DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Two articles in today’s Chron give an overview of environmental toxins. The more interesting of the two is written by a woman who participated in a “body burden” study — a rigorous test to measure the presence of foreign chemicals in her body. The results are (of course) pretty scary; for example, they detected something called Mirex, an “organochlorine pesticide,” which was banned 26 years ago. That’s what they mean by “persistent:” this stuff doesn’t go away.

Worse, some of these compounds can be passed to fetuses and children. So if you think you’re doing your newborn a favor by breast-feeding, you might instead be condemning him or her to a lifetime of disease due to the various toxins you’ve been exposed to.

What’s fascinating about this article is that the author lives what I would consider a healthy, eco-conscious lifestyle. As she writes,

I haven’t worked in factories or lived in heavily industrial areas; I’ve had access to good, organic food; I’m well educated and knowledgeable about the dangers of pesticides and have made a point of not keeping them in my house.

You might read that and conclude that there’s no point trying to be healthy, because you’ll accumulate toxins even when you try to avoid them. You may even be right.

I wish they’d tested some people who live a traditional, semi-poisonous American lifestyle: genetically-engineered, chemically flavored junk foods, salmonella-infused poultry and dairy products, mercury-laced tuna, etc. Maybe lifestyle choices really don’t make a difference — maybe we are all equally doomed. After all, how far away is the nearest Superfund site? Probably not that far. (You can look it up at Scorecard.org.)

Here’s the article: Toxic America: Tracking the hazardous chemicals that seep stealthily into our bodies