Toxic chemicals in our environment, such as mercury, lead, and certain manmade chemicals, have been linked to numerous health problems including cancer, birth defects and brain impairments. Eliminating the load of these dangerous chemicals in the products we use, the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink can reduce the human diseases and disorders of environmental origin.
Since petroleum-based chemicals have come into common use, overwhelming scientific evidence has emerged linking them to a host of diseases and disorders. Illnesses of environmental origin identified in the medical research include:
- adult and child cancers,
- numerous neurological disorders,
- immune system weakening,
- autoimmune disorders and allergies,
- asthma,
- infertility and miscarriage,
- learning disabilities, mental retardation, attention deficit disorders
- alteration of hormones essential for maintaining healthy bodily processes.
Toxic chemicals are believed to cause these problems by a variety of routes, including:
- impairing proper DNA (Gene) expression, weakening DNA Repair and accelerating gene loss,
- degeneration of the body's detoxification defenses (liver and kidneys), and
- weakening of the brain's primary defense, the blood-brain barrier).
A growing number of scientists are providing strong evidence pointing to the increase of children with learning and behavior disorders over the past 30 years. Studies repeatedly conclude that exposure of the developing child to even small levels of chemicals in common everyday products can result in learning and behavioral problems that persist throughout a person’s life. Examples include lead, mercury, cadmium and other metals, as well as certain halogenated flame retardants.
The relatively new toxicology field of endocrine disruptor chemicals is of extreme importance. Many chemicals commonly found in the blood and urine of people and animals and in ordinary products we use every day are now being found to alter hormone levels in the blood that are responsible for controlling development and aging. Some chemicals are linked to alteration of critical hormones necessary for teenage neurological and behavioral development, including bisphenol A, phthalates, and certain halogenated flame retardants.
