Healthy Living in a Toxic World

5/7/09: Chemicals, chemicals, chemicals: every day, many people use hand lotion product containing the likes of  butylphenyl methlypropional, bathe with soap containing pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate, coat their underarms with aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex,  and wash down that delicious autolyzed yeast extract with a tall glass of maltodextrin. However, how many of us actually know where all these given chemicals come from, or what they might be able to do to one's health? All I know is that after attending Sandra Steingraber's “Healthy Living in a Toxic World”, presented by the  Green Mountain Global Forum series, I'm eying my shampoo bottle with a little more suspicion.

Dr. Steingraber is an ecologist, triathlete, cancer survivor and author of the book Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment. A prominent biologist, Steingraber was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 20s, and has since spent her career investigating the connections between human health and the environment, and more specifically, the environment humans have filled with various chemical byproducts. During her lecture, she pointed out the possible connections between these substances found in everyday items, and their effects (both known and unknown) on human hormones.  For example, a person may not think that their use of a plastic shower curtain, non-stick pan, or frequency of perfume use could have much effect on their health- but it might.

Enter the humble phthalate. As Steingraber explained, phthalates are used in the softening of plastics, as well as in perfumes and various other products. However, phthalates have also been linked to shorter gestation, infertility, and malformations of the fetal male's reproductive organs. “We manufacture in this country a billion pounds a year of phthalates, a known male reproductive toxin.” See also exhibit b, bisphenyl-A: first synthesized as a synthetic estrogen, it has found new use in plastics. It's also found its way into the urine of 92% of the US population.

However, she explained, much of responsibility for protective measures that should have been policy-based was instead directed instead onto the backs of individuals. To quote Steingraber:
        “So there's been education and education and education, and
        because of the last eight years of no regulation out of Washington
        at all, all this education has been directed at us, as individual
        shoppers. Then, when we find out that there's a problem like the
        disappearance of honeybees, that we can't shop our way out of,
        we end up absolutely full of a sense of futility."

Throughout her talk, Dr. Steingraber emphasized the importance of not being overwhelmed by the problems facing our planet, so as to avoid this “well-informed futility syndrome.” Yes, we can get overwhelmed by these large numbers and environmental measurements that we may not fully understand, but she compared this sort of information loading to the constant news tickers and network anchors yelling about the economic downturn: who really knows what the dow is, anyways? Whether we're in the market or not, we somehow understand that all our fates rise and fall with these numbers. While we don't feel like abandoning all hope over the economic markers, why shouldn't ecologic markers be the same way? As Steingraber put it, “we have as much need to come up with a bailout plan for the ecological system as we do the economic system.”

So, what is there to do? While she advocates that there's no replacement for sound policy, she feels there's a great opportunity right now, both for policy and individuals:
        “I'm gonna[sic] argue here that policy can't necessarily wait
        for education to create a cultural sea change, so that people
        see the communion between the interior parts of our body and
        the larger ecological world. That instead, we should seize this
        particular political moment, the opportunity we now have,
        to make profound environmental change […] in fact, I think
        that when the policy is done right, it actually serves as the
        education itself.”
Using the metaphor of an orchestra, not everyone has to play a solo in the “save the world symphony”, but we do need to know our instrument and play our parts. It's through smaller, individual efforts, like getting a local football field to use environmentally-friendly pest control, that we find our niche and work to use it as best we can. The important part is to know what you're good at, and use it to contribute to the efforts to keep our planet livable: as a group of protesters cleverly wrote in response to the bailout bill, “Earth is too big to fail.”

Oh, and for those of you playing along at home-
•  butylphenyl methlypropional is a bioaccumulative and possibly neurotoxic chemical used for floral fragrances. It is illegal in the EU.
• pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate is a bioaccumulative, persistent, possibly toxic to aquatic life chemical used in cosmetics and soaps.
• aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex glycine complex is neurotoxic to humans in aerosolized (airborne) form. It is most commonly found in antiperspirant.
• autolyzed yeast extract is a flavor enhancer, used in place of monosodium glutamate (MSG.)
• maltodextrin is a glucose (sugar) compound produced from vegetable starch. It's often used as a filler carbohydrate or thickener in processed foods and pharmaceuticals. You'll probably find it in paper sugar substitute packages at restaurants.