Changing Tide: Is your detergent making you fat, sick, and stupid?

April 23, 2019April 25, 2019 / Janice Penberth / 2 Comments

Would you take a mixture of over 30 different chemicals and rub it into your skin? Would you sleep in it… breathing it deeply? Would you swaddle your newborn with it?

What if that concoction contained known endocrine disruptors-substances which:

interfere with hormones and can affect growth, sexual development, and fertility
can alter thyroid function
are linked to autoimmunity
affect cardiovascular health
neurotoxins and contribute to neurodegenerative diseases
associated with testicular, breast, kidney, and other cancers
impact prenatal development
are a factor in obesity and metabolic syndrome
increase respiratory problems, allergies, and skin irritation

You are probably saying, “no, of course not” but you are immersing yourself and your children in this toxic soup if you use conventional laundry products such as Tide Plus Febreze Freshness and then toss in a Bounce dryer sheet to finish it off. The majority of our household products are loaded with endocrine disruptors but most of us are completely unaware of them and how harmful they are.

Whenever my neighbor does his laundry, I can smell it at my house. When we inhale and proclaim our love for the smell of clean laundry…it’s really the fragrance of a misleading blend of harmful toxins. And if we can detect the scent…we are also breathing it. Endocrine disruptors can enter our bodies through ingestion, inhalation, transdermal contact (by touching our skin) and are detrimental even at very low doses. Levels below what are considered “safe” can change hormones enough to be detectible in blood tests.

We have been sold the idea that odor=clean and that if something smells perfumed it must be cleaner. While to some degree this may be true of our gym socks, it has been taken to an extreme. And it’s not just in laundry agents but in other cleaning products, air fresheners, and body care. Have you seen the commercials for Febreze that show a dog on the couch, giving the impression of filthy until the owner sprays the scented savior on the furniture? Suddenly it is wonderfully fresh and clean? It’s not like we saw them vacuuming or washing the covers but just because they covered up the dog smell with Febreze…voila…spotless.

Here’s a fun fact for you. When a product includes “fragrance” or “perfume” …it’s not from a natural essential oil but a group of synthetic chemicals. Manufacturers are not required to disclose the ingredients. Usually, “fragrance” includes phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates), a group of man-made chemicals that are associated with reproductive issues and cancer. There are over 3100 chemicals in the government database for use in fragrance and according to the Environmental Working Group, the average product contains 14 secret ingredients.

Maybe you prefer Downy? The label for Ultra Downy April Fresh claims to have something called, “fabric protect” and has an adorable little girl on the front. It seems innocent enough but let’s examine some of its ingredients. The first one on the list, Diethylester Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride, is from a group known as “quats” (quaternary ammonium compounds) that are used in cleaning and sanitizing. Oddly, they are also used as anti-static agents. Okay, so no annoying cling and super clean right? Well, if you don’t mind that the quats are proven skin irritants, allergenics, and highly toxic to aquatic life. And that disinfectant part? It’s killing the important microbiome (bacteria etc.) that lives on our skin and contributing to antibiotic resistant bacteria. Next, we have “perfumes” and “long lasting perfumes” so an average of 28 chemicals that are hidden from the consumer but probably include endocrine disruptors and phthalates. Lots more scary chemicals in the middle of the list and the preservative known as BIT, which is corrosive, irritant, environmentally hazardous, has potential “organ system toxicity” and may cause birth defects.

We deliberately add this to our clothes, sheets, and towels? Our baby diapers and blankets?

Let’s back up and look at the detergent we used. When researching for this post, locating ingredients in common laundry products wasn’t a consumer-friendly procedure. It often led to a page that tried to give me an explanation of each chemical such as “surfactant” or “brightener” but nothing that explained the risks or really what it was made from. I was forced to search government and chemical databases by individual component in order to learn more about them. Fortunately, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has given grades (A-F) to many products and helps consumers to make informed decisions. (https://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners) It’s interesting to note that they also have concerns about non-disclosure and ingredient transparency. Clearly, the manufacturers don’t want us to know what’s in the wash.

As we examine laundry soap, let’s consider a popular baby detergent because most of us associate those with being safer and less toxic. This was one of the most difficult ones to uncover the ingredients. Their webpage claims, “Dye-free, lightly scented and specially formulated to be gentle on your baby’s skin, all® is all you need to keep baby happy”. It contains 15 ingredients but one of those is “fragrance” so let’s assume it has the average of 14 more undisclosed chemicals too so now we’re up to twenty-nine. Let’s look at a few of what are listed.

Diethanolamine, the first ingredient is a possible carcinogenic which according to PubChem (our government) “Despite FDA approval, it should never be used long term, as it has been proven to have detrimental effects on human skin, on the immune system and has been classified as a respiratory toxicant”.

Stilbene-triazine derivative which is a non-specific component that doesn’t tell us what it actually is.

Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) “In vitro studies show that a brief exposure to MIT is highly toxic to cultured neurons” and it is registered as a pesticide.

Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, a substance which Toxnet at the National Institutes of Health states, “Detergents dissolve lipid layers in tissue and produce local irritation and injury. The most common effects are skin, mucosal and eye irritation. Treatment for exposure is “wash affected skin and remove contaminated clothing”.

It’s ironic that the treatment is to remove contaminated clothing. And that’s only four of the ingredients that they admit to…what about the ones they won’t tell us about? It’s claiming to keep baby “happy”? More like poisoned.

One of my biggest issues with the all® brand is they intentionally market to healthcare professionals through a link on their site, claiming that it’s rough fabrics that cause skin issues. They present some self-funded studies that show softer fabric causes less friction and creates less skin irritation in sensitive patients but still include ingredients shown to promote irritation. Somehow… we are convinced to buy the detergent full of immune suppressants, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and pesticides that harm our skin and health and then we purchase a second product comprised of more toxins to supposedly compensate? Brilliant use of capitalism and getting our doctor to recommend it? Even better.

Seriously. What are we doing? We pour in capfuls of irritating, cancer-causing, hormone altering, toxic goo into our machine and push the button without even thinking. There are so many layers of harmful chemicals in our daily lives that are negatively impacting our health. Our bodies are designed to detoxify but we keep them so overloaded with synthetic, industrialized junk that we simply can’t keep up and disease and illness take hold. It’s extremely frightening that we don’t know what happens when we combine the chemicals…some of them form other dangerous compounds like dioxins when mixed. So…a typical Saturday and you are doing laundry, cleaning the house, plugging in a new air “freshener”, maybe spraying the weeds in the yard…you are exposed to potentially hundreds of chemicals. Is it any wonder most of us have at least one chronic disease? That our kids have ADHD and increasing rates of autism? That we are overweight?

Let’s get back to those phthalates lurking in our fragrance. Children born to mothers with the highest levels of phthalates in their systems have IQ’s that are about 7 points less than to mothers with low levels. And yet we buy into lines like this one from Tide, “Complimentary perfumes, along with dual-scent pearls that activate in motion provide your garments with bursts of freshness all day.” Phthalates alter hormone function and can increase estrogens/decrease testosterone in men, leading to fertility issues, testicular cancer, and gynecomastia (man-boobs). In women, they are linked to breast cancer, fertility issues, and a host of other hormone-related problems including obesity and thyroid disorders. What if we pick up some Tide Plus Febreze Freshness which “now gives you the same cleaning power you expect from Tide, but with an added freshness benefit. It offers 3x the freshness of Tide Original with a scent that lasts for up to 12 weeks.” We wrap ourselves and our babies in chemicals that make us sick and linger for 3 months? Is that the “freshness benefit”?

And with our modern, indoor lives…who is getting so dirty that they need to wash with disinfectants and pesticides? Do we really need dyes, silicone, and brighteners? Proctor and Gamble (P&G), a conglomerate that owns brands like Downy, Febreze, and Tide, made $83 billion dollars in 2014. Do you want to risk your family’s health through continuing to use these products while they figure out ways to sell you more? The P&G site states that their multitude of brands have, “significant growth and value creation potential”. This isn’t about your safety or comfort. It’s profit.

Fortunately, we have options. We have the power of the dollar and we can create change through informed consumerism. Currently I’m using an organic, unscented laundry detergent from Whole Foods and it doesn’t contain harmful chemicals. Normally though, I like to make my own, based on castile soap which is surprisingly cheap and very easy. I recommend checking out https://wellnessmama.com/ for great recipes and ideas for homemade cleaners and household products that really work and are non-toxic.

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” Winston Churchill

Don’t just brush this off. This isn’t hard and can make a significant difference in your family’s health. Do we want to blindly accept that we are increasing our risk of obesity and breast cancer? That our kids have learning disabilities, asthma, and are also developing chronic diseases? I guess that the accompanying cognitive decline from the neurotoxins might hide the fact that our men are growing moobs while their balls are shrinking.

But hey, we smell “Febreze Fresh” for months.

Click to access endocrine_disruptors_508.pdf

Click to access nih_news_in_health_making_a_healthier_home_cast_toxins_from_your_living_space_508.pdf

https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/chemicals-and-contaminants/phthalates

https://www.ewg.org/research/not-so-sexy

https://smartlabel.pg.com/00037000106135.html

https://smartlabel.pg.com/00037000898856.html

Click to access WhitePaper.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046332/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4702494/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5187886/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3365860/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3443608/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664782/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5827796/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5312591/

https://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/6166-AllBabyLiquidDetergent#jumptohere

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/diethanolamine#section=NIOSH-Toxicity-Data

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+8200

https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+740

Click to access WhitePaper.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/skin/default.html

https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/58/1/1/1658912

https://tide.com/en-us/shop/type/liquid/tide-plus-febreze-freshness-liquid

https://www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/1752-DownyUltraLiquidFabricConditionerFreeGentle

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/1_2-Benzisothiazol-3_2H_-one#section=Hazards-Identification

https://news.pg.com/about/core_strengths

<a href=”https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/abstract”>Abstract photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com</a>

Pet Salt: Is your “healthy” sea salt actually plastic?

April 4, 2019April 26, 2019 / Janice Penberth / Leave a comment

Sometimes a simple element is overlooked as a tiny microcosm of a much deeper issue. In this post, it’s a single grain of salt.

We’re all familiar with the phrase “take it with a grain of salt” and it is commonly interpreted as a warning to view something with skepticism, or to not take it seriously. The earliest known reference comes from a translation of an ancient text by Pliny the Elder in 77 AD, in what seems to be an antidote to poison. As it turns out… what now appears to be salt may be the poison instead.

Maybe you are thinking that you know where this is leading. Perhaps I’m going to fall into the line of reducing salt for hypertension or that we eat too much of it. That isn’t the case at all so buckle up folks because we’re going on a surprising journey.

Salt, chemically known as sodium chloride, has played a significant role throughout history. It has been used as a form of payment, was a highly valued trade item, and references date back to about 6000 BC. We still use idioms like “not worth his salt” and “salt of the earth”. Chinese texts dated to 2700 BC are early tenets to using salt as medicine. Before refrigeration, it was used as a form of food preservation and it’s known for its culinary value in saving us from “bland” foods. Did you know that salt counters bitter taste better than sugar does? Before we started dumping gallons of flavored, sweetened creamers in our coffee, people used to put a pinch of salt into the brew to reduce the bitter taste.

My favorite story that centers around this briny substance is the Dandi March led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930 as a non-violent response to British control of Indian salt production and heavy taxation. It’s an integral part of history and helped lead to independence from British rule. It demonstrates the magnitude of people, of civil disobedience, and of salt.

But let’s talk about the power of misinformation. In a story very similar to the cholesterol myth, salt was given the dastardly reputation of raising blood pressure (hypertension) without this decision being based on validated science. The tale is a rather intriguing one of poorly structured studies, inbred rats, and of sensational headlines. If you’d like the details, I highly suggest reading The Salt Fix by Dr. James DiNicolantonio. One important takeaway is to remember that when salt restriction entered the government’s dietary guidelines, only the opinion of “experts” was required and there didn’t need to be any actual scientific proof. This dates to the 1970’s when access to studies was buried in a handful of printed academic journals with restricted readership.

“But my doctor said to cut back”. It appears to make sense that sodium consumption would raise blood pressure (BP) because it causes temporary fluid retention. This is a theory that’s easy to explain to patients but it’s not how our physiology works. In fact, reducing salt increases heart rate which is more harmful than raising BP and in about 30% of people with hypertension, lower sodium intake makes their BP higher. In genetically susceptible patients, cutting down on salt can lower BP but usually only by a few points, for example from 150/90 to 147/88. There is simply no real evidence that restricting this crucial electrolyte has positive implications for cardiovascular health and doing so may lead to worsened outcomes and mortality rates. We seem to be fine at our average consumption rate of about 3500mg daily but should be cautious of going above 5000mg because that is a fairly good indication that our diet is full of processed foods and there are associated risk factors beyond simply sodium.

“In other words, low-salt diets may actually cause the very disease they are supposedly being used to prevent and treat, hypertension. In short, salt’s function in the body is exactly the thing it’s been demonized for. “The ultimate physiological purpose of sodium intake is precisely the maintenance of blood pressure,” Robert Heaney, MD, wrote in Nutrition Today. “Demonizing sodium is not only unsupported by evidence but is counter-physiological as well, as it ignores sodium’s most basic function in mammalian bodies.”

The idea is so engrained throughout our medical system and government recommendations that we don’t question it. Think about it. If you are critically ill and hospitalized, what is one of the first treatments? An IV of saline solution…. or salt water, and your BP isn’t affected even when they are waking you up at 5am to check it. And consider this…most of the longest living populations, such as the Japanese, French, and South Koreans, have the highest sodium intakes. Part of this argument is mute anyway because despite being told that everyone, regardless of risk, should limit sodium…we haven’t done it. Salt intake has remained stable since the 1950’s while rates of cardiovascular disease have increased. Heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US, is not on the same trajectory as salt consumption. It is, however, correlated directly to our increased sugar content in foods. Seems like we’ve been blaming the wrong white crystal. Apparently…we should take governmental recommendations with a grain of salt.

Hooray! Sodium is good for us.

Right?

It depends.

Leave it to humans to mess up something so pristine in the pursuit of convenience.

In multiple studies with samples of sea salt that were tested for evidence of nano particles of plastics, every single one was contaminated. So, when you are dousing that bowl of popcorn with yummy goodness…you could be sprinkling on a variety of tiny bites of garbage. There are numerous reasons why our oceans are full of plastic, all of which tie directly back to us, our disposable lifestyle, and the desire of chemical companies like Dow to sell more product. The most common particulate matter found is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a member of the polyester family. It is used to make water/beverage bottles, food packaging, clothing, and other flexible objects. According to the PET Resin Association, “its raw materials are derived from crude oil and natural gas” and it “will not biologically degrade”. This widely applied material is recyclable, but we only reuse a small percentage and the remainder ends up in landfills, waterways, and eventually the ocean. According to the United Nations, a dump truck full of plastic enters our oceans every minute.

For years, there have been disturbing photos of marine life tangled in plastics. We read about tortoises and whales with bodies laden with plastic and I think most of us feel guilty and sad about it all. Not bad enough to actually do anything about it…like getting a reusable water bottle, natural fiber clothing, avoiding single use plastics and food packaging, along with taking our own cloth bags to the store, but we feel some level of remorse.

But what if it’s contaminating you too? What if that seemingly innocent granule isn’t sodium chloride but a chemical derived from fossil fuels that won’t biodegrade? Maybe it’s like the nose from my teddy bear that I swallowed when I was three and “this too shall pass” but do we really know? Because these miniscule remnants are also found in other marine consumables like fish and seafoods, we have begun to examine the effects on human health. (and also in tap water and beer but that’s another story) A 2017 study reports, “results confirm that oxidative stress is one of the mechanisms of cytotoxicity at cell level, as has been observed for both cell lines [cerebral and endothelial cells] and contributes to the current knowledge of the effects of NMs and MPLs-NPLs”. [nano materials, microplastics, and Nano plastics] Basically that means eating plastics kill our brain cells and the lining of our blood vessels.

One of the problems with finding the particles in salt is that they are proving extremely difficult to remove. There is some limited information on using sand filters that can reduce about 85% of foreign materials but it’s uncommon and it’s not 100%. We’ve established that salt is a vital electrolyte and a necessary component of human health but how can we source it safely? Well, for starters, let’s avoid “standard” table salt like Morton’s which isn’t only sodium chloride, but it has extra stuff added to help it pour evenly and the iodized version has dextrose (sugar) in it too. Yep, we even have sugar in our salt.

After much research and comparing brands, I’m using Redmond Real Salt because it comes from an ancient sea in Utah, although I also have some Himalayan Pink salt as well. As I read more articles, the “gross” factor kept rising and I found myself wondering if I was generously shaking microscopic pieces of someone’s old toilet brush or a disco shirt from the 70’s on my Brussels sprouts.

So…are we getting toxic doses of polyester in our salt? Probably not, and the number of particles varies extensively in samples with those from heavily polluted locations obviously having larger amounts, but we don’t honestly know the ramifications or if there is a threshold. Additionally, plastics can absorb other toxic chemicals and pathogenic bacteria so we could be eating those too. Since nano plastics are found in numerous ingested sources, they could be compounding in our bodies until we also wash up on shore with stomachs full of it. We have left no ocean untouched and even the deepest reaches have been altered by human trash. In the Sirena Deep, part of the Mariana Trench, in the furthest depths known…we still find refuse and pollutants. In 2016, an exploration in conjunction with NOAA found disturbing items about 15,000 feet down…. plastic bags, a Budweiser, and a can of low-sodium Spam. Unfortunately, I’m not making that up. I guess if we keep on this path of environmental and self-destruction… whatever comes next will have clear evidence of what happened to us.

DiNicolantonio, James. The Salt Fix (p. 70). Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale. Kindle Edition.

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/take-with-a-grain-of-salt.html

https://www.seasalt.com/about-salt/history-of-salt

https://www.history.com/topics/india/salt-march

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/salt-and-our-health/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5561224/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26486565

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30145764

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5043174/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5895013/

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http://www.petresin.org/news_introtopet.asp