It’s like people are waking up every day to the damage caused by the use of chemicals in their food, water, personal care products, clothes and environment. Sometimes it’s bewildering how these chemicals even make it past regulators, particularly into our food. Put it this way, anything in a factory that needs gloves, a chem suit and air filter probably doesn’t belong in the food being served. Trying to get this message out can be a bit like banging your head against a wall and then some guys and girls in white coats show up, publish a bit of research and Voila! it’s front page news.
New research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has concluded that using cleaning chemicals everyday is the equivalent of smoking 20 cigarettes a day. The research tracked 6,000 people over 20 years and found that those using cleaning products suffered long term effects. They advised avoiding the use of these cleaning products.
“While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact,” said Professor Cecile Svanes, a medic at the University of Bergen and the senior author of the study.
As someone involved in the production of food, it constantly amazes me the way people put their blind trust in regulations. Chemicals that are treated in the factory with all the paraphernalia we’d associate with hazardous waste, make a miraculous transformation and are perfectly safe to put into our food and personal products – seemingly because the quantity is smaller.There is no long term research on the cumulative effects of all these chemicals being ingested on a daily basis. It reminds me of a social media post we did a while back:
Forget the regulators. They have long ago failed to protect people and when the crap hits the fan and the damage of these chemicals are laid bare, none of the regulators will face proceedings. Instead, use your own judgement – if a product has ingredients on it that you do not understand, leave it behind on the shelf. You’ll be doing yourself a big favour. Following this simple principle will not only save your health (and that includes mental health, hormonal health, reproductive health and so on) but will also transform you into an earth, loving hippy as you refuse to use anything with strange chemicals in it. Even though you won’t look like one. Wins all round!
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