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�?Toxins �?/A> : Be kind to your body
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Reply
 Message 1 of 2 in Discussion 
From: Rene  (Original Message)Sent: 9/4/2007 5:02 PM

 

Indoor Air Pollution
Be kind to your body and clear the air

By Debra Lynn Dadd

Over the 23,000 times we inhale each day, our lungs suck in 35 pounds of oxygen. While oxygen is vital to live, at the same time we breathe in hazardous pollutants that aren't so good for us.

In 1987, the Environmental Protection Agency undertook a program to identify and compare the urgency of environmental problems in order to focus their limited resources on pollutants posing the greatest risk to society. Among the top hazards were those found indoors.

Studies found that, even in urban areas, the concentration of toxic chemicals was higher indoors than outdoors-in some cases 10, 20, 30, and even up to 70 times higher.

These same studies showed that what we breathe not only enters our lungs, but travels through our bodies. Samples showed residues of gasoline on the breath of some people hours after filling their gas tanks, while a short visit to the dry cleaner resulted in tetrachloroethylene on the breath.

More than a decade later, this is still an issue each one of us needs to address in our own homes.

Nip it in the bud
The EPA recommends, "For most indoor air quality problems in the home, source control is the most effective solution," and I agree.

In particular, try to control:

�?Cigarette smoke
�?Combustion by-products from gas appliances, kerosene heaters, fireplaces, and woodstoves
�?Synthetic wall-to-wall carpet
�?Plastics
�?Formaldehyde emissions from particleboard
�?Scented beauty and hygiene products
�?Toxic cleaning products and pesticides

Vivacious Ventilation
Ventilation allows indoor air pollutants present to escape, and exchanges polluted indoor air for cleaner outdoor air. Keep your windows open as much as weather allows. Even better, invest in a window fan or whole-house exhaust fan. Skylights that open are great because pollutants tend to rise and will easily float out through an opening in the roof. Opening windows or doors on opposite sides of a room creates cross-ventilation. If you need more ventilation but don't want to lose heat, consider an air-to-air heat exchanger (for more information, contact an HVAC contractor).

If you can't solve indoor air pollution by removing pollutants at their source or diluting them with added ventilation, then air filters are the next step.

One more option
I don't usually recommend air filters as a fix for indoor air pollution problems because it's much more effective to remove pollutants and ventilate. But If you've taken these steps and still have a problem you can't otherwise solve—such as living in an apartment above a nail salon—an air cleaner is the next step. Make sure to choose one that's adequate for your needs.

 

How Toxic Exposures Affect Kids

Most studies in the past that have established toxicity have been done on adults. However, children are at even higher risk.

 �?Their nervous, respiratory, reproductive and immune systems aren't fully developed so their ability to detoxify and excrete toxins differs from that of adults.

�?Developing cells in children's bodies are more susceptible to damage than cells that have completed development, especially for the central nervous system.

�?They drink more water, eat more food, and breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults.

�?They put their hands and objects in their mouths more often than adults do, and so transfer more foreign substances into their bodies.

�?Because they are smaller and often play in the dirt or on the floor, they are closer to pollutants that adults aren't even exposed to.

�?They absorb a greater proportion of many pollutants from the intestinal tract and the lungs.

�?Because they are exposed to toxicants at an earlier age than adults, children have more time to develop environmentally-triggered diseases with long latency periods, such as cancer.

From: [http://netscape.move.com/HomeGarden/homeimprovement/safety/dadd/default.asp?poe=homestore&gate=aolnetscape1&source=a2nsrtrt568]

and quoted by [http://www.simplepureclean.com/]



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Reply
 Message 2 of 2 in Discussion 
From: ReneSent: 9/4/2007 6:26 PM

and quoted by [http://www.simplepureclean.com/]

Kids and toxins

"Maybe our bodies know that these products are bad for us, and maybe on a subconscious level our bodies don't want us to clean...."

 

 

Within 26 seconds
after exposure to
chemicals, they can
be found in every
organ in the body.

 

Children are more susceptible to toxins then adults. Kids receive proportionately larger doses of environmental toxins than adults.

Since World War II at least 75,000 new synthetic chemical compounds have been developed and released into the environment; fewer than half of these have been tested for their potential toxicity to humans, and still less have been assessed for their particular toxicity to children

Why are babies and children more vulnerable?

Pound-for-pound, children breathe more air, drink more water, and eat more food than adults.
Thus, they are more exposed to air and water pollution and pesticides.

Their bodies are more rapidly growing and developing, so chemicals that can harm development can do maximum damage at this critical time.

Children also play on the floor, where allergens, such as dust, and heavier-than-air chemicals settle and collect.

Then there's natural behavior: Putting everything in the mouth is a crucial part of normal development, the way a baby learns about the world.

The following information was provided by the Washington Toxics Coalition Fact Sheet. This is just a
tiny bit of what their information provided:

How Toxic Chemicals Can Hurt Children

Children's Special Vulnerability: (information above)

Immediate Injuries.

There are countless examples of children suffering acute exposures to toxic chemicals and subsequent serious injuries or death......Each year more then 100,000 children accidentally eat pesticides. (EPA, Environmental Health Threats). Children also eat toxic household cleaning products and can be the victims of chemical spills at local industries.

Less Immediate but Equally Serous Health Effects:

The effects of ongoing lower level toxic exposure are also of tremendous concern.....A recent analysis of 100 high volume regulated chemicals found that more than 90% had not been tested at all in terms of impacts on children like post birth performance and nervous system effects. Tests for cancer causation, injury to reproductive ability, neurological injury, and immune system damage were missing for 63%, 53%, 67% and 86% respectively.

Similarly, we now know that it is the offspring of any given species which is often the most at risk from toxic exposures. Even when low dose exposures to mothers cause no noticeable harm, the offspring of those mothers can suffer serious problems. And we have discovered that combinations of chemicals can be more deadly than single chemicals, making our chemicals by chemical prediction of health effects obsolete.

..Nonetheless, a growing body of evidence that includes wildlife findings, laboratory studies, and human data indicates that our children may well be paying the price for our toxic releases with their health.


Cancer

The rates of childhood cancer have been steadily increasing for over 20 years. This terrible trend has been
strongest for certain forms of leukemia and brain cancer. Some 8,000 children per year are diagnosed with
cancer in the U.S. One in every 400 Americans can expect to get cancer before the age of 15..

Cancer rates for the whole population and excluding lung cancer increases, U.S. cancer incidence
increased by 31.7% between 1950 and 1990. The increases in specific types of cancer are particularly
dramatic. A woman's lifetime risk of getting breast cancer was 1 in 20 in 1961; now it is 1 in 8, for example.
Scientist believes that most cancer (80-90%) is due to environmental causes. Only 10-20% of cancer is
attributed to genetic inheritance.


Birth Defects

Of 39 types of birth defects tracked by the Center for Disease Control between 1979 and 1987, 20
increased in incidence.


Learning and Behavioral Problems.

Reduced ability of offspring to lean, to pay attention and to cope with unpleasant situations has been linked
in various studies to toxic exposures experienced by their mothers. In two separate studies of children born
to women who ate Great Lake fish, researchers found correlations between pollutants in the fish and
learning impairments and other adverse effects in the children. The effects were more severe as levels of
the pollutants measured in the umbilical cords increased. In the longer of the two studies, lower IQ and
verbal comprehension at age 11 was correlated to prenatal toxic exposures.


Reproductive Problems

Many wildlife and laboratory animal studies have found reproductive problems like smaller or deformed
penises, low sperm counts, injury to female reproductive organs, reaching sexual maturity too early, and
delayed descent of testicles to be correlated to pollution exposures.endometriosis in which cells from the
uterus migrate elsewhere in the abdomen, often causing pain and sterility, has now reached epidemic
proportions, afflicting an estimated 10% of U.S. women of childbearing age..

..Infertility is widespread and appears to be increasing with more than 2 million couples who want to have
children unable to do so.

A new study indicates that many girls in the U.S. are entering puberty much earlier than normal. There is
some evidence that exposure to pollutants that mimic estrogen may be contributing to the phenomenon. In
addition, to the social and personal implications of early puberty, women who go through puberty early have
a longer-than-normal exposure to estrogens and many have a greater risk of breast cancer.


Asthma and other respiratory problems.

Asthma deaths are on the rise in children and young people, increasing by a dramatic 118 percent between
1980 and 1993, according to the Center for Disease Control. Many of the most common air pollutants can
cause or contribute to the respiratory illnesses, including asthma, which is now the leading cause of
hospital admissions for our nation's children. More the 25% of the nation's children live in areas that don't
meet nation's air quality standards.