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

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

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Click to access WhitePaper.pdf

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Click to access WhitePaper.pdf

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

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

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

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