BPA
Some may say that
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but do you really want a chemical
used in plastics imitating the sex hormone estrogen in your body? No!
Unfortunately, this synthetic hormone can trick the body into thinking it’s the
real thing – and the results aren’t pretty. BPA has been linked to everything
from breast and others cancers to reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty
and heart disease, and according to government tests, 93 percent of Americans
have BPA in their bodies!
Dioxin
Dioxins are
multi-taskers… but not in a good way! They form during many industrial
processes when chlorine or bromine are burned in the presence of carbon and
oxygen. Dioxins can disrupt the delicate ways that both male and female sex
hormone signaling occurs in the body. This is a bad thing! Here’s why: Recent
research has shown that exposure to low levels of dioxin in the womb and early
in life can both permanently affect sperm quality and lower the sperm count in
men during their prime reproductive years. But that’s not all! Dioxins are very
long-lived, build up both in the body and in the food chain, are powerful
carcinogens and can also affect the immune and reproductive systems.
Atrazine
What happens when you
introduce highly toxic chemicals into nature and turn your back? For one thing,
feminization of male frogs. That’s right, researchers have found that exposure
to even low levels of the herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into females
that produce completely viable eggs. Atrazine is widely used on the majority of
corn crops in the United States, and consequently it’s a pervasive drinking
water contaminant. Atrazine has been linked to breast tumors, delayed puberty
and prostate inflammation in animals, and some research has linked it to
prostate cancer in people.
Phthalates
Did you know that a
specific signal programs cells in our bodies to die? It’s totally normal and
healthy for 50 billion cells in your body to die every day! But studies have
shown that chemicals called phthalates can trigger what’s known as
“death-inducing signaling” in testicular cells, making them die earlier than
they should. Yep, that’s cell death – in your man parts. If that’s not enough,
studies have linked phthalates to hormone changes, lower sperm count, less
mobile sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, diabetes
and thyroid irregularities.
How to avoid it? A good place to start is to avoid plastic food containers,
children’s toys (some phthalates are already banned in kid’s products), and
plastic wrap made from PVC, which has the recycling label #3. Almost all
personal care products also contain phthalates, so read the labels and avoid
products that simply list “fragrance,”
and avoid perfume since the catch-call “fragrance” more often than not means
hidden phthalates.
Perchlorate
Who needs food tainted
with rocket fuel?! That’s right, perchlorate, a component in rocket fuel,
contaminates much of our produce and milk, according to EWG and government test
data. When perchlorate gets into your body it competes with the nutrient
iodine, which the thyroid gland needs to make thyroid hormones. Basically, this
means that if you ingest too much of it you can end up altering your thyroid
hormone balance. This is important because it’s these hormones that regulate
metabolism in adults and are critical for proper brain and organ development in
infants and young children.
Fire retardants
What do breast milk and
polar bears have in common? In 1999, some Swedish scientists studying women’s
breast milk discovered something totally unexpected: The milk contained an
endocrine-disrupting chemical found in fire retardants, and the levels had been
doubling every five years since 1972! These incredibly persistent chemicals,
known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, (sometimes found in cosmetics
and personal care products) have since been found to contaminate the bodies of
people and wildlife around the globe – even polar bears. These chemicals can
imitate thyroid hormones in our bodies and disrupt their activity. That can
lead to lower IQ, among other significant health effects.
Lead
Lead harms almost every
organ system in the body and has been linked to a staggering array of health
effects, including permanent brain damage, lowered IQ, hearing loss,
miscarriage, premature birth, increased blood pressure, kidney damage and
nervous system problems. But few people realize that one other way that lead
may affect your body is by disrupting your hormones. In animals, lead has been
found to lower sex hormone levels. Research has also shown that lead can
disrupt the hormone signaling that regulates the body’s major stress system
(called the HPA axis).
Arsenic
Arsenic can interfere
with normal hormone functioning in the glucocorticoid system that regulates how
our bodies process sugars and carbohydrates. What does that mean for you? Well,
disrupting the glucocorticoid system has been linked to weight gain/loss,
protein wasting, immunosuppression, insulin resistance (which can lead to
diabetes), osteoporosis, growth retardation and high blood pressure.
Mercury
Pregnant women are the
most at risk from the toxic effects of mercury, since the metal is known to
concentrate in the fetal brain and can interfere with brain development.
Mercury is also known to bind directly to one particular hormone that regulates
women’s menstrual cycle and ovulation, interfering with normal signaling
pathways.
Perfluorinated chemicals
(PFCs)
The perfluorinated
chemicals used to make non-stick cookware can stick to you. One
particularly notorious compound called PFOA has been shown to be “completely
resistant to biodegradation.” In other words, PFOA doesn’t break down in the
environment – ever. That means that even though the chemical was banned after
decades of use, it will be showing up in people’s bodies for countless
generations to come. This is worrisome, since PFOA exposure has been linked to
decreased sperm quality, low birth weight, kidney disease, thyroid disease and
high cholesterol, among other health issues. Scientists are still figuring out
how PFOA affects the human body, but animal studies have found that it can
affect thyroid and sex hormone levels.
Organophosphate
pesticides
Neurotoxic
organophosphate compounds that the Nazis produced in huge quantities for
chemical warfare during World War II were luckily never used. After the war
ended, American scientists used the same chemistry to develop a long line of
pesticides that target the nervous systems of insects. Despite many studies
linking organophosphate exposure to effects on brain development, behavior and
fertility, they are still among the more common pesticides in use today. A few
of the many ways that organophosphates can affect the human body include
interfering with the way testosterone communicates with cells, lowering
testosterone and altering thyroid hormone levels.
Glycol Ethers
These are common solvents
in paints, cleaning products, brake fluid and cosmetics, personal, skin, hair,
baby, beauty and oral care products. Studies have shown that glycols have
caused genital malformation in rats.
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