From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: What Toxins–Environmental and Health-Related–are Present in Your Most Basic Supplies?
Most of us view our homes as havens. We want them to be a safe, clean, and a pleasant place for our families and friends to gather. In an attempt to set up the perfect household, many products we purchase to enhance our space actually endanger the health of our family, children, and pets. These harmful effects do not just refer to allergies or headaches. The toxins in everyday household products can affect the following systems:
• Cardiovascular
• Nervous
• Respiratory
• Immune
• Reproductive
• Circulatory
It may be common knowledge there are toxins in poisonous products such as oven cleaners, drain cleaners, and insecticides, but there are also toxins lurking in many household products we have come to rely on, and consider staples of our homes.
Cleaning Products
Many of the well-known name brand toilet bowl and bathroom cleaners contain chlorinated phenols, found to harm the respiratory and circulatory systems in some cases. The chlorine in cleansers and some bleaches can cause also cause respiratory problems. All-purpose cleansers that contain diethylene glycol like window and glass cleaners and can damage the nervous system, and butyl cellosolve, found in many all-purpose cleaners, has been found to damage the nervous system, kidneys, and liver. Also beware of furniture polish and floor cleaners with petroleum solvents that can damage mucous membranes and perchloroethylene, found in spot cleaners can damage the liver and kidneys.
Kitchen Items
The BPA in certain plastics has been linked to obesity and developmental problems in both males and females and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) an ingredient in Teflon, has been linked to cancer, arthritis and birth defects. OSHA professionals equipped with the right knowledge and occupational health and safety degrees have banned many of these products in certain factories and industries.
Paper Products
Paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, and anything white and made of paper most likely contains dioxins. Dioxins are the substance used in Agent Orange and can cause some disorders such as cancer, skin disorders, birth defects, joint pain, and compromised immune systems in severe cases.
Candles and Fragrances
Air fresheners and other fragrances can sometimes contain formaldehyde which is a carcinogen and can cause respiratory problems. Certain candles can also emit harmful toxins.
The “Green” cleaning industry is growing, and products are becoming more affordable. Read all your labels carefully. If there are ingredients you cannot pronounce it may not be green or safe. Baking soda, vinegar, and water can also be a great substitute for many products. Purchase recycled and unbleached paper products and look for BPA free plastic ware. It’s up to you to make an effort to read labels and change habits around the house.
From the article:
“Paper towels, toilet paper, napkins, and anything white and made of paper most likely contains dioxins.”
Obviously we will have to stop using toilet paper. What did people do before toilet paper was invented? Is that something we should do instead of using toilet paper?
Perhaps others can offer suggestions.
When you consider were most of the people of the world reside and the practices in those countries you can quickly come to realize that most people in the world do not use TP.
In much of the world you may find a jug of water in the lav and the left hand is never used for eating or extended to another person in greeting.
They consider our practices rather unsanitary and there might be some research to bear this out. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-talks-bidets/
Brooke Chaplan, this article is poorly researched, contains irrelevant details and is poorly organized. If you care about writing as a craft and aspire to be something more than the typical internet hack you have to go beyond the pleasure of seeing your thoughts in print and consider the impression you are leaving. As a reader this is not something I generally want to do, but I offer some observations here in the hopes that it will inspire a better effort or a change of profession.
If your essay is about “toxins” defining the term should be one of your priorities. If you had taken the time to check your definitions you would have discovered that “toxins” are produced by organisms and the chemical substances you choose as your subject are “poisons” and not “toxins”: http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-toxin-and-poison/ A mistake like this tells careful readers that you don’t know what you are talking about and it suggests you like hearing yourself more than you enjoy research.
Then you make a rather basic fault of composition, expanding your subject to a dead end, when you start listing the body systems that could be affected by “toxins” [sic]. Why? It is a waste of your time and the reader’s time. Is there any body system that is not potentially affected by some poison? Are you listing every body system? You seem to have missed a few that could be affected. You then do nothing with this information other than list it.
The balance of the article is supposed to be separated into a series of categories. Unfortunately all the categories are potentially overlapping so that it is no organization at all.
The article reads a bit like an essay answer to a high school exam where many questions are supposed to be answered, but style or flow of the article is not important.
It is a good idea to write as practice, but without correction and guidance that comes from feedback it is going to be more difficult to improve. Perhaps you might invest in a basic composition course.