Let’s Stop Poisoning Our Children!

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Let’s Stop Poisoning Our Children!

Learn more at: www. earthlygreen. org


Why should three-year-old Jason Whitley have died a lingering and horrible death after swallowing three ounces of hair conditioner? Two weeks after drinking the liquid, which contains ammonia, the little boy died.



And why should seven-month-old Adrian Gonzales have died? He crawled through a puddle of spilled laundry bleach, which gave him third-degree burns on 50% of his tiny body and burned his lungs from the fumes as well. It took him four agonizing days to die. And why should little Peter Schwab have suffered so much? When he was a year old, he crawled over to the dishwasher to watch his mother unloading it. Suddenly, he put a finger into the detergent dispensing cup and ate a fingerful of wet but undissolved Electrosol. In minutes his face was red and blistered, and the inside of his mouth and his tongue were burned white. Because of a series of fortunate circumstances, Peter was in a hospital within minutes but he recovered in a few days. Not so for the little girl across the hall in the hospital who (according to Peter’s mother) ate some dishwasher detergent and required seven operations to reopen her scarred esophagus. Or the eighteen-month-old boy who had to eat and breathe through tubes for five months and at last count has had thirty operations. Dishwasher detergent is what destroyed his throat, too (Soman, 1974).




“More children under four die of accidental poisoning at home than are accidentally killed with a gun at home.

”

-National Safety Council


Why must these children have to suffer? If only they had never been exposed to such hazardous chemicals. Every year, five to ten million household poisoning are reported (50,000 overexposure cases per year are attributed to bleach alone). Sadly, many of the hazardous chemicals are fatal, and most of the victims are children (Dadd, 2004; TESS, 2002). These poisoning are the result of accidental ingestion of common household substance found in just about every home.



The real tragedy is, accidents like these can easily be avoided. But most parents aren’t aware that there are effective products on the market that are much safer than nationally advertised brands, and, in most cases, cost less.



This message is meant to be a wake-up call for parents. I think you will be shocked to learn about some of the health hazards your child is exposed to every day because of the cleaning and personal care products in your home. I pray you will read this information carefully. Your child’s health and safety may depend on it.




Household Chemicals, a Loaded Gun

The averages home today contains more chemicals then were found in a typical chemistry lab at the turn of the century (Dadd, 2004). The Consumer Safety Commission has determined that cleaning products are some of the most dangerous substances in the home. Go into your kitchen and bathroom and look under the sink where you keep your cleaning and personal care supplies. What have you found? Window cleaner? Bleach? Laundry and dishwashing detergent? Shampoo? Mouthwash? Cosmetics? These product can be violent, lethal poisons with the potential to kill or seriously injure your child – or any child who may come into your home.



Would you keep a loaded gun under your sink? Of course not! What a silly question! Yet these products can be just as deadly.



Maybe you keep your cleaning and personal care products locked away or up high, out of the reach of children. If you do, good! But I ask you again. Would you feel comfortable keeping a loaded gun there? Would you bet your child’s life that he or she could never get to that gun? Of course not! Yet more children under-the-age of four die of accidental poisoning at home than are accidentally killed with guns at home (National Safety Council, 2003).



My point is this – why are these lethal products in your home at all? Probably, because you didn’t realize how dangerous, even fatal, these household product can be to your children. And you probably weren’t aware that there are products on the market that are effective, much safer, and more economical then grocery store brands. The fact is, by using safer household products, you would no longer be taking unnecessary chances with your child.




Of chemicals commonly found in homes, 150 have been linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer, and psychological abnormalities.

”

- Consumer Product Safety Commission.





Toxic Chemical Exposure in Schools

In the very places where our children should be safe and protected, such as schools and nurseries, there is usually very little effort to find non-toxic products for cleaning or building materials. For example, one study found pesticide poisoning at children’s schools. Alarcon (2005) analyzed 2,593 poisonings from the years 1998 to 2002. While the majority were poisons from chemicals found in building work and pesticides, 830 (32%) of the cases were of poisoning by common disinfectants used in schools and other facilities. The researchers also added that these cases were made up only from those who sought medical help. It stands to reason that there were a fair number of cases that had symptoms and never reported them.




Long-Term Health Hazards of Household Products

Like most people, we assume that if a product was on the market, it must be safe. Actually, consumer products, that we all use every day, are filled with toxic chemicals, many of which would require special handling if used in a chemical laboratory or in the workplace. In fact, in industry, workers are required to wear special gloves, goggles, and sometimes a respirator when using some of the exact some product found in just about every home.

We use these same chemicals at home with no protection at all and with no ventilation!

While certain people may be more sensitive than others, and some chemicals may bring on reaction only after many years of repeated exposure, research shows that chemicals in the home could put everyone at risk. Cancer, infertility, birth defects, genetic changes, heart disease, almost any symptom imaginable, both physical and psychological, has been associated with certain chemicals in common household products (Rueben, 1989). At greatest risk are fetuses, children, the elderly, and those who are already ill.



Nonetheless, most poisoning occurs gradually, over a long period of time, by daily exposure to toxins in the air and toxic chemicals that come into contact with the skin. Not everyone will experience health problems the first time they use a product containing toxic ingredients, although many people do. Actually, most poisonings happen slowly, over a long period of time by gradual skin absorption or by daily exposure to toxics we breathe in the air. Household products are among the most toxic substances we encounter daily. In one study, conducted over a fifteen-year period, women who worked at home had a 54% higher death rate from cancer than women who had jobs away from the home. The study concluded that the increased death rate was due to daily exposure to the hazardous chemicals found in ordinary household products (Green, 1991; Toronto Indoor Air Commission, 1990).



Also, a report by the Consumer Products Safety Commission on chemicals, commonly found in homes, identified 150 toxins that have been linked to allergies, birth defects, cancer, and psychological abnormalities (Rueben, 1989). And, a 1985 EPA report concluded that some toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air pollution. With windows sealed shut in the winter to conserve heat and save energy, and in the summer to hold in cool air-conditioned air, these toxic fumes have nowhere to go and just build up to higher and higher levels.



Obviously, children are exposed to these same chemicals at home. Our children are much more vulnerable to chemicals than we adults are. Their nervous and endocrine systems are under-development and are much more likely to be disrupted by these harmful chemical messengers. Very young children are especially vulnerable because they crawl around the floor and when they put their hands into their months they transfer the toxic chemicals right into their systems. And remember, before they are born, they have already been exposed to the toxic chemicals their mothers have been exposed to! (Goldman, 1995). For example, we know that many neurotoxicants, such as mercury, dioxin, and PCBs, bioaccumulate in body fat and are passed on from mother to child in utero or through breast milk (Labreche & Golderg, 1997; Schreiber, 1993). Furthermore, small single does of certain pesticides on critical days of a child’s development can cause lifelong impacts on brain and body functions, from learning disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to reproductive problems (Guillette, et al., 1998).



After day-in, day-out exposure to these and household and school toxins, they may suddenly respond with cancer, learning difficulties, allergies, lung problems, or damage to the immune system (Dadd, 2004). Alarmingly, the incidence of cancer in children jumped 26% between 1975 and 1998 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2003). An incidence of testicular cancer in young men has increased by 60% and the incidence of hypospasdia (abnormal positioning of the urethra on the penis) in newborn boys doubled from 1968 to 1993 (Landrigan, 2002). Furthermore, it is estimated that nearly 12 million U.S. children (17%), under the age of 18, suffer from one or more learning, developmental, and/or behavioral disabilities (Boyle, Decoufle, Yeargin-Allsopp, 1994). Also, the percentage of U.S. children with asthma doubled from 3.6% to 7.5% between 1980 and 1995. And, in 2001, 8.7% (6.3 million) of all U.S. children had asthma (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2003).



Although, household and industrial chemicals may not account for all of the aforementioned incidents; with your child’s long-term health at stake, should these chemicals remain in your home?


“After analyzing 2,983 chemicals used in personal care products, 884 were found to be toxic.

”

-National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health



Toxic Ingredients in Personal Care Products.



A 2004 survey of 2,300 consumers found that on average, people use nine different personal care products a day, introducing 126 different chemicals onto their body (Campaign for Safe Cosmetics). These personal care products are made to put on your skin, in your hair, or in your mouth. But many ingredients used in personal care products are also toxic and can be either ingested during use (like some ingredients in mouthwash and toothpaste), or can be easily absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream (like some ingredients in soaps, lotions, creams, cosmetics, shampoo, deodorants, etc.). For example, baby shampoos, bubble baths, deodorants, perfumes, colognes, mouth washes, tooth paste, and hair spay contain formaldehyde, labeled as a “preservative.” The Eleventh Report on Carcinogens classifies formaldehyde as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen” (as cited by the U.S. Department of Labor, 2007). Fumes from formaldehyde can accumulate in poorly ventilated areas, resulting in headaches, nausea, watery eyes, sore throats, lung irritation, and serious respiratory damage. Child exposed to the same levels as adults have potentially a greater risk of suffering adverse symptoms.



In 1989, a House subcommittee asked the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to analyze 2,983 chemicals used in personal care products. The results were as follows: 884 of the ingredients were found to be toxic. Of these, 778 can cause acute toxicity, 146 can cause tumors, 218 can cause reproductive complications, 314 can cause biological mutation, and 376 can cause skin and eye irritation (Berns, 1989). Personal care product should promote hygiene, health, and beauty… not make us sick.



Of the 17,000 chemicals used in the formulas for common household products, only 30% have been tested for their toxic effects on our health. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) does not require manufactures of personal care products to do safety testing before selling these products to the public; even though the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found the aforesaid chemicals toxic, with potentially serious and/or fatal results. The reality is that chemicals that cause death, cancer, and many other serious health problems are found in most personal care and cleaning products in your home (Beaulieu, 2004). Moreover, as testing procedures advance, we learn that lower and lower doses are harmful (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997).



Why must we expose our precious children to these poisons when there are safer alternatives available?


Indoor Air Pollution

Are you concerned about the air your child breathes? It may shock you to know that, according to an EPA Report to Congress on Indoor Air and the subcommittee hearings on the Indoor Air Quality Act of 1989, indoor air pollution is one of the nations’ most important environmental health problems. According to the EPA, most homes have airborne concentrations of hazardous and toxic chemicals that are two to five times higher indoors than outdoors. In one five-year study, the EPA reported that a number of homes had chemical levels that were seventy times higher inside the homes then outside! (Green, 1991).



One reason chemical concentration are so high in some homes is that cleaning products and some personal care products release toxic vapors into the air when they are used – and even when they are stored. This process is called outgassing. The next time you walk down the cleaning products aisle, in the supermarket, notice how strongly it smells of toxic chemicals, even though the packages are tightly closed.



It’s alarming that indoor air is so full of chemical vapors because most children spend twelve to twenty hours a day in their homes. Physiologically, children are more vulnerable to toxic vapors than adults because their higher metabolic rate. They require more oxygen, and they breathe in two to three times as much air (and therefore toxins) relative to body size than adults. Children are more physically active. This also increases their breathing rate and intake of toxins. In addition, children play close to the floor where heavier pollutants settle (Schoemaker, 1991).




“Indoor air pollution in one of the most important environmental health problems.

”

-Environmental Protection Agency in a report to Congress


Airborne chemicals are a suspected cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which takes the lives of thousands of infants each year. This may explain the documented higher incidence of SIDS in wintertime. During the winter, windows are left closed, decreasing ventilation, which increases the concentration of out-gassed vapors in the home (Green, 1991).

Although no one knows what causes SIDS, why take unnecessary chances with your infant?

Fortunately, parents can do something to reduce their family’s exposure to airborne toxins from household products. They can simply switch cleaning and personal care product brands – from toxic to nontoxic brands.




To Concerned Parents

I think it’s important to say that household cleaning and personal care products are not the only source of chemicals in your home. As you have seen, however, they are some of the most toxic and deadly. Fortunately, they are also the easiest to replace.



This information is not only meant to inform, but it is also a call to action.
Knowing now, that the chemicals in your home can seriously harm, even kill, your child, wouldn’t it be better to get them out of your home? Since there are safer, effective alternatives, is there any reason to place your child at risk another day? Don’t wait! To make your home a healthier and safer place, visit our website at: www. earthlygreen. org

Visit today!

Earthly Green Enterprises
Website: www. earthlygreen. org
Email: earthlygreen@shaklee.net
Tel: 602.881.

4155



A few potentially dangerous chemicals to avoid:

Sodium Hydroxide
1) Can cause liver and kidney damage
2) Inhalation is immediately irritating to the respiratory tract
3) Contact can cause severe damage to the eyes, skin, mouth, and throat
Sodium Hydroxide can be found in: Dishwashing liquids, laundry products, oven cleaners, scouring cleansers, tub and tile cleaners

Hydrochloric acid
1) Can be fatal if swallowed
2) Can cause severe damage to skin
3) Can be harmful to health, just by breathing the fumes
Hydrochloric acid can be found in: Odor eliminators, toilet bowl cleaners

Butyl Cellosolve
1) can cause irritation and tissue damage from inhalation
2) Studies show that a person who spends 15 minutes cleaning scale off shower walls could inhale three times the acute exposure limit.


Butyl Cellosolve can be found in: All-purpose cleaners, cleaning wipes, degreasers, floor polish, rug shampoos, toilet bowl cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, and window cleaners.



Phosphates
Phosphates damage our environment: the leading dishwasher detergent contains 3.39 grams of phosphate per tablespoon. If every North American household washed just one load of dishes each day with this product, more then 4,800 TONS of phosphates would be needlessly dumped into our waterways, threatening the natural balance of fish and algae life.



Household Cleaning Products:

All-purpose Cleaner: Very toxic; causes skin, nose, throat, and lung burns.



Disinfectant: Very toxic; causes skin, throat, and lung burns; causes coma.



Air Freshener: Toxic; may cause cancer, irritates nose, throat, and lungs.



Drain Cleaner: Toxic; cause skin burns; causes liver and kidney damage.



Over Cleaner: Toxic; causes skin, throat, and lung burns.



Window Cleaner: Toxic; causes CNS disorders; causes liver and kidney disorder

Floor/Furniture Polish: Toxic; causes CNS disorders, may cause lung cancer

Spot Remover: Toxic; may cause cancer, causes liver damage.



Dishwasher Detergent: Toxic; causes eye injuries, damage to mucous membranes, and throat.



Dishwashing Liquids: Harmful if swallowed; irritates the skin

Laundry Detergent: Toxic; irritates the skin and lungs.



Bleach: Toxic by swallowing; vapors are harmful; causes CNS disorders

Fabric Softener: Toxic; may cause cancer, causes CNS disorder, causes liver damage.



Stain Remover: Toxic; may cause cancer, vapors can be fatal.



Carpet Shampoo: Toxic, may cause cancer; causes CNS and liver damage

Chlorinated Scouring Power: Toxic; highly irritating to nose, throat, and lungs.




Personal Care Products:

Shampoo: May contain DEA/TEA, propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulfate, sodium laureth solfate, ethoxylated ingredients, PEG, polyethylene, polyethylene glycol (the later may be contaminated with 1,4 dioxane – a potent carcinogen). May cause cancer; irritates eyes, skin, and lung.



Conditioner: May contain DEA/TEA, propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulfate, and sodium laureth sulfate.

May cause bladder and kidney infections; irritates skin and nose

Toothpaste: May contain fluoride, sodium fluoride, sodium laurel sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, titanium dioxide, saccharin, and FD& C blue 1 (the later are known carcinogins) May cause cancer and toxicity

Dandruff Shampoo: May cause cancer, causes organ degeneration; causes CNS disorders.



Bubble Bath: May contain DEA/TEA and sodium laurel sulfate. May cause bladder and kidney infections; irritates skin and nose.



Cosmetics: May cause cancer, causes central nervous system (CNS) damage, irritates skin and lungs.



Deodorant: May contain lye, artificial fragrances and colors. May cause cancer; causes asthma; irritates lungs.



Hair Moisturizer: Made with fats and waxes that can coat and damage hair.



Mousse and hair spray: May contain Phthalates. May cause cancer; causes lung disease; irritates eyes and skin.



Mouthwash: May contain alcohol, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and sodium laurel sulfate. Toxic to children; may cause cancer.



Perfume/Cologne: Toxic; may cause cancer; irritates skin and lung.




For a more detailed report on the dangers of household chemicals, download our PDF file at:
http://www. earthlygreen. org/library/Shaklee_GetClean/Data_re
lated_to_typical_household_cleaners.

pdf

Some helpful videos:
http://www. earthlygreen. org/library/videos/videorecordings