On April 18, I attended a presentation at the Toronto Public Library by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, authors of the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health, and their recently published 10th anniversary edition, Slow Death by Rubber Duck Fully Expanded and Updated: How the Toxicity of Everyday Life Affects Our Health.
The authors discussed their 2009 book, where they examined various toxic chemicals that can be found in everyday life. They did this through experimenting in activities that resembled everyday life (e.g. sitting in a new car, applying body products containing phthalates and parabens, eating tuna). Urine and blood samples they took showed the absorption of these chemicals into their bodies.
For their 10th anniversary edition, they discussed the chemical BPA in receipts, and how this is today's BPA threat. Even 15-20 minutes of handling receipts (which they again experimented on themselves), increases BPA levels in your body.
The good news, as the authors mentioned, is that levels of these toxic chemicals can be lowered if we lower our exposure to them (e.g. eating organic produce, using body products that don't contain phthalates and parabens). We can't eliminate them completely as we are surrounded by them, but lowering them in our bodies is the next best thing.
A lot of these chemicals are water soluble, so our body is able to rid of them. Constant exposure to them however, will keep these levels of chemicals up in our bodies. Additionally, health effects of these chemicals may not be noticeable in the short term; it may be a long while before we see any long-term effects of our exposure to them.
It is important for us consumers to be aware of the extent of these chemicals in our daily lives, and how these chemicals can impact our health. As consumers, we can make choices in the products we use to live a more healthy life of reduced toxins.
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