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Hey everyone.
It's no secret that the products we use at home every day are full of chemicals, but it kind of is a secret that those chemicals aren't as safe as we're told they are.
Oftentimes chemicals aren't properly tested and are put into products that we then come into contact with, endangering our long-term health.
You have probably heard of many women, especially those that are pregnant, reducing their use of many products because the chemicals inside them are dangerous
Think about your smartphone, your shower curtain or your children's plastic cups.
They all contain chemicals that have an adverse effect on human health.
For men and boys, these chemicals are particularly bad for your sexual and reproductive health and fertility.
In fact, mounting evidence shows that exposure to these chemicals in our every day products can lead to a reduction in the quality of your sperm, low sperm counts, infertility, testicular and prostate cancer, hormonal changes or even miscarriage in your spouse.
You would think that the products we buy have been properly tested and that they're safe to use, but are they?
Surely it's illegal for the manufacturers to put these untested toxic chemicals into our products, endangering not only us but our partner's, children and even our grandchildren too.
A study where are pregnant women was exposed to Diethylstilbestrol (DES) showed that the woman's grandsons were born with genital malformations, and it was linked directly to DES.
There have also been animal, and some human, testing to see whether exposure to the chemicals in every day products do indeed damage our health.
It showed serious malformations of the reproductive tract, breast development, puberty onset and testis size as well as an altered prostate development.
Hormone disruption plays a big part in this. Endocrine disruptors are a type of chemical that affect your body's natural hormones and it's been seen that even very small hormonal changes can have a lifelong damaging effect.
Even low levels of exposure to endocrine disruptors contribute to obesity, infertility and some cancers.
Here are a few tips on how to keep you, your family and your home safe.
Avoid using reusable plastic food containers, especially if you're heating food in them. Heat causes some of the chemicals in the plastic to seep into your food which is then ingested.
Keep your plastic water bottles, plastic cups or food containers in cool dry places. Even leaving your bottle of water out in the sun will cause these chemicals to be released into your drink.
Limit the amount of canned foods that you and you family eat. Food tins are coated in a resin called BPA, an endocrine disruptor. You can safely stores foods in glass jars or buy fresh food every day.
Request a safety data sheet from the manufacturer of a product so that you can learn more about it and the risks that come with using it.
Take your shoes of at the front door to avoid tracking hazardous substances through your home. Our shoes pick up all sorts of nasty passengers as we walk around town.
Make sure to vacuum your home regularly. Household dust oftentimes have high concentrations of toxic flame retardants.
Always refuse a receipt unless you absolutely need to take it home with you. Most receipts contain BPA which can be absorbed through the skin.
Stop using teflon non-stick pans to cook your food. Most non-stick pans use a chemical that has been linked to cancer and early menopause. Try to use cast iron, enameled pots or stainless steel.
If you want to learn more about dangerous chemicals and the effects they can have you can take the new COSHH Risk Assessor Certification™.
