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The Environmental Working Group released a new dirty dozen back in October.
This list is all about hormone- altering chemicals and how to avoid
them. Of course most of these chemicals
can be tied to cancer in some form or another.
It may be overwhelming so take one step at a time. Perhaps it might be simplest to go straight to the bottom of each paragraph and learn how to avoid each chemical.
From the EWG website:
Dirty Dozen List of Endocrine Disruptors
12 Hormone-Altering Chemicals and How to Avoid ThemMonday, October 28, 2013
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.
Here are 12 of the worst hormone disrupters, how they do
their dirty deeds, and some tips on how to avoid them.
BPA
Some may say that imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, but do you really want a chemical used in plastics imitating the sex
hormone estrogen in your body? No! Unfortunately, this synthetic hormone can
trick the body into thinking it’s the real thing – and the results aren’t
pretty. BPA has been linked to everything from breast and others cancers to
reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty and heart disease, and according
to government tests, 93 percent of Americans have BPA in their bodies!
How to avoid it? Go fresh
instead of canned – many food cans are lined with BPA – or research which
companies don’t use BPA or similar chemicals in their products. Say no to
receipts, since thermal paper is often coated with BPA. And avoid plastics
marked with a “PC,” for polycarbonate, or recycling label #7. Not all of these
plastics contain BPA, but many do – and it’s better safe than sorry when
it comes to keeping synthetic hormones out of your body. For more tips, check
out: www.ewg.org/bpa/
Dioxin
Dioxins are multi-taskers… but not in a good way! They
form during many industrial processes when chlorine or bromine are burned in
the presence of carbon and oxygen. Dioxins can disrupt the delicate ways that
both male and female sex hormone signaling occurs in the body. This is a bad
thing! Here’s why: Recent research has shown that exposure to low levels of
dioxin in the womb and early in life can both permanently affect sperm quality
and lower the sperm count in men during their prime reproductive years. But
that’s not all! Dioxins are very long-lived, build up both in the body and in
the food chain, are powerful carcinogens and can also affect the immune and
reproductive systems.
How to avoid it? That’s
pretty difficult, since the ongoing industrial release of dioxin has meant that
the American food supply is widely contaminated. Products including meat, fish,
milk, eggs and butter are most likely to be contaminated, but you can cut down
on your exposure by eating fewer animal products.
Atrazine
What happens when you introduce highly toxic chemicals
into nature and turn your back? For one thing, feminization of male frogs.
That’s right, researchers have found that exposure to even low levels of the
herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into females that produce completely
viable eggs. Atrazine is widely used on the majority of corn crops in the
United States, and consequently it’s a pervasive drinking water contaminant.
Atrazine has been linked to breast tumors, delayed puberty and prostate
inflammation in animals, and some research has linked it to prostate cancer in
people.
How to avoid it? Buy organic
produce and get a drinking water filter certified to remove atrazine. For help
finding a suitable filter, check out EWG’s buying guide: www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
Phthalates
Did you know that a specific signal programs cells in our
bodies to die? It’s totally normal and healthy for 50 billion cells in your
body to die every day! But studies have shown that chemicals called phthalates
can trigger what’s known as “death-inducing signaling” in testicular cells,
making them die earlier than they should. Yep, that’s cell death – in your man
parts. If that’s not enough, studies have linked phthalates to hormone changes,
lower sperm count, less mobile sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive
system, obesity, diabetes and thyroid irregularities.
How to avoid it? A good
place to start is to avoid plastic food containers, children’s toys (some
phthalates are already banned in kid’s products), and plastic wrap made from
PVC, which has the recycling label #3. Some personal care products also contain
phthalates, so read the labels and avoid products that simply list added
“fragrance,” since this catch-all term sometimes means hidden phthalates. Find
phthalate-free personal care products with EWG’s Skin Deep Database: www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Perchlorate
Who needs food tainted with rocket fuel?! That’s right,
perchlorate, a component in rocket fuel, contaminates much of our produce and
milk, according to EWG and government test data. When perchlorate gets into
your body it competes with the nutrient iodine, which the thyroid gland needs
to make thyroid hormones. Basically, this means that if you ingest too much of
it you can end up altering your thyroid hormone balance. This is important
because it’s these hormones that regulate metabolism in adults and are critical
for proper brain and organ development in infants and young children.
How to avoid it? You can
reduce perchlorate in your drinking water by installing a reverse osmosis
filter. (You can get help finding one at: www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide)
As for food, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid perchlorate, but you can
reduce its potential effects on you by making sure you are getting enough
iodine in your diet. Eating iodized salt is one good way.
Fire retardants
What do breast milk and polar bears have in common? In
1999, some Swedish scientists studying women’s breast milk discovered something
totally unexpected: The milk contained an endocrine-disrupting chemical found
in fire retardants, and the levels had been doubling every five years since
1972! These incredibly persistent chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl
ethers or PBDEs, have since been found to contaminate the bodies of people and
wildlife around the globe – even polar bears. These chemicals can imitate
thyroid hormones in our bodies and disrupt their activity. That can lead to
lower IQ, among other significant health effects. While several kinds of PBDEs
have now been phased out, this doesn’t mean that toxic fire retardants have
gone away. PBDEs are incredibly persistent, so they’re going to be
contaminating people and wildlife for decades to come.
How to avoid it? It’s
virtually impossible, but passing better toxic chemical laws that require
chemicals to be tested before they go on the market would help reduce our
exposure. A few things that can you can do in the meantime include: use a
vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter, which can cut down on toxic-laden house
dust; avoid reupholstering foam furniture; take care when replacing old carpet
(the padding underneath may contain PBDEs). Find more tips at: www.ewg.org/pbdefree/
Lead
You may or may not like heavy metal music, but lead is
one heavy metal you want to avoid. It’s well known that lead is toxic,
especially to children. Lead harms almost every organ system in the body and
has been linked to a staggering array of health effects, including permanent
brain damage, lowered IQ, hearing loss, miscarriage, premature birth, increased
blood pressure, kidney damage and nervous system problems. But few people
realize that one other way that lead may affect your body is by disrupting your
hormones. In animals, lead has been found to lower sex hormone levels. Research
has also shown that lead can disrupt the hormone signaling that regulates the
body’s major stress system (called the HPA axis). You probably have more stress
in your life than you want, so the last thing you need is something making it
harder for your body to deal with it – especially when this stress system is
implicated in high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety and depression.
How to avoid it? Keep your
home clean and well maintained. Crumbling old paint is a major source of lead
exposure, so get rid of it carefully. A good water filter can also reduce your
exposure to lead in drinking water. (Check out www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
for help finding a filter.) And if you need another reason to eat better,
studies have also shown that children with healthy diets absorb less lead.
Arsenic
Arsenic isn’t just for murder mysteries anymore. In fact,
this toxin is lurking in your food and drinking water. If you eat enough of it,
arsenic will kill you outright. In smaller amounts, arsenic can cause skin,
bladder and lung cancer. Basically, bad news. Less well known: Arsenic messes
with your hormones! Specifically, it can interfere with normal hormone functioning
in the glucocorticoid system that regulates how our bodies process sugars and
carbohydrates. What does that mean for you? Well, disrupting the glucocorticoid
system has been linked to weight gain/loss, protein wasting, immunosuppression,
insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes), osteoporosis, growth
retardation and high blood pressure.
How to avoid it? Reduce your
exposure by using a water filter that lowers arsenic levels. For help finding a
good water filter, check out EWG’s buying guide: www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
Mercury
Caution: That sushi you are eating could be hazardous to
your health. Mercury, a naturally occurring but toxic metal, gets into the air
and the oceans primarily though burning coal. Eventually, it can end up on your
plate in the form of mercury-contaminated seafood. Pregnant women are the most
at risk from the toxic effects of mercury, since the metal is known to
concentrate in the fetal brain and can interfere with brain development.
Mercury is also known to bind directly to one particular hormone that regulates
women’s menstrual cycle and ovulation, interfering with normal signaling
pathways. In other words, hormones don’t work so well when they’ve got mercury
stuck to them! The metal may also play a role in diabetes, since mercury has
been shown to damage cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, which is
critical for the body’s ability to metabolize sugar.
How to avoid it? For people
who still want to eat (sustainable) seafood with lots of healthy fats but
without a side of toxic mercury, wild salmon and farmed trout are good choices.
Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)
The perfluorinated chemicals used to make non-stick
cookware can stick to you. Perfluorochemicals are so widespread and
extraordinarily persistent that 99 percent of Americans have these chemicals in
their bodies. One particularly notorious compound called PFOA has been shown to
be “completely resistant to biodegradation.” In other words, PFOA doesn’t break
down in the environment – ever. That means that even though the chemical was
banned after decades of use, it will be showing up in people’s bodies for
countless generations to come. This is worrisome, since PFOA exposure has been
linked to decreased sperm quality, low birth weight, kidney disease, thyroid
disease and high cholesterol, among other health issues. Scientists are still
figuring out how PFOA affects the human body, but animal studies have found
that it can affect thyroid and sex hormone levels.
How to avoid it? Skip
non-stick pans as well as stain and water-resistant coatings on clothing,
furniture and carpets.
Organophosphate pesticides
Neurotoxic organophosphate compounds that the Nazis
produced in huge quantities for chemical warfare during World War II were
luckily never used. After the war ended, American scientists used the same
chemistry to develop a long line of pesticides that target the nervous systems
of insects. Despite many studies linking organophosphate exposure to effects on
brain development, behavior and fertility, they are still among the more common
pesticides in use today. A few of the many ways that organophosphates can
affect the human body include interfering with the way testosterone
communicates with cells, lowering testosterone and altering thyroid hormone
levels.
How to avoid it? Buy organic
produce and use EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which can help
you find the fruits and vegetables that have the fewest pesticide residues.
Check it out at: www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Glycol Ethers
Shrunken testicles: Do we have your full attention now?
This is one thing that can happen to rats exposed to chemicals called glycol
ethers, which are common solvents in paints, cleaning products, brake fluid and
cosmetics. Worried? You should be. The European Union says that some of these
chemicals “may damage fertility or the unborn child.” Studies of painters have
linked exposure to certain glycol ethers to blood abnormalities and lower sperm
counts. And children who were exposed to glycol ethers from paint in their bedrooms
had substantially more asthma and allergies.
How to avoid it? Start by
checking out EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning (www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/) and avoid
products with ingredients such as 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE) and methoxydiglycol
(DEGME).
