Toxins in our food
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NEGATIVE HEALTH EFFECTS OF FOOD TOXINS
Do you know how much contamination is in your food? 81 full-text scientific articles resulted in seven common public health risks related to safety of your health. Don't buy genetically modified foods; instead buy Non-GMO foods, organic foods, foods without food coloring.
toxins in our air
Read On
“Globally 8.9 million deaths happen due to air pollution exposure, resulting in 7.6% of the total yearly mortality and leading to 103.1 million healthy life years lost. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 4.2 million lose their lives every year due to ambient outdoor air pollution and 3.8 million from indoor air pollution, mainly due to exposure to smoke from cookstoves and fuels.” The diseases from air pollution include: lung cancer, asthma, cognitive deficits, pre-term birth, respiratory illnesses, and reproductive health.
“Pollution has been linked with increased mental illness in children and the likelihood of dementia in adults.” With CO2 at 930 parts per million . . . cognitive ability declines by 21%. Air pollution has been linked to worse memory, attention, and vocabulary, and to ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. Pollution has been shown to damage the development of neurons in the brain and proximity to a coal plant can deform your DNA.”
These statistics should scare everyone.
toxins in our water
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In 2021 the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) found over thirty-one million state water drinking records with contaminants. We are paying water bills. EWG has a site by which you can check your state and city to find the contaminants in your tap water.
Perchlorates are yet another toxic contaminant in our drinking water supply, soil, and vegetation. Discovered in the 1950s, it has only recently been a contaminant of concern. “The primary toxicity issue is associated with disruption of iodide uptake in the thyroid gland due to its similarity in ionic radius to iodide. Widespread presence of perchlorate in drinking water aquifers and its toxicological properties make perchlorate an emerging chemical of concern." Perchlorate can lead to health problems in your thyroid. The adverse effect is hypothyroidism. Perchlorate also affects other tissues it is known to be present in the breast milk of nursing mothers, gastrointestinal tract, placenta, skin and mammary gland. On March 31, 2022, the EPA relied on the 2020 decision to not regulate perchlorate.
Read on
Melamine is classified as a carcinogen and found in food, leaching from tableware, contaminated water, and food packaging. Additionally, “Animals are exposed to melamine-containing fertilizers and animal feed, and/or illegal addition. In 2007–2008, illegal addition in infant formula and pet feed resulted in urolithiasis (stone in the urinary system) and kidney failure incidents, and in extreme cases, death.” Cyanuric acid is found in plastics, disinfectants, chlorine in swimming pools and in animal feed.
There are many plastics in our air, water, food and clothing. This can results in negative kidney effects and cancer. “The detection of both melamine [plastic substance] and cyanuric acid [a pool balancing product to make chlorine last longer] in our pregnant population is concerning since kidney toxicities have been reported at varying exposure levels and there are potentials for developmental effects. Kidney effects, ranging from symptomatic or asymptomatic urolithiasis to acute renal failure and urinary tract obstruction, have been observed in children with chronic histories of melamine contaminated formula consumption.”
Toxins in our Homes
Black Mold
Did you know that more than 50% of the homes in the U.S. have mold?
Some people will not react or show any signs of negative health effects from the mold. However, many people will react and become very sick, like I did. Toxic mold may not be visible. It can hide and multiply behind walls, tile, and other places not easily seen in your home. After three years of being extremely sick and after moving into a remodeled home, my husband and I found that there was very toxic black mold behind the tile in our bathroom. Typical medical lab tests will not determine if you have toxic mold in your home or your body. The only way we found out is testing via Mycometrics, a microbiology lab company that specializes in the identification of fungi (mold). Their website is: Mycometrics.com.
What Can You Do?
If you have migraine headaches, other physical and/or emotional complaints, you might want to have your home checked for fungi/mold. I was so sick from the hidden toxic mold in our home, I was bedridden for three years. Most primary care providers do not know about the negative health effects of toxic mold and will likely blame it on you, i.e. there's something wrong with you. That's what happened to me; that is until I found the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness. There is a list of providers who know how to treat toxic mold.
References
Liang, L. et al. (2019). Interaction between microplastics and microorganism as well as gut microbiota: A consideration on environmental animal and human health. Science and the Total Environment, 667(1). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30826685/.
Baorong, J. et al. (2020> Health impacts of environmental contamination of micro and nanoplastics: A review. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 25(9). doi: 10.1186/s12199-020-00870-9.
Chang, L. et al. (2020). Potential health impact of environmental micro and nanoplastics pollution. Journal of Applied Toxicology, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/jat.3915.
Gizaw, Z. (2019). Public health risks related to food safety issues in the food market: A systematic literature review. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 24(1). doi: 10.1186/s12199-019-0825-
Bhet,T.H et al. (2021). Air pollution health risk assessment (AP-HRA) principles and applications. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4). doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041935.[2]
Wallace-Wells, D. (2019, 2020). The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. Tim Duggan Books, an imprint of Random House, New York.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/ [2] Srinivasan, A. & Viraraghavan, T. (2009). Perchlorate: health effects and technologies for its removal from water sources. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 6(4). https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph6041418.
https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/perchlorate-drinking-water.
Choi, G., et al. (in press). Exposure to melamine and its derivatives and aromatic amines among pregnant women in the United States: The ECHO Program. Chemosphere, www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere.
International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness, iseai.org. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/dicamba_gen.html.
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/reviewed-chromium-6.php
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/cancer/roc/index.html
https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/pressctr/factsheet/15th_roc_508.pdf
Jain, M. & Singh, M. Environmental Toxins and Infertility, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576379/
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/30/1146254933/hersheys-lawsuit-dark-chocolate-heavy-metals-lead
Davidsuzuki.org
Darbre, P.D. & Harvey, P.W. (2008). Paraben esters: review of recent studies of endocrine toxicity, absorption, esterase and human exposure and discussion of potential human health risks. Journal of Applied Toxicology.
Epsilon toxin-producing Clostridium perfringens colonize the MS gut and epsilon toxin overcomes immune privilege” by Timothy Vartanian et al. Journal of Clinical Investigation.
(1991). Sixth Annual Report on Carcinogens, Fifteenth Edition, Acrylamide, CAS #79-06-1. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/go/roc.
