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Take a look around the room you’re in.  You’ll probably see lots of plastic stuff.  But petrochemicals are in almost everything, not just plastics.
Phthalates make perfumes stick around longer so they’re in just about everything scented.  Scented candles, air fresheners, cleaners, you name it. Phthalates can interfere with the normal sexual development of a fetus or infant. Studies have linked phthalate exposure in infants, especially males, to reduced testosterone and reproductive defects. Phthalates have recently been banned from toys in California, but they are allowed in clothes, and bed sheets.
Researchers measured phthalate concentrations in the urine of 163 infants between the ages of 2 and 28 months. They asked mothers how long their babies had spent playing with teething rings, pacifiers and other soft plastic products in the last 24 hours, and whether they had used body care products such as powders, creams, wipes, shampoos and lotions.

All the infants contained at least one variety of phthalate in their urine; 80 percent of them had seven or more. The urine of babies who had been exposed to lotions, shampoos or powders had four times the phthalate levels of children who had not been exposed to those products. Children under the age of eight months and those who used lotions had the highest phthalate levels
As far as “natural” scent goes, “natural means nothing other than that it probably smells like something in nature such as a green apple or rose or “fresh scent”, but it’s likely made from the same chemicals.
Many toothpastes include ingredients made from petroleum, such as artificial colors and mineral oil.
Petrochemicals are very prevalent in cosmetics. Examples include lip gloss, which is commonly made from petroleum oil, and nail polish, which contains petroleum-derived solvents such as toluene. Many cosmetics on the market contain harmful phthalates.
The benzene family of chemicals tends to have a sweetish aroma that is very popular among perfumers and fragrances. The benzenes are petroleum-based, so they’re cheap, easy to come by, and a known cause of leukemia.
According to the Environmental Working Group, “Fragrance formulas are considered to be among the top five known allergens and can trigger asthma attacks.”

After hearing numerous reports from people who believed that scented products were making them sick, Dr. Steinemann, an environmental engineer, conducted a chemical analysis of three best-selling air fresheners and three laundry products.  She says, “I was surprised by both the number and the potential toxicity of the chemicals that were found.” To avoid legal issues, Dr. Steinemann didn’t reveal any brand names of the products tested.

STUDY RESULTS:
•    In six products, Dr. Steinemann found nearly 100 volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
•    10 of the VOCs are regulated as either toxic or hazardous
•    Three are classified as carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants, which have no safe exposure level according to the EPA
•    One of the VOCs was methyl chloride, linked to nervous system, liver, and kidney damage in animals
•    Each of the six products contained at least one of the 10 toxic or hazardous VOCs
None of the product labels listed any of these VOCs, because U.S. laws don’t require manufacturers of household products to list contents.
Here are the results of another study done in the UK where researchers monitored VOC levels for one year in 170 homes where mothers spent their days at home with children.
STUDY RESULTS:
•    In homes where air fresheners were used daily, mothers averaged nearly 10 percent more frequent headaches than mothers in homes where air fresheners were used once a week or less
•    In the “daily” homes, mothers had more than 25 percent higher risk of depression
•    In the “daily” homes, infants were 32 percent more likely to suffer from diarrhea
•    Infants in the “daily” homes had a significantly higher rate of earaches than infants in “once a week” homes
Researchers noted that the daily use of air fresheners and other aerosol products created a gradual accumulation of VOCs.
Hair mousse, gels, and sprays commonly contain endocrine-disrupting pthalates. Synthetic hair dyes include petroleum-derived coloring chemicals as well as other harmful ingredients such as ammonia and lead. Synthetic hair dyes are known to penetrate skin and to cause cancer in laboratory animals.
Perfume and aftershave usually consist of a combination of chemicals, solvents, and natural essential oils in a base of alcohol, which can include toluene, ketone, and other hazardous substances. Approximately 95% of the ingredients in perfumes are derived from petrochemicals.
Many soaps contain petroleum-derived synthetic fragrances, artificial colors, and mineral oil that may cause skin rashes and other allergic reactions.
Many lotions, sunscreens and body care products contain pthalates, DEHP and DBP.. In animals, these chemicals are toxic to the liver, kidneys, testes, and the nervous system. DBP is used extensively in perfumes, nail polishes, lotions, and hair sprays.
Some sunblocks contain suspected carcinogens, including diethanolamine and related ingredients (DEA, TEA), padimate-o, and titanium dioxide. Other ingredients are suspected endocrine disrupters: benzophenone (oxybenzone), homosalate, octyl-methoxycinnamate (octinoxate), and the parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, butyl-, propyl-). Moreover, sunscreens can contain chemicals associated with skin irritation and rashes, including avobenzone (parsol 1789), benzophenone, octyl-methoxycinnamate, and PABA (para-aminobenzoic acid).
Not only are these chemicals bad for you, they’re bad for the environment. Diethanolamine has been found in waterways around the country, posing a threat to animals and humans. According to the National Toxicology Program, benzophenone has been found in surface water, groundwater, soil, and air, and may affect the liver and bone marrow of animals ingesting large amounts of contaminated water. This and other endocrine disruptors in sunblocks can also enter the water system when we swim or bathe, eventually winding up in fish, amphibians, and marine wildlife, and posing a threat to the animals’ reproductive cycles.
The basic ingredients used in cosmetics, skin and beauty products are mostly the same whether it’s purchased at a high end counter in a fancy package, or for a tenth of the cost at a low end store.
The future of our children and our Earth are at stake here. There is absolutely no reason to be using all these harmful chemicals.  Does it make sense to spend your hard-earned dollars on products that make you and your family sick while polluting the environment?  There are many natural and organic products available.  In the final post of this series I will list many organic sources for products, and also lots of cheap and natural alternatives such as using baking soda for toothpaste, vinegar for cleaning etc.

The amount of energy needed to produce the millions of pounds of toxic chemicals that we consume in the form of processed foods is ENORMOUS. In return we reap cancer, obesity, heart disease and destruction of the environment. On the other hand if we consume plain, fresh, unprocessed foods using sustainable agriculture and animal products from grass-fed animals, we reap health for ourselves, our pets and our planet.

Which do you choose?

We have already discussed the fact that the human body is not designed to assimilate artificial petrochemicals. This is COMMON SENSE. We do not commonly eat paint, rat poison, anti-freeze, brake fluid etc., but we seem to have no problem with ingesting the same toxic chemicals in our favorite foods, and beverages, or inhaling them in scented products, or rubbing them into our skin to be absorbed into the body. ALL MAN-MADE CHEMICALS ARE TOXIC, FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH CAUSE DAMAGE TO US AND OUR ENVIRONMENT. There are no exceptions. If it is not found in nature, it is a foreign substance. There are plenty of natural poisons too, natural doesn’t necessary mean safe.

Pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fumigants, and fungicides all contain petrochemicals. One way we ingest petrochemicals in food is from pesticides. Many widely used pesticides are classified by the EPA as probable or possible causes of cancer in humans; and many are known to cause damage to the nervous, reproductive and immune systems in laboratory animals. EPA pesticide regulations do not take into consideration potential chronic health effects from low-level exposures that do not cause immediate and obvious harm. The EPA also ignores potential combined effects from exposure to more than one chemical at a time. Current regulations do not consider exposure to vulnerable populations such as children and the immune-compromised.

Dairy products, apples, bananas, broccoli, cantaloupes, and carrots have among the highest rates of petrochemical residues

Chemicals from the petroleum manufacturing process enter our bodies through the foods we eat, especially meat and dairy products from feedlot and drylot animals. Chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics tend to accumulate in milk and in animal flesh and fat. However, the meat and milk from GRASS-FED animals is safer, higher in nutrition and omega 3 fats, and also far less likely to carry e coli.

Coal tar and petrochemicals are the sources of the artificial colors that go into our foods, and these artificial coloring ingredients in the food supply contribute to all sorts of health problems, the most notable of which are the symptoms diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a behavioral pattern often brought on by Yellow #2 food dye. Children are being fed these chemicals in such large quantities that they begin to have nervous system malfunctions that ultimately are misdiagnosed as ADHD, learning disabilities, or violent behavior.

Processed foods contain fragrances that are supposed to mimic real food. Diacetyl, a chemical that gives microwave popcorn its buttery flavor and aroma, also causes serious lung disease when heated and inhaled frequently. Diacetyl is being phased out of microwave popcorn, but not before many popcorn factory workers were permanently disabled by inhaling it.

Soda bottles, water bottles, peanut butter jars, and cooking oil bottles are made with PET: (polyethylene terephthalate) which migrates from the plastic containers to the contents:

Milk jugs, plastic bags, and yogurt cups are made with HDPE: (High-Density Polyethylene) which also migrates into the food that comes into contact with it.

Water bottles, salad dressing bottles, cooking oil bottles, mouth wash bottles, meat wrap, babies’ teething rings, pacifiers, nipples and toys contain PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride which leaches plasticizers (lead, cadmium, mercury, phthalates and the carcinogen, diethyl hexyphosphate)

Produce bags, and food storage containers contain LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene)

Bottle caps, and drinking straws are made from PP: Polypropylene.

Meat trays, foam take-out food containers and foam cups as well as foam packing materials contain PS: Polystyrene.

Almost all food cans are lined with bisphenol A epoxy resin (sealant) and industry studies confirm that BPA is in canned foods and beverages. Studies of laboratory animals or cultured human cells have shown exposure to bisphenol A can cause neural and behavioral changes, precancerous growths in breast and prostate tissues, early onset puberty and other effects at very low doses. In addition, bisphenol A crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and umbilical cord tissue, showing that there is no prenatal protection from a mother’s exposure.

The Environmental Working Group tested 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods.

Of all foods tested, chicken soup, infant formula, and ravioli had BPA levels of highest concern. Just one to three servings of foods with these concentrations could expose a woman or child to BPA at levels that caused serious adverse effects in animal tests.

For 1 in 10 cans of all food tested, and 1 in 3 cans of infant formula, a single serving contained enough BPA to expose a woman or infant to BPA levels more than 200 times the government’s traditional safe level of exposure for industrial chemicals

British researcher David Melzer, M.B., Ph.D., of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, and colleagues measured the BPA found in the urine of 1,455 adults between the ages of 18 and 74 years, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which was gathered in 2003 and 2004. Dr. Melzer and his team found that average BPA concentrations, adjusted for age and sex, were higher in those diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. In fact, even a slightly raised BPA concentration was associated with a 39 percent increased risk of having cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Those with the highest BPA concentration had nearly three times the odds of heart disease and 2.4 times the risk of diabetes when compared with those with the lowest levels. What’s more, higher levels of BPA concentrations were also associated with abnormally elevated levels of three liver enzymes.

The non-stick coating on cookware also contains petrochemicals which leach into food. Researchers tested the milk from 45 different nursing mothers for two different varieties of perflourinated compounds (PFCs): perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8. PFOA is used in nonstick coatings such as Teflon, while PFOS is an ingredient in stain-resistant fabric.

PFCs were found in the milk of every woman tested, at an average concentration of 131 billionths of a gram of PFOS and 44 billionths of a gram of PFOA per liter.

If we take a good look at all our “convenience” foods it may become apparent that they are no longer so convenient, especially when they are destroying our health, and ultimately life on this planet.

CLICK HERE FOR ORGANIC FOODS, CLOTHING AND OTHER PRODUCTS

Sixty BILLION TONS of plastic are produced every year.  That’s 60,000,000,000.

All plastic products are made from petrochemicals. As the name implies, a main ingredient in petrochemicals is OIL.

The average American uses 290 pounds of plastic every year.

Every hour Americans use and discard 2.5 million plastic bottles, totaling 22 billion a year.

According to Greenpeace, of the 25 billion pounds of plastic the US produces each year just 1 billion is recycled. Though many plastics can be recycled in principle, in practice sorting it into separate categories is too labor intensive to be viable. Many complex products like cell phones and computers have so many different plastic components that sorting out the various types would be too expensive.

What happens to the plastic that is not recycled?

Unlike naturally occurring compounds, plastic does not photo-degrade, it simply breaks up into ever-smaller pieces and lingers in the environment as an invisible toxic dust.

Unlike naturally occurring compounds, plastic does not bio-degrade, it simply breaks up into ever-smaller pieces and lingers in the environment as an invisible toxic dust.

In other words it stays around FOREVER. That’s 200,000,000 tons annually that we can’t get rid of, ever. Is that a problem? Depends on whether or not you’re interested in the continuation of life on this planet. If you are, and I sincerely hope so, please read on.

Close to 20% of discarded plastic ends up in the sea. There is an area known formally as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or the Eastern Garbage Patch. It is 1,000 miles west of San Francisco, a swirling mass of plastic in an area twice the size of Texas. A study by the United Nations Environmental Program estimates that in this region there are 46,000 floating pieces of plastic for every square mile of ocean and the trash now circulates to a depth of 30 meters.

When the central section of the Garbage Patch drifts over the Hawaiian Islands, Waimanalo Beach on Oahu is coated with blue-green plastic sand while Midway Atoll – a major rookery for albatross – is now a PERMANENT trash heap. Greenpeace estimates that a million sea birds a year die from plastic ingestion, many of them chicks that have starved to death with bellies full of plastic cigarette lighters, toy soldiers and bottle caps. About 100,000 marine mammals also die. Sea turtles migrating past the Garbage Patch do not know the difference between a floating jellyfish and a floating plastic bag and frequently consume plastic bags. Scientists who study the Rubbish Vortex say there is little we can do to clean it up. Most of what is now there will eventually sink to the ocean floor where it will seriously disrupt ocean ecosystems.

Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, traveled over 100 km at random lengths in the North Pacific Gyre collecting samples of seawater. When the samples were analyzed he discovered that .there is six times more plastic by weight in this area than there is naturally occurring plankton. Fish and birds that feed on plankton are now dieing of starvation because they are consuming mostly plastic instead of plankton.

Nurdles are small pellets of plastic that are the base material for producing all the disposable plastic stuff we buy. 250 billion lbs of nurdles are shipped yearly and vast numbers are spilled in transit. One tenth of beach trash worldwide is nurdles and they have been found as far away as Antarctica. In the Rubbish Vortex, every single trawl netted nurdles. To an albatross, nurdles look a lot like clumps of roe and they are often mistaken for food and fed to infant birds. Nurdles also act as sponges for persistent organic pollutants such as DDT and PCB’s, oily toxins that don’t dissolve in water These plastic pellets have been found to accumulate up to one million times the level of these poisons – and they are entering the food chain from the filter feeders up

There is now a vast amount of plastic in our soil and food supply also, causing:

Structural damage to the brain

Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning

Increased fat formation and risk of obesity

Altered immune function

Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction

Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior

Stimulation of prostate cancer cells

Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production

Scientists who study the problem say there is no solution except to cut down on our use of plastic. It is imperative that we do so in order to ensure the continuation of life on our planet. This is not an exaggeration, we MUST stop poisoning our environment. Every time we discard plastic items, we are potentially sentencing sea creatures and other wildlife to death.

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