The New York Times ran an article about the dangers of chemicals in household items – specifically children’s exposure to these items. Here’s the first few paragraphs. Be prepared to be alarmed!
LAURA MacCLEERY was four months pregnant when she parked herself on the couch and started an inventory of the chemicals in her Alexandria, Va., town house. First, Ms. MacCleery, 40, a lawyer and women’s health advocate, collected 70 products in a pile: things like makeup, shampoo, detergents and sink cleaners. Then she typed the names of the cosmetics into an online database called Skin Deep, created by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org/skindeep), a research and advocacy organization.
The results were not comforting. Ms. MacCleery’s $25 lipsticks contained a dizzying brew of chemicals, including ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, a possible endocrine disruptor. “When I bought them, I thought I was doing something special for myself,” she said. “But then it turned out I was probably eating petrochemicals.” The lipsticks went into the trash bag.
For some products, the site listed dozens of exotic chemicals and compounds. There were estrogenic hormones and neurotoxins and bioaccumulators. For other items, there was almost no information at all. What effects could these substances have on her baby? Ms. MacCleery didn’t know and didn’t intend to find out.
By the time the inventory was over, “I threw out, I would say, all but three or four of the items,” she said. “Everything was toxic. Everything.”
Every so often an article about the dangers of chemicals in this or that pop up. They are mostly alarmist pieces with little merit. Everything around us is chemical, and the vast majority of the chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis are harmless. The things she is freaking out about in cosmetics are present in high enough concentrations to be of any major concern. Josh Bloom has a nice rebuttal you can read. His last line sums it up quite nicely:
Your kids are going to spend a lifetime being exposed to chemicals: auto exhaust, smoke, soot, chlorine, soap, perfume. They will be fine. Just calm down. The groups with a vested interest in keeping you afraid are not a credible source of information.
Well said.