How Toxic is YOUR House?

How Toxic is YOUR House?
By Cindy Holt, RN, BSN, LMT

I’ve been doing some reading. My friends say that scares them, since I usually come up with something else they shouldn’t be doing. I’ve known for some time that household cleaners aren’t good for us. In fact, back when I was nursing full time, (at least 9 years ago) I read that the most toxic profession was housekeeping. I chuckled and said that wouldn’t likely affect me since I was allergic to housework and usually had someone else clean my house. But think about that- household products are so toxic that if you do a lot of cleaning, you’ll get sick. They were talking about lung cancer, liver cancer, chronic bronchitis, and a bunch of other scary diseases. One of the most ubiquitous toxic ingredients, according to Dr. Sam Epstein, M.D., an expert in the field of environmental and occupational medicine, is Sodium Laureth (or Lauryl) Sulfate. I’ve checked, and it’s in everything from soaps, to laundry detergent, to dish detergent, to baby products. It's not so much that it causes cancer, but it irritates and denatures the protein in your skin so other toxins can get into the blood more easily. And here’s another “fun” tidbit. Many cleaning products don’t have to list their “secret” ingredients if they’re not on the government’s list of toxic substances. But the government doesn’t test them, so how will they know if they’re toxic or not? Currently, we know of at least 80 chemicals that cause cancer that are in our daily routine products. Heard about Bisphenol A (BPA) in the news lately? It’s in plastics and has been leaching out into our food, baby formula, and household products. Oh, joy, my aching liver.

If you think the EPA or FDA is keeping an eye on things, guess again. They have no funding for such things and rely on the manufacturer to provide information regarding toxicity from their own research. Oh, yeah, I’ll bet that happens a lot. According to the EPA, only 7% of the nearly 300,000 chemicals available in the US have toxicology reports.

And it’s not just your cleaning products. Body lotions, shampoo, bath soap, shower gel, nail polish remover, toothpaste, face creams, and the list goes on are all absorbed through the skin. In medicine, they call it the “transdermal” route. More and more medications are being delivered that way because it bypasses the stomach acid and heads straight for the blood stream. And if you want it to get there really fast, you give it under the tongue, called the “sublingual” route. So where do you think the Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and propylene glycol in your toothpaste is going?

We have to get smart as consumers, and start reading labels. More health conscious stores carry some brands that are safer, but what do we really know about those companies? Colgate bought Toms of Maine and put the sodium lauryl sulfate back in it. Clorox bought Burt's Bees. Oh, there's a name I want to trust. They can volunteer to test their ingredients and pass that information on to the EPA??? I’ve been doing my homework, and I think I’ve found a few solutions. I use Neways International products in my home, on my body, and I take their nutritional supplements. Check it out at http://ineways.com/holtholistichealing.