"Industrial pollution begins in the womb."

Tweet

In 2004, EWG tested the blood of 10 unborn Americans for 413 different toxic chemical pollutants. A total of 287 chemicals were found including212 industrial chemicals and pesticides that were banned over 30 years ago. There was an average of 200 chemicals per fetus.

Watch this eye-opening 22 minute lecture, 10 Americans with Ken Cook, President and Founder of the Environmental Working Group, to learn more about the study.


There is so much surprising and heavy information in the lecture. Here are five things that stood out most to me:

• This video really illustrated to me that eating organic foods, cleaning with non-toxic solutions, using natural personal care items, and making other healthy personal choices is not enough to completely protect yourself and your unborn children from chemical exposure.We need to get these chemicals banned!
• The chemicals found in the fetuses are those linked with cancer, birth defects, infertility, and hormone disruption. Some are also immune system toxicants and neurotoxins like lead, PCBs, and mercury which affect development of intelligence and motor coordination.
• We are seeing an increase in heath problems, disorders, and diseases as our exposure to chemicals increases. For example, there has been a 20% increase in American couples dealing with difficulty getting pregnant or carrying a baby to full term in the last ten years. (The largest increase in infertility has been in women under 25 years old.) The sperm count in American and Northern European men goes down 1% every year.
• We need a reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), a law that gave the green light to 62,000 industrial chemicals when it was created and does not require any health or safety studies to be done before a chemical is introduced to the market. 80% of all new chemicals are approved in 3 weeks!
• Support is needed to get Congress to reintroduce the Safe Chemicals Act (formerly called  Kid Safe Chemicals Act). It would protect children and the rest of us by assuming chemicals found in umbilical cord blood to be hazardous. It will require those and any new chemicals to be proven safe in order to enter or stay on the market.

Also, I mention EWG here and on social media a lot because I love them! They do great research and activism and provide awesome resources like healthy cleaning, eating, and personal care guides for free! If you have a few dollars to spare now or in the future, I encourage you to make a donation to support their work.

Thanks so much for reading this blog entry! I hope it was helpful. Please like Olivia Cleans Green on Facebook, join my email list, follow me on Twitter, and subscribe to my blog posts (by RSS or email) to keep in touch and discover more creative green homemaking tips.