How much do you worry about toxins?
I just watched a really well-done video by Healthy World, Healthy Child designed to make parents think about the synthetic chemicals, toxins, in your home, yard, school, toys, etc. that were not there 50 or 100 years ago and their link to illness.
Are these items top of mind for you? For me, worry about toxins motivate some of my choices - we try to get a good portion of our produce from the Farmer's Market or a CSA box; and we did switch to BPA-free bottles part-way through my son's first year - but not others - don't know what to think about organic cotton, for example.
Do you worry about toxins? If no, why not? If yes, does that worry impact your behavior? If so, how and why?
7 Answers
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I just watched Food, Inc. on a somewhat related subject...
We switched to BPA-free plastic bottles at about the same time as you and for our son (now 8 months old) we have been using glass bottles from the start.
We also moved away from plastic food containers and try to use pyrex as often as we can.
As far as toys go we prefer wood but don't ban plastic... That would be hard. I was a little worried about my kids playing with (and mouthing) my and my partner's 30-year-old plastic toys when we went back home over the holidays...
Clothing... i guess I choose cotton over synthetic fabrics but I haven't gone as far as buying organic cotton. I wash my kids' clothes with dye-free perfume-free laundry detergent.
I also buy the least hazardous shampoos, soaps, sunscreens etc from the cosmetic database (here: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php)
So yes, in general this subject worries me :-) But not to the point of restricting ourselves to a very narrow selection of goods.
Oh, and I sign as many petitions as I can (through momrising.org in particular) to ban harmful chemicals.
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I worry, but I'm not really sure I'm informed enough to make educated decisions. For example... We have been purchasing BPA free bottles, and I have been looking for BPA-free/pthalate-free/etc-free stuff, but I wonder what chemicals they are using to make up for what they removed? Are they just substituting a different set of chemicals that we're going to find out in 30 years are worse than BPA and other chemicals commonly used today? Should I really be using glass in the end? But is glass really just glass these days? Perhaps I'm overdoing it, but you get my point?
Then there's food... I read somewhere that canned tomatoes are no good (they are highly acidic and erode metal cans so they need to put in a liner that has BPA, which leaches out due to the high acidic content). Similar comment for microwave popcorn - chemicals in the lining as well. And there's all the info about mercury in farmed fish. Then the warnings about high pesticide content in many fruits and veggies - like bell peppers and sweet potatoes. I was buying organic sweet potatoes the other day, and I noticed that they were from Mexico. Well, what constitues "organic"? There are no clear standards -- and what's to say that the standards in Mexico for "organic" are what we think of here? So sometimes I buy organic, but sometimes I do not. It really depends on my mood. But I haven't decided what to do about canned tomatoes.
My husband thinks I just worry too much about these things. And in the end, I'm really not sure what to think. I store a lot of potentially useless information about how almost every food is bad. I'll just work on our home garden and eat home grown everything (including starting our own fish farm)... But what's to say that there aren't chemicals being leached from my neighbor above?
Ok, I'm done now.....
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Oh this makes me feel ill just thinking about it. The previous posts pretty much sum up my feelings as well. Seen Food Inc. and many others like it, and although they are supposed to make me feel empowered, they also made me feel like - what the hell, everything is so contaminated, what good does it do to be so dilligent! And what good does it do to worry about it?
I don't talk about it with my kids though, I don't want them to be afraid of eveything. We talk about nutrients and healthy food, but not toxins.
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Well... toxins are everywhere! We can't escape the paint on our walls, the fabric " finishes" on our upholstery ( yes-- even those strollers and car seats) , air conditioning in buildings, the stains and varnishes on wood furniture and floors, our cars, the myriad types of containers our food comes in from the store ( tuna cans, sour cream containers, etc). (By the way, did you know that most canned products have a toxic substance coating the inside to preserve the food inside?) Even the many layers of our shoes are made of various chemicals. The cotton content of our clothes might be safe --- but then there are the chemical dyes that color our clothes! And how about all of the toxins we breath in everyday -- exhaust fumes etc. Have you ever gone into a store and felt your eyes burn or did you start to cough? Think of the many many toxic substances that are all around us in the grocery store, a drug store, electronic store, an office building, or any commercial environment ! I think we are held captive -- trapped in a way-- in a toxic world. Yes, we should be mindful about what substances and objects we use in our homes and daily lives, but the truth is ---- you can't escape chemicals, toxins, and various mysterious and sometimes harmful substances that are all around us. Escape far away into Nature as often as you can! We must be good stewards of our own home environments, but we are not in total control of the world around us. Do the best that you can and relax.
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Recenly, I was shopping at Whole Foods to buy organic applesauce -- mostly because apples are on the "dirty dozen" pesticide list, and I've decided to try to buy organic for the worst offenders and not worry about the rest. At any rate, after getting completely confused by the 20 brands of applesauce (some with other types of fruit added, others plain, some chunky, etc.), I finally selected one....
I got home, opened up the little plastic container... And noticed on the bottom that the plastic was number 7. According to the Healthychild.org site, they recommend avoiding use of this type of plastic....
Which leads my to ask. Which is worse -- the pesticide content in apples, or the BPA contamination in the plastic container?
Just another example of how confusing this entire area is.....
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It seems our local JCC has a seminar on this very topic THIS FRIDAY at 9:15am. Hmm... do they read our site? ;)
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I knew this question was already in the list. Along the same toxic string, what do people do when their kids really like canned veggies (esp. beans) and gobble them up? Have people taken canned goods out of their diet entirely due to BPA in the lining?
May I suggest that you actually start a new, more specific thread on this? More people will see your question that way, and some may have answers to the more specific question who maybe didn't have a response the big giant one I posed here. :) And besides, I'd like to know the answer.
- andrea, May 27, 2010
Done! New question is titled "what do you do about BPA in canned goods?"
- Alana, May 27, 2010
My point exactly.
- Suzanne, Feb 27, 2010