Chemicals in the human body

Right now, you most likely have at least 700 chemicals in your body that are not supposed to be there. What’s truly spooky, the chemicals mix with each other to create the so-called “cocktail effect” so we don’t really know how they affect us.

Where does synthetic chemicals in the human body come from?

To put it short, the uninvited chemicals in your body is a product of the chemical revolution of the modern consumer society. The world produces 250 billion tons of up to 150,000 different man-made chemical substances yearly. Some of these chemicals find their way into our body

Findings of industrial chemicals in the human body include:

• 420 substances known or suspected to cause cancer found in adult humans.
• 287 substances found in the cord blood of newborn babies of which 63% can cause cancer, 76% are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 72% can cause birth defects and/or abnormal development.

Industrial chemicals in everyday products

There are synthetic chemicals present in millions of everyday products. A few examples:

• 14,000 synthetic chemicals are used to make food fresher and increase it durability.
• In the US, average city tap water contains over 500 different chemicals.
• 24,000 different chemicals can leach into your body from bottled water.
• Tests of air quality in new cars found 275 chemicals linked to birth defects, cancer, learning impairment, and liver damage.
• Over 10,000 personal care product ingredients are defined as reproductive toxins, carcinogens, or hormone disruptors.
• 8000 chemicals are used in the transformation of raw materials into fabric

“Often, the clippings from fabric mills are so loaded with dangerous chemicals they are handled like toxic waste.”

- Michael Braungart, German chemist

Chemicals out of control: We don’t know how they affect us

Tests on how synthetic chemicals affect our health are too simplistic and do not represent what is going on in the real world. One single chemical may have no effect on its own. Yet, it may have damaging effects when combined with other chemicals in a so-called ‘cocktail’.

However, tests are almost exclusively done on chemicals individually rather than in combination even though in reality we are exposed to many different chemicals at the same time.

An uncontrolled chemical experiment in your body

…Even the most complex tests on chemicals done today include no more than a few other chemicals at the same time. In a way, we are all part of a huge uncontrolled “cocktail experiment” involving hundreds of chemicals.

The cocktail effect of chemicals is well documented

This is very disturbing considering that there is an increasing body of evidence showing that combinations of extremely low doses of toxic chemicals can be very harmful to humans.

“We have effectively shown that the cocktail effect is real”

- Pascale Mollier, French National Institute for Agricultural Research.

An emerging allergy epidemic linked to industrial chemicals

Before the 19th Century allergic diseases were almost unknown. Today they have reached epidemic proportions. For example, asthma in children did not start to increase until around. 1960 and by 1990 it had reached epidemic proportions. But, very importantly, only in countries where children had adopted an indoor lifestyle. Allergies are far more common in Western countries (especially in cities) than in rural China and Africa.

This hints to a possible explanation: The body reacts to the many alien chemicals in our system and this reaction spins out of control.

“As we created more synthetic chemicals, we exposed ourselves to a wider range of compounds, each of which could potentially cause damage and trigger an allergic reaction”.

- Ruslan Medzhitov, professor of immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine.

What to do?

We are exposed to chemicals every day through the products we buy: cosmetics, shampoo, plastic food containers, paints, electronics, and even food. Be aware of this next time you go shopping and try to find alternatives.