Health and Fitness

I just read a book that is truly frightening, called The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being by Nena Baker.

Written by an investigative journalist, it discusses the toxicology of chemicals that are present in all humans: pesticides, phthalates, BPA, fire-retardants, and more. Scientific studies are referred to, public policy is discussed, as well as the potential health hazards of each chemical covered.

A week or so I wrote about wanting to find less toxic beauty products, after hearing a lot in the media about certain ingredients in beauty products being unhealthy. Well, now there are a whole bunch of things besides beauty products that I’m going to be more skeptical of, and I’ve taken an interest in dusting because I don’t want my baby ingesting the flame retardant chemicals in household dust….

The author seems to side with the scientists on the environmental/public health side of the issue, not the industry side of the issue, with regards to all of the chemicals discussed. Without actually conducting research studies myself, (which I’m not qualified to do - my BA in linguistics hardly qualifies me for toxicology studies) I can’t be sure who to believe - but I do know that I am going to be more careful about the products I use in my day to day life because of reading this book.

If anyone reading this blog knows of resources or information related to the toxicology of the chemicals I listed above, please leave a comment.