Chemicals and Pesticides Can Hurt You and Those You Love
What are harmful chemicals and pesticides? Industry data from the Environmental Protection Agency indicates the 1.2 billion pounds of chemicals that potentially can be harmful to humans were released into the air and water nationwide in 1998. There are over 81000 chemicals presently used in the United States. Less than nine percent of these chemicals in relation to healthy young males, have been properly studied for their effects on the human immune, nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems.
The facts are the chemicals can be a problem for anyone, at any age. Their safety has never been checked as to their effects on the unborn, young children, females, pregnant women or older individuals who are the most apt to have adverse effects. Even at risk is anyone who has a depressed immune system, such as a cancer patient undergoing chemo-therapy. Almost any area of the body can be vulnerable and can be adversely affected from chemicals or other harmful environmental exposures. Sensitivities to chemicals can begin at any time. Therefore, for those who think of themselves as immune to chemicals, they had better get educated before it is too late.
About 51 different types of chemicals, including such compounds as herbicides, insecticides, termiticides or fungicides are collectively called pesticides. Of the 63 active pesticides used in schools, statistics show many alarming facts: 18 are probable cause of cancer, 24 are related to birth defects, 45 appear to cause reproduction problem 48 can affect central nervous system, 54 can damage the kidneys and 60 may cause eye and skin problems.
Is it necessary to be afraid? Maybe. Better than being afraid, let this booklet empower you by providing you the knowledge you need to help and protect yourself!
Industrial Toxins
A great number of highly toxic chemical, materials and heavy metals are released by industrial processes and find their way into the human body.Heavy metals, such as lead, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, nickel, cadmium and many others have no safe levels in the human system. These toxins may accumulate within the fat cells, central nerous system, bones, brain, glands , or hair and manifest negative health effects.
The claim that environmental chemicals can cause or promote cancer is supported by the fact that the distribution of the toxic-waste dump sites closely correlates with those locations being synonymous with high rates of breast cancer mortality. A variety of chemicals found in the environment can mimic the activity of estrogen once inside the human body; and are now believed to contribute to many cases of breast cancer. By 1983, the EPA had detected over 420 toxic chemicals in human tissue;48 in fat tissue, 42 in breast milk, 75 in the liver and 252 in the blood.
Industrial workers are routinely exposed to potentially toxic chemicals and substances while on the job. Tanners, oil refinery workers and insecticide/herbicide sprayers are exposed to arsenic and risk lung and skin cancer. Shipyard workers, demolition experts, and brake mechanics are exposed to asbestos, which place them at risk for lung cancer. Hospital and laboratory staffs, as well as those involved in the manufacture of wood products are routinely exposed to formaldehyde. School biology labs using formaldehyde in their petri dishes can affect students. Even that new car smell everyone associates with luxury is in many cases formaldehyde outgassing from seat and carpet fabric.
Other carcinogens in the workplace, such as benzene, diesel exhaust, human-made fibers, hair dyes, mineral oils, painting materials, polychlorinated biphenyl and soot are linked with specific occupations, routine exposures and various cancers. It is estimated that 12% of all cancers are attributable to job related exposures to carcinogens.
Polluted Water
Tap water is becoming a health hazard in the United States. It is not only pesticides and agricultral runoffs that contaminate public drinking water. According to the EPA, the tap water of 30 million Americans contains potentially hazardous levels of lead. In addion, one out of every three public water systems has violated federal standards for tap water. Municipal water can contain many different contaminants, including disease-causing bacteria, radioactive particles, heavy metals, gasoline solvents, industrial wastes, chemical residues and synthetic organic chemicals.
A survey of over 100 municipal water systems and suppliers found significant levels of cancer-causing arsenic, radon and chlorine by products, reported the Natural Resources Defense Council in October 1995. An estimated 21million Americans drink water with radon levels higher than federal safety standards, and two thirds of the 300 major water suppliers and agencies fail to give consumers information on their tap water. Polluted drinking water can further raise the risk of developing cancer.
Mercury Toxicity
Mercury, a toxic heavy metal that often comprises up to 50% of “Silver” dental filing, is a noted carcinogen and has the ability to impair immune function and create blockages in the autonomic nervous system and other tissues. Evidence now shows that mercury amalgams are the major source of mercury exposure for the general public, at rates six times higher than that found in seafood.
Mercury vapors are continuously released from amalgam filling. If you have dental filling, you inhale mercury vapor 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. After elemental mercury from amalgam fillings is inhaled or ingested, it is converted in the body to methyl mercury, the organic form of mercury. Methyl mercury, because it easily crosses the blood-brain barrier, has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. As toxic as elemental mercury is, methylmercury is 120 times more toxic. In the New England Journal of Medicine it was pointed out that “the fetal brain is more susceptible than the adult brain to mercury-induced damage.” Specifically, methyl mercury “inhibits the division and migration of neuronal cells and disrupts the cytoarchitecture of the developing brain.” Recent studies have correlated the explosive increase of autism with thimerosal, and additive to many vaccines that contains 54% ethyl mercury.
Mercury is a heavy metal. Heavy metals act as free radicals-highly reactive, charged particles that can cause damage to body tissues. Like other heavy metals, mercury has been shown to cause damage to the lining of arteries and nerve bundles (ganglia), particularly those near the prostate.
The EPA recently reported that a third of the country’s lakes and nearly a quarter of its rivers are now so polluted with mercury that children and pregnant women are advised to limit or avoid eating fish caught there.Warnings about mercury, a highly toxic metal used in things ranging from dental filings to watch batteries, have been issued by 45 states and cover four of the five Great Lakes.Mining, waste incineration and coal combustion convert it into methylmercury, a compoud that works its way up the food chain into fish and eventually humans.
Nuclear Radiation
Working or living in the proximity of nuclear power plants presents a cancer risk. Among the hazards are the small amounts of radioactive gases released daily from nuclear reactors at levels deemed “permissible” by the US Department of Energy. This low-level radioactive pollution returns to us in rainfall, which then accumulates in the soil to contaminant the food chain. People who eat dairy products and other foods tainted by these radioactive releases may be unwittingly exposing themselves to dangerous carcinogens. Since dairy products lend to concentrate the radioactive fission, avoiding such foods may lower your cancer risk.
Chronic exposure to nuclear fission products through diet and drinking water, “may bee the single largest factor in the increased incidence of most forms of malignancies since 1945”. Ernest Sternglass, Ph. D., Professor of Radiation Physics at University of Pittsburgh.
Other common toxic chemicals found in humans:
-
Dioxins (by-products of PVC production, industrial bleaching and waste incineration): Dioxins are known to cause cancer in animals, and there is some concern than even low-level exposure over long periods of times can disrupt normal functioning of the endocrine (hormone) system, resulting in reproductive or developmental effects.Furans (pollutants, by products of plastic production): Furan cause cancer in humans and are toxic to endocrine system
-
Furans (pollutants, by products of plastic production): Furan cause cancer in humans and are toxic to endocrine system
-
Phthalates (found in many cosmetics and personal care products): Phthalates cause birth defect in male reproductive organs, and have recently been discovered responsible for excessive weight gain in adolescents.
- PCBs (industrial insulators and lubricants): PCBs were banned in the U.S. In 1976 due to their connection to increased cancer rates and central nervous system disorder.
How often does exposure to Toxic Chemicals Cause Illness?
It is estimated that over 12 million Americans are so severly affected by toxic chemicals that they must totally change their life-style and no longer can live in a normal manner.
Toxic chemicals in humans have been reported to alter:
-
normal development of the unborn leading to miscarriages, stillbirths, birth anomalies and delays in normal development. (At least 3 million children presently suffer from developmental , learning and behavioral difficulties.)
-
The immune system causing an increased tendency to allergies and recurrent respiratory(nose, sinus or lung) or eat infections.
-
Defense systems of human bodies making them more prone to cancer
-
Our brain and nervous system causing headaches, difficulty thinking or remembering, inexplicable emtional ups and downs, inconsolable depression, irritability, moodiness, aggression, hyperactivity or extreme fatigue.
-
The endocrine system, contributing to illnesses such as diabetes, thyroid disease and weakened adrenal glands.
-
Our reproductive system causing a wide variety of sexual problem and infertility.
-
Muscular system causing twitches,ties, muscle pain or weakness, in time possibly leading to Fibromyalgia, MS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis of Parkinson’s disease.
-
Skeletal system causing chronic swelling and stiffness that eventually leads to pain and permanent joint deformities.
-
Heart and circulatory system causing high blood pressure or irregular heart beats.
-
Blood vessels causing abnormal bleeding into the skin, joints, breasts, urine and elsewhere.