Toxic Wasteland: Future or Reality?

I want you to guess what is sitting next to my laptop right now. Its a bottle of something; but you definitely shouldnt be consuming this. Ill give you some clues: for simply getting this product on your clothing the manufacture recommends that you rinse skin immediately with plenty of water for 15-20 minutes and call a poison control center or doctor for treatment advice. It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling. It contains hydrochloric acid, which is highly corrosive and potentially lethal. Any ideas? Ill bet you know this stuff. In fact, youve probably used it. It starts with Ly and ends in sol and we use it to kill 99.9% of viruses & bacteria**. The little double asterisks lead you to the back of the toilet bowl cleaners bottle, where it instructs use only in: Health Care Facilities, Office Buildings, Restaurants, Schools, Hotels/Motels. In other words, places with trained custodians. Yet this is sitting on a shelf at Walmart, perfectly available to the public. I hope you are a little shocked, because I am, and Ive been researching this for years. I finally decided to actually read the point-five font on the back of these cleaners. You should take a minute and do the same. In fact, pull out your hand-soap and shaving cream. Search any ingredient you dont recognize. The more you look the more youll see that we are surrounded by substances that we are completely unfamiliar with, and occasionally some that we know all too well. Theyre in our homes, cycling through the atmosphere, and subsequently in just about everything else. And while we wont eat a dusty apple off the ground, well stuff ourselves with packaged organochlorine dinners. We think that producing and utilizing these chemical substances and makes life better, when, as far as I can tell, we are in fact undermining our health and safety. Not vice versa. Most of all, our disinterest in knowing what we are eating, drinking, applying, spraying, spewing, and inhaling is compromising our wellness and our future without us even realizing it which is the point, after all.

So lets bring in some perspective. Each day we are exposed to hundreds of chemicals through skin absorption, consumption, and inhalation. Our body retains many of these; slowly accumulating more and more. We apply potentially toxic eyeliner, aftershave, sunscreen, toothpaste, baby powder, and antibiotic ointment (unless you buy specialty chemical free beauty products). The same goes with food, seeing as many chemical preservatives are known to have adverse health effects. Additionally, pesticides applied to all but organic produce might cause birth defects and cancer. Youll even find toxic substances in your appliances and furniture - from your seat belt to your sofa. For example, your smartphones case likely contains the flame retardant bromine. This chemical is known to be a bioaccumulative toxin. Bioaccumulative toxins dont biodegrade and like to amass in living cells and may affect mental development and function as well as cause cancer. Why a cell phone case needs fire retardant in the first place is beyond me. Theres something all of us do without fault, every day, second by second. We breathe. This brings me to an especially pressing issue for us Utahans. This goes beyond our contact time with fabrics, lip balms, and couches. We always have atmosphere moving through our lungs. Breathing, incidentally, happens to be a major problem in the urban areas of our state. The American Lung Association ranks two Utah cities in the top ten most polluted cities for short-term particulates. They gave Salt Lake City an F on our air quality report card. High Country News reports that there are days which Utah cities experience air four times more polluted than the national ambient air quality standard. At times, the air along the Wasatch Front is compared to that of some of the most polluted cities in the world, such

Beijing, China on a clear day v. polluted day. Source: The Washington Post

as Beijing. Air pollution is a substantial impact to our chemical body makeup. We know what cigarettes do to our lungs, so just imagine how the atmosphere compromises our health when it is as toxic as secondhand smoke. Acute effects of red air days include asthma attacks and other breathing problems. Chronic effects, however, are much more serious. Long term exposure to toxic air may result in cancer, mental deterioration, birth defects, and respiratory illnesses. But what makes the air so toxic? The pollution we experience is compounded by the geographic aspects of the Wasatch Front. The mountains serve as blockades and hold the gunk in. The exhaust from your car, smoke from fireplaces, and industrial emissions are effectively barricaded in our metropolitan areas year round. But we arent talking about excessive CO2, which actually doesnt aggravate our lungs. What we react to is nitric acid, sulfuric acid, various particulates, volatile organic compounds, ozone, and heavy metals. Air quality and chemicals found in your immediate surroundings may seem scantly related. The point Im trying to make, though, is that environmental toxicity is found in something as vast as our atmosphere to the minute details of life, like nail polish. We are living within as well as living examples of a highly chemical environment. Lack of knowledge as well as lack of interest in seeking knowledge of the substances we welcome into our life, and more importantly, their effects on our bodies, likely will present a significant health crisis. Remember the bottle of toilet bowl cleaner by my laptop? Im ditching it. Ive prioritized my health over ultra-cleanliness. I understand the need for sanitation, but at what cost? This applies to all of our products. I have complete faith in human ingenuity. Weve made incredible discoveries, but have been too eager to utilize some of them. I am confident that we can phase out these known and potentially toxic hazards and develop perfectly safe and cost effective alternatives. All we have to do is act. Its as simple as buying organic and driving smarter. You can send messages to producers through

your purchasing power - that is, shopping for phthalate-free perfumes and similar toxin-devoid cosmetics. Influence the wide scheme by voting for conscientious officials. Its time we made some of these transitions. Because the funny thing about change is that either you make it happen or it happens to you (which is otherwise known as consequence).

Still interested? Heres some places to learn much more:

This cosmetic database is the ultimate source for dissecting the chemical makeup of your products. ewg.org/skindeep Its time to start wondering what your smartphone is made of with this interactive. pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/stuff-of-smartphones.html Want to know your citys air quality report card? stateoftheair.org Satellite imaging and forecasted air quality across the nation. airnow.gov Involve yourself in the push for clean air along the Wasatch Front. utahmomsforcleanair.org & healutah.org

Works Cited
"Facts." n.d. Utah Moms for Clean Air. 5 November 2013. <http://blog.utahmomsforcleanair.org/airpollution-facts/>. FROSCH, DAN. "Seen as Nature Lovers Paradise, Utah Struggles With Air Quality." 23 Febuary 2013. New York Times. 5 November 2013. "PBDEs - Fire Retardants in Dust: Brominated Fire Retardants." 12 May 2004. Environmental Working Group. 5 November 2013. State of the Air. n.d. 5 November 2013.