For starters, cancers generally come at older ages, whereas neurological and endocrine developmental problems can affect the entire life range of the individual and therefore have a much more powerful effect on the species and society. Just consider two seemingly non-lethal effects of these environmental hormone-mimics, attention deficit (Jacobson, Chanda, Perea 2002) and hyperactivity disease (over one in ten children has this today) or infertility (which has risen over 50% in the last two decades).

Or consider much more subtle symptoms which are counterproductive for society, such as the inability to handle stress, uncontrollable violence, increased mental disease, decreased intelligence, drug addiction, schizophrenia, gender confusion and the loss of normal parental instincts. Environmental hormone mimics, with plastics and pesticidesat the top of the list, although not the sole causes, have a huge impact on the developing child, as well as his parents. The financial and social burdens of this filters to all of society.

Since hormones are the primary communication mode for the entire body, they are especially important in the developing organism. These environmental hormone mimics (like pesticides and plastics, as examples) are worse than any computer virus. For they can scramble messages and jam signals in the body chemistry beyond our wildest nightmares. Unfortunately, since there is not much attention paid to the increased level of cancers in children in the last two decades (which has reached an all-time high), how could we expect the epidemic of learning disability, depression and other "softer" or more subtle developmental deficits to garner much notice? But the fetus and infant are uniquely susceptible (Perera 2002, Faustman), with scientists showing that by age 6, some kids have already accumulated one half of their total life-time amount of cancer-causing chemicals (Day)!

For example, many environmental hormone mimics damage the thyroid gland, which is so crucial to the developing brain and resulting adult intelligence (Porterfield). No wonder reports abound that the scholastic aptitude tests scores are getting lower with the decades. Each of us carries several hundred environmental chemicals in our bodies. And no wonder when well over 50%-95% of the food consumed in United States has detectable pesticide residues. And bear in mind that this is in spite of the fact that the affordable analytical methods can detect only one-third of more than 600 pesticides. Today the United States uses 30 times more synthetic pesticides than in 1945, while the total killing power in use has increased only tenfold. Due to trade secrets, it is nearly impossible to get complete information about these chemicals, even for physicians treating poisoned people.

In one study of 20 brands of canned foods in United States high levels of bisphenol-A were found, a common plasticizer used in the lining of food cans. When researcher Soto found it also leached out of polycarbonate "hard plastic" laboratory flasks, the same kind used for commercial bottled drinking water, the funding for further studies by these Tufts Medical Center researchers mysteriously dried up. Once this information becomes known by the man on the street, you can imagine the havoc it could play in the food industry with so many items packaged in plastic. But industry relies on people being too busy, too tired, too sick, and too disinterested intaking responsibility for their health to ever take the time to learn these facts, much less do anything about them.

The only reason the researchers accidentally discovered the estrogenic potency of their plastic test tubes was because of unexplainable results. They knew that adding estrogen to breast cancer cells made them grow wildly out of control. But they couldn't figure out why the breast cancer cells in plastic culture tubes without the addition of estrogen were growing just as wildly, as though they had been given estrogen. It turned out that the phthalates leeching out of the plastic test tubes and petri dishes were such potent estrogen mimics that they turned on the growth of cancer cells. The "harmlessly small" amount of plasticizer leaching from the test tubes acted like fertilizer for the cancer cells. So much for the detractors who insist that minuscule amounts are meaningless.

Needless to say, anyone serious about fighting a cancer, especially a hormonally mediated cancer like a breast, uterine, ovarian, testicular, prostate, or thyroid had better consider the options that will be spelled out here in terms of ridding their body of its lifelong accumulations, that have already lead to their disease. As well, they need to be sure that they have eliminated any further exposures to plasticizers, since they silently act like fertilizer for cancer. To have cancer and drink from plastic water bottles is just plain adding fuel to the cancer fire.

I love it when those with vested interests insist that the level of environmental chemicals for the average person is inconsequential.

One of my favorite studies was done by analyzing the breath samples from 350 New Jersey residents. Wallace and his EPA colleagues found benzene in 89%, perchloroethylene in 93%, and trichloroethylene (the Woburn, MA chemical that caused the mini-epidemic of childhood leukemia) in 29% of the breath samples. Numerous other organic solvents were also detected, but let's take a quick look at these chemicals that were bathing the lungs, brain and blood stream of common citizens.

Benzene is a known cause of leukemia and can come from auto exhaust, gasoline, plastics, rubbers, carpets, cleansers and other rubber-like materials. Carpet and plastics are common sources in the home. Perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene are solvents, commonly used in the dry cleaning industry and outgas from furnishings, cars, plastics and more. Feldman found that common solvents causedmemory loss and mood swings, while others found they can cause cardiac arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death, kidney disease and many other problems which we will explore in the ensuing chapters.

The fact is this study exemplifies how every chemical in the air is in equilibrium with our lungs. The chemicals that are in our daily products outgas into the air and are in our bodies. All environmental chemicals have direct access to the blood stream and every organ of the body. And once there, we do not possess the mechanism to completely detoxify or get rid of them and they stockpile.

For those stubborn scientists who still doubt that chemicals are pervasive, just check out the voluminous studies on toluene diisocyanate (TDI) or the enormous amount of research on latex. Both of these chemicals, which are so prevalent in plastics, outgas and are measurable in nearly every home and office environment, and then proceed to mimic literally every disease man has ever known and some he doesn't even have a diagnostic label for. PCBs, dioxins, phthalates and other environmental chemicals are found in the most remote areas, far from their origins in industrialized nations. In the breast milk of Eskimo women, as far down as 100 feet in Arctic icebergs and in Antarctic oceans. No place on earth is exempt.

Furthermore, toxicology books line my shelves and those of many of my colleagues as well as libraries all over the world. They detail the ubiquitous nature of thousands of chemicals that are in our everyday environments. No longer can those with a vested interest deny that chemicals are everywhere. And now, as you are about to learn, they don't just stop at our lungs, but they go right on through into the rest of the system, where they get stuck and locked into our chemistry. From there they create disease.

Clearly, poisons are everywhere, so what would be a logical, simple first step? Water and air filters for your home (AEHF, Natural Lifestyle, N.E.E.D.S., High Tech Health, Foust, see Resources).

Could there be any doubters left? As for the doubting Thomas's, just remind them that if environmental chemical pollution of the human body were not a reality, then why does a gallon of water cost more than a gallon of gasoline? And why do dentists have to gown, glove and mask in order to remove mercury from our mouths and then handsomely pay toxic waste haulers to take it away?

I devoured over 300 pounds of EPA toxicology books and then tried to distill the highlights into a few pages. I promised self that I would make this a small, quick and easy book for everyone. Obviously I could easily make a 1000 page book just on this chapter alone, showing you how pervasive chemicals are in our everyday environments. Clearly we cannot escape them. If you still have any doubt that we are exposed to more chemicals than any generation of man ever on the face of the Earth, please consult many of the fine references that I have enumerated in the reference section. Environmental pollutants are inescapable.

References:
See the voluminous scientific references at the end of the book in Chapter VI.