Avoiding the most dangerous chemicals

Unfor­tu­nately we live in a world where we are sur­rounded by human-made chem­i­cals (more than 80,000 are in use in the U.S.). Of those, only a few hun­dred have been tested for safety. I learned a lot in a recent arti­cle in Nat­ural Home and Gar­den Mag­a­zine (July/August 2011) titled “Chem­i­cal War­fare” by K. Lerner and A. King­fisher. Here is a sum­mary of their advice in avoid­ing 10 of the most dan­ger­ous chem­i­cals found in and around our homes (five this week and five next week) :

1. Phtha­lates: These are endocrine-disrupting chem­i­cals used to make #3 plas­tics flex­i­ble. PVC plas­tic leaches these chem­i­cals when it is heated or worn down. They are also found in personal-care prod­ucts and deter­gents often labeled as “fra­grance.” To min­i­mize: never microwave plas­tic con­tain­ers. Store food in glass or metal con­tain­ers. Avoid vinyl floor­ing, shower cur­tains, PVC pipes and prod­ucts with “fragrance.”

2. BPA: Biphe­nol A (BPA) is an endocrine dis­rupter found in reusable poly­car­bon­ate (#7 plas­tic) food and bev­er­age con­tain­ers (includ­ing baby bot­tles); the lin­ing of food and bev­er­age cans and on receipts and money. To min­i­mize: same advice as above in addi­tion, avoid canned foods — choose bulk, frozen or fresh instead or look for BPA-free canned goods. Buy “BPA-free” reusable water bot­tles and wash your hands after han­dling receipts or money.

3. Chlo­rine: Used as a dis­in­fec­tant in munic­i­pal water sys­tems, chlo­rine is toxic, even at low con­cen­tra­tions. To min­i­mize: Fil­ter chlo­rine with a whole-house fil­ter or with a chlorine-filtering show­er­head and a granular-activated char­coal drink­ing water fil­ter. Avoid swim­ming in chlo­ri­nated water — espe­cially don’t swal­low the water.

4. Radon: This chem­i­cal is a nat­ural, odor­less radioac­tive gas that can seep into homes from the ground. It can be detected with a test kit. To min­i­mize: Test for radon with a sim­ple kit — you may have to call in a pro­fes­sional to fix the prob­lem if the lev­els are too high.

5. PFCs: Per­flu­o­ro­chem­i­cals are per­sis­tent organic pol­lu­tants used on stain-resistant cloth­ing and uphol­stery, cook­ing pans, fast food wrap­pers and inside pet food and microwave pop­corn bags. Teflon, Scotch­gard, Stain­mas­ter and Gore-Tex are all PFCs. To min­i­mize: Forego stain treat­ments on fur­ni­ture or car­pet; don’t wear cloth­ing labeled stain– or water-resistant; avoid non­stick pans; pop pop­corn on the stove or with an air pop­per; and choose personal-care items with­out “PTFE” and “per­flu­oro” in the ingredients.

More on this next week. Until then, take a seri­ous look at some of these sug­ges­tions just to help you and your fam­ily lower your chem­i­cal exposure.

Tues­day Trip­pier lives in Delaware, is a writer and mother of three, soon to be four, with a spe­cial inter­est in green living.

Posted by Tuesday Trippier on Aug 1 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.