The quick answer: Living more simply not only reduces your carbon footprint, it reduces your exposure to chemicals of unknowable toxicity.
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Deep Thoughts
There was once a great man of unusual humility—W. Edward Deming (1900-1993). A PhD statistician turned quality philosopher, Deming taught the Japanese how quality principles wisely applied could raise them from the ashes of WWII to become a global manufacturing power. This Japanese miracle was replayed in the 1980 NBC special, “If Japan Can … Why Can’t We?” which kick-started the American quality revolution. Like many, I was a student of Dr. Deming. Let me share one thing I learned.
Deming gave new meaning to an old word, unknowable. The outcomes of complex systems, due to uncontrollable interactions between variables, were unknowable, he said. We didn’t like hearing this; it contradicted our 20th century faith in science. We had put a man on the moon—certainly a complex undertaking—and were confident that any complex problem could be solved. Wasn’t everything knowable, given sufficient resources?
We’re a little humbler now, helped along by the harsh reality of the Columbia and Challenger disasters. Armstrong and Aldrin had been fortunate in their flight; space travel was riskier than we had appreciated.
The Good Ship Pilgrim
I took a break from writing last evening to run down to Dana Point Harbor with the beautiful wife. The tall ship Pilgrim, a replica of the ship that inspired the book, Two Years Before The Mast, was leaving on its annual sail to the Channel Islands. Our daughter, smitten by the romance of tall ships, was aboard as an ordinary seaman (her 10th trip). Because the Apollo 11 moon landing had just been in my head, the beauty of this great old sailing vessel, masts and rigging rising against the darkening night, struck me with unusual force. Volunteer sailors stood at their stations, orders were shouted, and anchoring lines were pulled in. As the ship slowly turned to sea, the scene glimmered with all the ancient maritime traditions.
Later I wondered, “What can a tall ship and a moon landing teach us about the immune system?” Science, I concluded, explores the unknown, but Tradition is a safe harbor. In truth, because of the complexity of the immune system, we don’t really know how to optimize, or even measure, its function. For our generation, this is unknowable. We can only trust the tradition that what’s good for the body . . . is also good for the immune system.
A Toxic Environment
In addition to the autoimmune diseases discussed in the last post, there is another epidemic that science is powerless to prevent. The related 4-A diseases of autism, ADHD, asthma and allergy collectively affect millions of American children. Though there is a genetic factor, these are largely diseases of a poisoned environment. Environment includes the food we eat, the toxins we’re daily exposed to, and our daily stresses.
Since WWII there has been a poorly regulated explosion of new chemicals, some benign and some toxic. The Western nations, especially the Europeans, have lately become more careful, but the meteoric rise of manufacturing in China and other less cautious Asian countries will continue to pollute the planet. We’ve opened a Pandora’s box and no part of our planet is safe. For example, 1998 studies of Artic polar bears revealed most of the toxins found in man.
We deal with the unknowable here. The cumulative effect of long-term exposure to these chemicals, some of which interact synergistically cannot be known with certainty, but the rise of the 4-A conditions noted above, as well as the 80 or so autoimmune diseases, says there is an effect. Given that we’ve opened Pandora’s Box and must live with the consequences, how do we minimize the damage? A wise strategy for protecting the immune system from polluting toxins should have two components:
- Optimize health (the subject of our blog), and
- Minimize toxic exposure (the subject of this post).
Minimizing Exposure
Some years, well, decades, ago we lived in La Canada, located in the hills above Pasadena next to a national forest. I liked living near a forest and had been accepted into a well-known search-and-rescue group. There was one problem—the smog that daily rolled into the hills. Other than eye irritation, there wasn’t a proven health hazard from the smog so people weren’t too concerned. But our children were young and we were unwilling to expose them to a smoggy childhood on the chance no long-term health problem would be discovered. When my employer relocated to Orange County, we gave up the hills to live near the beach. Because the prevailing breeze is from the ocean, the air is fresh.
This still makes sense—if there is even a small health risk from exposure that will be long-term, avoidance is the best policy. So how do we minimize pollutant exposure? If you’ve been following this blog, you likely don’t smoke and are trying to follow the Healthy Changes, and that all helps. It helps a lot.
Here are ten sensible ways to reduce toxin exposure without actually wearing a Save the Planet T-shirt:
- Question everything that is disposable in your home. Because of the role of chemicals in manufacturing, using less stuff can equate to less toxins in the home. The weight of the garbage hauled away each week can be a measure of your progress. Recycling is nice, but using less is best. Remember (excepting junk mail), you probably spent good money for all that stuff in the trashcan.
- Choose glass and ceramic dishes and containers. Challenge the use of flexible plastics in the kitchen (the degree of flexibility is a rough measure of toxic additives, like BPA and phthalates). For long-term storage, it’s hard to beat those old Mason jars. Don't use plastic containers in the microwave, as heat speeds up chemical absorption.
- You know those plastic water bottles we’ve all been carrying around the last ten years? We can do without; no one lives that far from a drinking fountain.
- Condiments, etc.—look in the fridge door and see how much store-bought stuff is now in plastic containers, some squeezable, just sitting there soaking up the chemicals from the plastic. I just did: we had 12 glass containers and 12 plastic—time to move back to glass.
- Use stainless steel pans and Pyrex baking dishes; try to replace the aluminum and Teflon-coated stuff. I always thought Teflon was inert; it isn’t.
- Simplify the use of household cleansers. The average home has several dozen different cleaners, many in spray cans. These are strong chemicals and the guys making this stuff have no conscience—they get a lot of business by introducing more specialized products that promise to save labor, like those Scrubbing Bubbles that watch you shower. How many cleansers and polishes do you actually need?
- Don’t like bugs? Pest control companies like to make frequent visits and anything that kills bugs isn’t going to be great for you. Can you get by with fewer visits?
- Here’s a crazy issue—flame-retardants in children’s pajamas (go here for a hilarious discussion by some common-sense moms), foam baby products (see here), and all of our mattresses. In 2007 (2005 in California) the Feds upgraded the requirements for flame-retardants, exposing 300 million Americans to toxic chemicals for the unsubstantiated benefit of reducing a few deaths in fires. Because the government is doing this, they don’t have to prove safety, nor are the manufacturers required to tell you what’s in your stuff. Want a toxin-free mattress? You can get one with a prescription from your doctor.
- Eat small fish, like sardines, light tuna (not albacore), or salmon. You’ll get less mercury and all the other toxins in the ocean food chain. (Eating less meat, the main source of consumed toxins, was covered by Healthy Change #20.)
- I saved this one for last. Cosmetics contain a lot of chemicals and the industry isn’t adequately regulated. I don’t know a good solution here, except to use as little as you can and try to load up when you’re in Europe, as they’re more careful. Maybe you don’t have to paint your nails (where did all those nail salons come from, anyway?) or use those dark hair dyes. (There are guys that like grey hair, though they’re mostly over 100. :-)
Please comment: What are you doing to reduce your toxic chemical exposure (without looking too crazy)?