elizabeth hasn't suffered any health problems so far, she was worried by what the tests showed.
"I was shocked and appalled when I found out how toxic I was," says Elizabeth.
"I thought I'd always been pretty aware of my level of exposure, but it bought home just how vulnerable we all are."
Elizabeth took immediate steps to protect herself and her children, Florence, six, and Freddie, five.
"I threw out my cosmetics, and made sure we all started eating only organic food and cut out red meat. I'm very worried about the impact this could have on my children," Elizabeth says.
"I'm doing the best I can do reduce our exposure. I plan to get tested again and I hope my levels are significantly lower.
"We have to be more aware of what chemicals are doing to our body."
PHOTOGRAPHY: ALICIA CLARKE, SYRIOL JONES, GETTY HAIR & MAKE-UP: SHERRIE WARWICK LUCYRUSELLORGANICS.CO.UK
This article has 0 comments