KEY CONTAMINANTS AND TOXIC CHEMICALS IN THE HOME

KEY CONTAMINANTS AND TOXIC CHEMICALS IN THE HOME 

We finally make it to the front door. Here it is a good idea to adopt an oriental custom and leave your outdoor shoes outside. Why bring in the lead still found in traces on our pavements, or the germs, pesticides and herbicides into the house and onto the carpets? Again scientific studies have shown that is exactly what you do! Carpets hold over a hundred times more dust than wood flooring and research shows lead levels in carpet dust exceed those in clean-up levels from toxic factory sites! Think about getting rid of your carpets! If not, vacuum at least twice per week and use a vacuum cleaner with at least a HEPA filter.

AIR QUALITY

Recent studies by Dementia UK and Parkinsons Disease have show a potential link between air quality and developing neurological problems (Bandyopadhyay, 2016; Zanobetti et al, 2013; Block, 2009)

‘EMERGING EVIDENCE IMPLICATES AIR POLLUTION AS A CHRONIC SOURCE OF NEUROINFLAMMATION, REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES (ROS), AND NEUROPATHOLOGY INSTIGATING CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (CNS) DISEASE. STROKE INCIDENCE, AND ALZHEIMER’S AND PARKINSON’S DISEASE PATHOLOGY ARE LINKED TO AIR POLLUTION. RECENT REPORTS REVEAL THAT AIR POLLUTION COMPONENTS REACH THE BRAIN.’ (BLOCK ET AL, 2009). 

TAP WATER AND TOXIC CHEMICALS

Many people will shop organically, cut dairy and red meat consumption, eat more vegetables and chant the mantra, You are what you eat, before settling down to a nice cup of tea in front of the TV. There is a weird irony about water in the home. Young lycra-clad women on running machines have their plastic bottled mineral water about them at all times. A symbol of health, indeed fashion. Then they cook in tap water, or eat out in restaurants that do the same. 

Tap water contains chlorine which reacts with organic materials to form highly carcinogenic trihalomethanes. Harvard and other US Health centres have been very active on these chemicals, which are dangerous.

Tap water may contain fluoride. Even the FDA has now confirmed that this is a carcinogen. There are extensive research studies showing that it causes neurological problems and even brain damage especially in the foetus and children. Pregnant women are warned about intake of fluoride. So what should pregnant women do, Mr Prime Minister, if you force through laws to fluoridate all water supplies? Move home while pregnant? Certain states in the USA have banned fluoridation.

Apart from lead, water can also contain heavy metals like aluminium. Recycled water in major cities can also contain oestrogen and drug levels you most definitely do not need, thanks to HRT, contraceptive pill and drug-takers urine. Increasingly, some tap waters contain chlorine-resistant microscopic parasites. The safest solution is to drink glass bottled water from pure mountain sources. (Frankly, you cannot be sure that your plastic bottled water is not leaching oestrogen like phthalates into your pure mountain water, so be careful). Another option is to use a Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Filter you can use RO water to wash utensils or to cook. You can of course drink RO water it is commonly drunk in the Far East but normal systems remove almost everything including the minerals and this makes it more acidic. Look for new RO systems that replace the lost minerals and so return the water to its correct state.

PET THEORIES FOR TOXIC CHEMICALS IN HOME

Then you stroke the cat and pat the dog; dog collars and flea collars maykeep the pests away from your house, but they too have been directly linked with increased levels of cancer, especially in children. Many have now removed the chemicals of concern. Pet sprays and pet shampoos historically contained pesticides (some have now moved to cut out the worst). Don´t laugh, but you can always try feeding your cat garlic and brewers yeast instead? Or try rubbing the fur with clove or eucalyptus oil. The bugs will move on quickly! To reduce the garden bugs, look for more organic approaches: 

Vinegar pots kill slugs; good old fashioned fly paper still works, French marigolds keep the aphids off garden vegetables, and chickens eat the moth bugs that descend from the apple trees in winter. Our Grandparent-food growers all knew this.