Mendolonium

Sometimes I look around our house at all the children’s books and toys filling the shelves and tucked into corners and wonder, “What was here before we had kids?”  Our house is obviously a home where children live and one of the most concrete signs of their existence (other than the children streaking across the room, of course) are the toys.  After five and half years and three children there are a lot of toys.  We started parenthood with a no battery and no plastic toy stance.  Overall, I thought we had held the line but I knew a few forbidden toys had crept in: a party favor here, a birthday gift there, and an occasional impulse buy from me.  (Aside:  Buying your son a toy plastic, battery powered vacuum cleaner on clearance will not foster in him a love of cleaning.  Rather he will “vacuum” when the noise level in the house is already at peak volume just to push you over the edge into insanity.)

I decided that the first, low-hanging, fruit to pick in my quest to reduce our toxic load would be plastic toys.  We don’t have any plastic baby toys, but Anna could care less what a is designated as a “baby toy” and what is a big kid toy.  She will pick up and chew on the boys’ plastic, made who knows where, toy animals with gusto (along with rocks from the garden, random rug fuzz etc. – she’s not picky).  I knew it wasn’t a good idea for her to chew on such things but you try to take away a toy plastic lizard from a teething six month old.  I’ve also wondered how much exposure the boys were getting from their handling of plastic toys.  I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that at three and five years old I still frequently find the boys with their fingers in their mouths and I know that if there is anything dangerous on their hands they are certainly ingesting it.

So I gathered a bag and began filling it with plastic toys.  And I was quite surprised when it turned out that we had so many plastic toys that I had to grab another bag and then another after that.  Observe:

I emailed Jeff about my progress, wondering if I was overreacting, lamenting the loss of such toys as Mr. Potato head.  Jeff, ever the logical, scientific mind, looked up Mr. Potato head specifically and found that his arms are made of PVC.  PVC with plasticizers – one of the worst types of plastic and so Mr. Potato Head and many other friends were banished.   I did make one notable exception to the great toy tossing of 2012 – Legos.  The boys love our massive Lego collection and no wood toy could ever replace the joy that they bring.  I don’t know if this was the right decision – toxicity wise – or not.  But overall it was the right decision for us.

Happily the kids don’t miss the toys much.  I didn’t run out and buy any wooden toys to replace the sackfuls of plastic debauchery.  This is not a problem to be solved by purchasing a new, non-toxic product.  I did explain to Thomas, who has a near perfect memory, what happened and why.  In doing so I created something of a monster and he now goes around questioning authoritatively, “Is that safe plastic?” while playing with toys at friends’ homes.  I tried to explain to him the idea of moderation and total exposure; that we were trying to reduce our exposure to harmful chemicals and that we could not and, perhaps did not need to, eliminate such exposures entirely.  Thomas, a child without any shades of grey, has a difficult time understanding my nuanced explanations, but at least he doesn’t pine for the plastic bath turtles.

Toxicity aside, I found a unexpected great benefit to the plastic purge – less clutter.   In this case, less is more; a cleaner house with a tad bit more space.  I am tiny bit happier without the plastic toys, a tiny bit less worried about the kids exposure.  It didn’t take more than a couple of hours of work (not all at once – just here and there as I had a few spare minutes) to accomplish and I am sure I have already saved those hours in time spent picking up the toys.   I think it was a small, but meaningful step.  Next up, a much bigger challenge – the kitchen.

It’s all too easy, when we talk about toxic chemicals, to a project an attitude of  “The sky is falling!  Run for your lives!”

My friend Karen, who often leaves insightful comments, commented on my last post:

You are one of the most dedicated people that I know when it comes to prioritizing a natural, chemical-free “habitat” … but the tone of your post sounds almost alarmist.  And since you are also one of the most rational people I know … the alarm in your post caught my attention … I admit I am developing “detox fatigue” for lack of a better term. To me it’s like the hamster wheel that you’ve mentioned. I’m on it, I’m running: organic meat and dairy (with some free range thrown in for sustainability), organic produce, nitrate-free meats, does my sunscreen have oxybenzone?  It doesn’t, it has zinc but are the zinc particles too small? Could they be absorbed into my body? Should I not be using sunscreen and just get my vitamin D au naturale? What about my mattresses? The flame retardant! What about the waterproof crib sheet, … inhaling pthalates from that? … I cannot afford the level of detox that I feel I need… And the other thing is that all my research to decide what is sensational, meaningful, and scientifically sound is taking time away from interaction with my kids and my sleep.  I just feel too stressed by the whole thing.  I need to get off the hamster wheel.

Before we can continue with future posts on what we are doing to further detoxify our life I need to present a bit of back story as to why this issue is so near and dear to me.  I, personally, have struggled with many health issues attributed to early chemical exposure, specifically early puberty, endometriosis, reproductive issues, and rheumatoid arthritis (an auto-immune disease).  Two of my children have suffered from severe food allergies.  Now that I have a daughter, my greatest fear for her as a teenager is not drugs or sex, but that she will have endometriosis, as I did.  I remember the torture of endometrosis month after month.  I missed school, dance lessons, and even the SATs writhing in agony from bits of misplaced uterine tissue in my abdomen.  Now as a mother I am sure it must have been hell for my own mother to see me in pain over and over again and not be able to do anything about it.  It is my fervent hope that Anna will never have to suffer as I did and I am going to do everything in my power to prevent that.

But I often feel as Karen does, suffering from “detox fatigue”.  In this modern world we are constantly bombarded with reports of dire problems.  Often those reports imply or downright entreat us to shop our way out of it.  How many stories in the media have you seen that tell you about a “Terrible Problem!” and then tell you what you “need” to buy to solve it?  We can’t buy our way into better health.  We need to figure out a way to live in a way with as little toxic chemical exposure as possible on an ongoing basis.  I am tired of constantly reading labels – standing in the aisles of Target feeling like I have to make a huge, important, potentially toxic decision when all I really wanted to do was buy my kid a cup that wouldn’t spill all over.   And we keep being confronted with these decisions over and over again because new research finds new toxins and because, often, the products we buy aren’t all that durable and wear out quickly necessitating purchasing new ones.

I think the solution is to keep it simple.  Just like food; where minimal processing is healthier and more economical than highly processed foods, we can apply the same standard to consumer goods, cleaning products, etc.  For example, let’s say I need a frying pan.  I could buy a non-stick coated pan.  The safety of teflon coatings, specifically as those coatings break down over time and under high heat, is highly questionable.  Manufacturers have come out with new “safer” non-stick cookware.  But what will the research show about that cookware in 5 years?  Furthermore, that non-stick coating, whatever it is, will eventually wear off the pan and then the pan will no longer be useful.  And so we again find ourselves in the store, reading the labels on pans trying to determine what is safe, paying another $20 for a product that will, inevitably, wear out.  Or, for the same amount of money, we could buy a cast iron pan.  To be sure, there is more work upfront to “season” the pan before we can use it, but the pan is 100% safe and it will never wear out.  If I keep them in good condition my great-grandchildren will be able cook on the cast iron pans I have.  I can apply the same standard to the toys my children play with.  All of our baby toys are either wood or fabric.  We once had a few plastic baby toys and I tossed them due to breaking quickly or questionable safety (I researched, but it was basically impossible for me to find out exactly what chemicals they might or might not be leaching).  Our wood toys are now on their third child of use and most of them look as new as the day they were purchased.  When we are done with the baby raising phase of our lives I will put those toys away and I look forward to the day when I will watch my grandchildren playing with them.

Despite my deep concern over the effects of toxic products on our health I haven’t gone through the house in a panic, thrown out everything questionable, and then rushed to the store to buy supposedly safe replacements.  Instead I am taking a methodical, thoughtful approach.  This week I tackled toys and I will write about that process soon.  Next week I plan to tackle kitchen items…and so on.  And I am insistent that we think carefully about whether those items that get removed need to be replaced at all.  If we do decide some replacements are necessary than I want to find some that are affordable, I can trust as safe, and will last a long time.  My fundamental approach going forward is to ask “What do we really need?” (as opposed to want) and “What is safe, durable, and affordable?” (as opposed to “Is this unsafe”).  I want enjoy my life; not spend all my time conducting research and worrying about safety.  I don’t actually plan to do much research at all.  If the answer as to a product’s safety isn’t obvious or easily obtainable then I am just going to pass on it.  I want to be proactive, not reactive.

I am not naive about how much all of these efforts might matter.  We could do everything “right”:  eat only organic food, purge every single piece of plastic from the house, spend thousands of dollars on organic mattresses and bedding (just to be clear, we’re not going to do all of those things) and it might not matter a bit in the face of the exposures that we face simply by breathing in the polluted air and living in an environment with persistent toxic chemicals. But for the sake of my children and everyone’s children I am going to try my best to enjoy my life and create and maintain the healthiest environment possible.

I thought I was doing a good job; or at least a good enough job.

Years ago I got rid of all our plastic storage containers and replaced them with glass containers.  For the most part, I avoided buying plastic toys, and when I did, I thought we made sure that they were BPA and phalate free.  I eschewed cosmetics and toiletries with fragrances.  I avoid these things because I am deeply concerned about the impact of estrogen mimicking chemicals on our bodies; especially the vulnerable developing bodies of my children.  I’ve been continuously pregnant and/or nursing for the past six years and three months and  I enjoy reading up on all things pregnancy, childbirth, and lactation.  In particular, I happen to think that breasts, and their ability to provide every single molecule of nourishment to build a child for months on end are pretty awesome.  So when the book “Breasts:  A Natural and Unnatural History” was released last week I did something I rarely do and bought the book new.  It’s the most interesting non-fiction book I’ve read in a long time and I think would be enjoyed not only by those with breasts, but by the male half of the population as well.  I didn’t have any expectations of the book, but I was surprised to find that it is a book, at its very core, about the interaction between the our bodies and environmental forces – both natural and man-made.  Breasts – the most malleable organ in the human body – evolved to dramatically change in response the hormone estrogen as well as other internal and environmental forces.  As such, breasts act as signals of toxins in our environment and the signal they are putting out is a red alert.  It has been known for some time that many compounds in plastics, cosmetics, toiletries, and consumer goods (e.g., cars, electronics, furniture) mimic the effect of estrogen on the body.  The pervasivness of these chemicals, BPA phalates, and flame retardants among them, is one of a number of factors that contribute to early puberty in girls, breast and reproductive cancers (in both women and men), birth defects in boys, auto-immune disorders and more.  This is why we now see water bottles and baby toys now emblazoned with the stamp of “BPA and phalate free”.  All of this marketing came about as a result of consumer pressure about four years ago.  When Thomas was an infant such claims were quite new and as such we stayed away from all plastics.  While many plastics claim to be BPA and phalate free now, the majority claim no such status and for that reason, as well as the reason that plastic in derived from petroleum (non-renewable resource) and generally not as durable as items made out of wood or metal we have continued to try to avoid plastics.  Despite that, I knew I knew the amount of plastic in our lives had been creeping upward, but busy with three kids and so many other problems to worry about (Crime surge in our neighborhood!  Global economic collapse! Kid with sleep apnea!) I had let the plastics issue fall to the back burner.  After reading pages and pages of “Breasts” detailing the evidence as to the potential harm caused by estrogen mimicking compounds I found the absolute bombshell of the book on page 131, a recent study showing that most plastic products release estrogenic compounds.  In fact:

The team concentrated on BPA-free baby bottles and water bottles, …”and all of them released chemicals having estrogenic activity.” Sometimes the BPA-free products had even more activity than products known to contain BPA.

I saw Theodore’s plastic sippy cup sitting on the bookshelf (but it’s BPA and phalate free my brain protested!).  I thought about the smoothie I drank from a polycarbonate cup that morning.  I saw the little toy figurines that the boys love to play with and that are god-knows-what kind of plastic from China.  I thought about all the fresh, organic bread that I make – and then freeze for busy days – in plastic, ziploc bags (seriously, how in the heck does one freeze bread without plastic?)  I know that we’ll never eliminate plastic from our lives entirely but I have to do better.  I can do better.

We will never know if all these changes make a difference in our lives.  I hopefully won’t be one of the 1 in 8 women who develop breast cancer in my lifetime; but whether I do or not I will never know definitively why.  I will never know if Thomas would have had the same allergy issues he has if he had been born as the second or third child and, thus, received far fewer toxins from my breast milk.  I won’t know if the age that Anna goes through puberty has been affected by the toys she put in her mouth as an infant.  And I don’t need to know.  We do know that estrogen mimicking compounds leach out of plastics and that those compounds do significant to harm our bodies.  We all want to give ourselves and our children the most healthy environment possible.

Thus begins “Project Detox”.  I want to show that we can make a meaningful reduction in these compounds in our lives.  That it can be done by a real, typical family; with kids, working parents, living in the city.  We are living in a sea of toxic chemicals.  I am going to do my best to change that.