What is in your chemical soup?

There was a study released in the middle of last month showing that the chemicals in our surroundings may lead to up to 20% of all causes of cancer!!!

No this is not another report from the Dept of DUH! (DOD) this report was compiled by 174 scientist from around the world and published in the journal Carcinogenesis. Logic tells us that many chemicals can have a vast array of effects on our health but this study was not really just about that.

The study challenges the existing beliefs and technique for measuring whether a chemical is carcinogenic, or cancer-causing, in isolation. What the scientist concluded was that we live in a chemical soup and that some
"harmless chemicals" that can combine with others can create a dangerous and unpredictable mix.

Some points to take away from this study are:

• Research clearly shows that biology is affected by low doses of chemicals and these biological changes can be harmful - especially during periods of development.
• It is not good enough to just evaluate one chemical at a time.
• Evaluating mixtures is where we should probably start but that is a significant challenge.
• Some chemicals may be even more dangerous at lower levels than in higher doses.
• Of 85 chemicals studied, 50 showed one of the "hallmarks of cancer".
• Up to 1 in 5 cancer cases could be attributed to exposure to everyday chemicals.
• Risk of cancer does go up as we register more chemicals.
• This chemical soup effect is due to the proliferation of new chemicals in the past century -creating unpredictable risks.
• This chemical SOUP that could be slowly killing us is what we touch, eat, and breathe every day.
• Common house hold sources include lining in food cans, cooking pans, cosmetics, plastics, and the pesticides sprayed on our fruit and vegetables.
• Scientists showed that exposing cancer cells to a mixture of parabens, but not individual parabens, spurred cancer growth.
• One scientists involved in the report stated that the biggest thing  they did was "stop drinking bottled water” because of the chemicals in the plastic bottles.

CANCER SOUPS

None of these substances is a known carcinogen in itself, but in combination with other substances could make a cancer-causing soup within you:

• Paracetamol- Yes that is Tylenol!
  
• Cypermethrin: used as a pesticide 
• BPA: used in many common household plastics, including water bottles and the lining of canned food 
• Cadmium: used in batteries
• Phthalates: used in everything from lipstick, to perfume to sex toys, to bind or soften substances.

Watch this short little video below to see how we can start to protect ourselves from this chemical soup.