Common
household goods,
personal care products, and even food and water, are major sources of chemical exposure that can lead to an accumulation of toxins in your body. For obvious reasons, children are at greatest risk for
adverse effects.
Many common household
chemicals are known as
endocrine disruptors, a number of which are found in plastic products. These chemicals are similar in structure to natural sex
hormones such as estrogen, thereby interfering with their normal functions.
The Environmental Working Group (
EWG) recently published a list of the 12 worst hormone-disrupting chemicals you may be coming into contact with on a regular basis. As stated in their report:
1
“There is no end to the tricks that endocrine disruptors can play on our bodies: increasing production of certain hormones; decreasing production of others; imitating hormones; turning one hormone into another; interfering with hormone signaling; telling cells to die prematurely; competing with essential nutrients; binding to essential hormones; accumulating in organs that produce hormones.”
The EWG report includes many of the most well-known hormone wreckers, but also contains some that may surprise you, such as lead, mercury and arsenic. While these are known for other harmful health effects, hormone disruption is not typically discussed in relation to them.
In all, the EWG’s “dirty dozen” list for the 12 worst endocrine disruptors are the following
2. I’ve written about many of these in prior articles, so for more information about any particular one, please follow the links provided.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced3 a new report co-produced with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), titled:
State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals. The report suggests that outright banning endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may actually be needed to protect the health of future generations...
The joint study has been touted as the most comprehensive report on endocrine disrupting chemicals to date, and it too flags several of the most common culprits, including
Bisphenol-A (BPA), PCB’s, phthalates and agricultural pesticides. According to the report, a wide variety of health problems are associated with exposure to these pervasive chemicals, including:
Non-descended testes in young males | Developmental effects on the nervous system in children | Prostate cancer in men |
Developmental effects on the nervous system in children | Attention deficit /hyperactivity in children | Thyroid cancer |
The connection between endocrine disrupting chemicals and cancer is of particular concern, especially when it comes to children, whose exposure to these chemicals from a young age may predispose them to cancer at increasingly earlier ages. This is precisely what we’re seeing, as record numbers of women under the age of 50 are now being diagnosed with
breast cancer.
Dr. Christine Horner, a board certified general and plastic surgeon specializing in breast reconstructive surgery due to mastectomy, has also discussed how her patients kept getting increasingly younger... Could exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals be to blame?
A study published last year suggests that parabens from antiperspirants and other cosmetics indeed appear to increase your risk of breast cancer
4. The research, which was also reviewed in an editorial published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, looked at where breast tumors were appearing, and determined that higher concentrations of parabens were found in the upper quadrants of the breast and axillary area, where antiperspirants are usually applied
5.
Quite shockingly, the paraben residues were found at concentrations up to 1 million times higher than the estrogen (estradiol) levels naturally found in human breast tissue! Clearly these chemicals are accumulating at alarmingly high concentrations, likely because of their widespread and persistent daily use. Previous research has shown that women absorb an estimated five pounds of chemicals a year from their daily makeup routine alone.
While parabens are not included on the EWG’s list of the worst endocrine disrupters out there, there’s plenty of evidence showing that
parabens—which are some of the most widely used chemicals in personal care products—can wreak havoc on your health. Parabens inhibit the growth of bacteria, yeast, and molds, and are used as preservatives in countless consumer products, including:
Deodorants and antiperspirants | Shampoos and conditioners | Shaving gel | Toothpaste |
Lotions and sunscreens | Make-up / cosmetics | Pharmaceutical drugs | Food additives |
In related news, preliminary research suggests that hormone levels might in fact serve as useful markers to help predict a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer
6. According to the study’s author, postmenopausal women with high levels of estrogen, androgen and prolactin are at increased risk of invasive breast cancer.
A woman’s hormone levels are currently not included in conventional cancer risk prediction models. The author of the study suggests that checking the levels of estrone sulfate, testosterone and prolactin "may provide the biggest improvement in risk prediction for breast cancer." While the research is still considered preliminary, and more studies need to be done to ascertain the accuracy of this theory, the finding is “quite logical” according to Dr. Myra Barginear, a breast medical oncologist in New York State, who said:
“If the study's findings are validated and confirmed, a simple blood test to evaluate hormone levels, as the Investigators did in the study, would be a very useful, additional tool to evaluate a woman's risk of developing breast cancer."
In 2004, a six-month study was done about personal care product use. More than 10,000 body care product ingredients were evaluated, involving 2,300 participants. One of the findings was that the average adult uses nine personal care products each day, containing 126 different chemicals. The study also found that more than 250,000 women, and one out of every 100 men, use an average of 15 products daily.
Does this sound like someone you know? It’s important to remember that your skin is your largest, and most permeable organ. Just about anything you put on your skin will end up in your bloodstream and distributed throughout your body. Once these chemicals find their way into your body, they tend to accumulate over time because you typically lack the necessary enzymes to break them down. This is why I'm so fond of saying "don't put anything on your body that you wouldn't eat if you had to."
If you insist on buying commercial products, you’ve got a little bit of work cut out for you in terms of researching the ingredients. Still, it can be done. I recommend using the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database
7 to research the potential toxicity of ingredients. Products bearing the USDA 100% Organic seal are among your safest bets if you want to avoid potentially toxic ingredients. Beware that products boasting "all-natural" labels can still contain harmful chemicals, so be sure to check the full list of ingredients.
Another alternative—and perhaps both the safest and easiest one—is to make your own personal care and household cleaning products.
Coconut oil, for example, is a multipurpose powerhouse that can be safely used on your body from head to toe. When absorbed into your skin, coconut oil helps to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles by helping to keep your connective tissues strong and supple. It also helps exfoliate the outer layer of dead skin cells, making your skin smoother. Coconut oil is also great for nurturing and
conditioning your hair, and many rave about the oil's ability to prevent "the frizzies" in humid weather.
Baking soda is another inexpensive basic that can replace multiple products.
8 You can use it in lieu of shampoo
9, face- and body scrub, and
toothpaste, for example. It’s also a natural odor neutralizer, so rubbing a pinch of it into your arm pit may be all you need to replace your toxic antiperspirant.
As for
household cleaning products, tried and true items such as liquid castile soap, hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice can get the job done just as well -- sometimes even better -- than their commercial counterparts. To learn more, please see my
previous article on this topic. You can also search EWG’s Healthy Cleaning Guide
10 for safety ratings on more than 2,000 different cleaning products.