Comments on: Chemicals in Our Bodies

By: Beth Greer

Beth Greer — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:44:10 +0000

Great show! In addition, a study from Mt. Sinai Medical Center links chemicals in plastics to child obesity. Researchers looked at about 400 girls, aged 9-11 in East Harlem. About 40% of the kids who live there are either overweight or obese. They found high levels of phthalates in their urine. Phthalates are chemicals that make plastics pliable…they also keep nail polish from chipping and mascara from running, and they’re found in toys and pacifers.
In my book “Super Natural Home” released this year, I show people how to idenify and eliminate chemical toxins they’re exposed to in their homes.
Beth Greer
Author, Super Natural Home (Rodale, 2009) and Radio Show Host on Progressive Radio Network

By: Penser

Penser — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:45:47 +0000

Like the writers before me, I too am very grateful for your timely and informative presentation. I also agree with the other comments that the show or the website should offer additional resources/information for questions and inquiries that would naturally be spawned from a compelling show such as this one. ( I literally pulled over to listen, as I was getting interference on the station.) Last night, I had the some of the same questions, such as “Where can I get truly purified water, or is there a such thing?” Is this phenomenon contributing to increased homosexuality and gender imbalance in our species? What are some websites/resources for people who want to organize and mobilize, and what organizations are already involved in mobilizing efforts to combat these evils perpetrated on our planet? It’s up to us, not the government. It’s up to us to ensure that our government does what is necessary to protect our children and our future. It’s up to us. This info needs to be widespread. People need to be educated. Is there anyone who will answer these questions on this board? My parents raised me to eat from the earth, and as a rule of thumb,if it wasn’t around 100 years ago, it’s not worth eating. I don’t own a microwave, they can be tempting, and growing up without one didn’t render me deprived of hot foods.

By: Karen Vilandry

Karen Vilandry — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:42:15 +0000

Here is the link for the City of New Bedford’s Website for the Parker Street Dump, now occupied by students, staff, homeowners, churchgoers and businesses, essenially a “Love Canal” situation:
http://www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us/McCoy/Keithmiddleschool.html

By: Karen Vilandry

Karen Vilandry — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:36:27 +0000

The former Parker Street Waste Site in New Bedford, MA is where where two schools, New Bedford High,Keith Middle School, Paul Walsh Sports Field, a church, businesses and homes have been built.
The City of New Bedford has bought out six homeowners because of their heavily contaminated soil that lies beneath their properties. This site contains PCBs, arsenic, lead, chromium 6, barium, cadmium, dibenzofurans, benzenes, PAHs, VOCs, mercury, etc. Children are playing on this, living on this, being educated on this to the tune of 4500 students and staff, let alone the number of homes and parishners at the local church.
This is bigger than Love Canal which had only 70 acres. This is 101 acres.
The entire area needs to be closed off and secured as such a dangerously contaminated toxic waste site that no human needs to have access to this site. Many children and adults are ill and many have died or have gone on to have children with some type of neurological disorder due to the contamination from the parents who were exposed to this site. We need your help! Please contact me at kav704@yahoo.com for more information

By: Asheley Kapelewski

Asheley Kapelewski — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:06:03 +0000

Thank you so much for FINALLY having a program on this. Another point to ponder is: does anyon test for synergistic reactions between the chemicals in their products. Or in the way people really use them, 20 or more scented and polysyllabic body care products at a time. No wonder the tiny bit of xenoestrogenic chemical in a particular product tests out ok, how about if a person puts on a dozen or more product with the same chemical at a time?

By: Betsy Mayer

Betsy Mayer — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:55:12 +0000

Thank you for this most timely and important production. But please, do not raise awareness of the issues without giving people reliable places to turn, e.g. websites, books, etc. that can help them know how to handle their personal concerns. This is both a societal and personal issue. Yes, we should be leaning on every “horn” we have to awaken our elected officials to taking action on these serious environmental issues. But we each make choices that affect everyone else. Birth control pills and water supply is a prime example. I have a serious problem with estrogen dominance most likely brought on by a lifetime of uniformed consumer lifestyle choices. I am trying to educate myself as rapidly as possible but am finding no easy alternatives to some of the products/choices that I need to stay a part of the human race. From reviewing the comments above, I am not the only one who feels this way. A follow up production with people who can answer these questions would be so helpful.

By: Alan Becker

Alan Becker — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:35:03 +0000

Several years ago I attended a seminar at the American Public Health Association. There was a presentation on endocrine disruption related to a particular pesticide. A representative of the pesticide company interrupted and called the speaker a liar and finally was escorted from the room.

By: Erich Riesenberg

Erich Riesenberg — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:18:32 +0000

It would be great, and common sense, to link to web sites and blogs of the guests so we can learn more.

By: Justanother

Justanother — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:52:00 +0000

Since the day fossil oil was discovered, we enter the age of processed chemical industry that penetrates our daily life, we are so dependent on them now, lots of us don’t even know how deep rooted chemical has taking over our life.

Is there better future for human? It seems we all get smarter about making money (sarcasm), having high tech., but why every corner we turn, there’s a road block. All these hyper energetic civilization high tech stuff give us such a great illusion about who we really are. Every time I heard the news about some Japanese made some creepy human looking robots, where is this taking us to? We totally live in our science fiction fantasy, the scary thing is they are all coming to life.

There’s no boundary as long as we are curious, and we are going to explore our curiosity for every next generations to come. Life goes on, just not sure where it’s taking us to.

By: Johanne

Johanne — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:39:35 +0000

Standing in line at the check-out cashier the other day, I overheard some people saying that this woman they knew just had a baby with no nipples and that the baby was going into surgery soon to fix that. They were discussing this as this was the most normal thing in the world!

I wonder which is scarier: knowing that our environment is poisoning us, or seeing that it doesn’t seem to bother most of us!

By: Angela Doyle

Angela Doyle — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:30:03 +0000

Has there been any mention of people being exposed to these chemicals at their job without knowing the consequences of being exposed? My husband was diagnosed with AML (acute myelogenous leukemia) in October 2004 after having worked for Columbia Gas Transmission, which now belongs to Nisource, for a period of 25 years. Most of this time he was exposed to Benzine; which is in gas, gasoline, copy chemicals and lots of other things, and has been linked totally to causing this type of leukemia. He was never warned that his job might cause this kind of devastation in his later life! It is not fair…it is horrible and people should know what they are heading for down the road. We have no life…he is totally disabled and it is not his fault. He was earning a living for his family.

By: Holly

Holly — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:04:25 +0000

This was a wonderful program and hopefully will spark more action. Thank you!

By: david

david — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:00:09 +0000

I live in the country away from large industry. You might say pollutant free zone you would think. I once had a dog who lived in a pen out back, healthy as a dog you would say. Regular checkups at the Vet,etc. The dog died of cancer. The only thing the dog was ever exposed to was store bought dog food and water from the local water system and air. Us humans in this area seem to have the same problem,is it just fate? The water system states our water passes all federal standards. Humm, it must be fate or maybe the air, or maybe it was the dog food.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:34:34 +0000

My husband and I made all our own baby food for our first child from organic vegetables. My second baby just started eating solid food. I have been too busy to make an adequate variety of homemade baby food and finally broke down and bought organic food from the store. When I brought it home, it was immediately noted that the organic baby food is in clear plastic containers which are likely made with BPA. Mmmm… healthy for baby.

Of course, I freeze my homemade food in plastic ice cube trays and store it in plastic bags in the freezer. Can we get away from these chemicals? What is safe to store food in?

By: Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:00:26 +0000

I encourage anyone who’s interested in knowing more to read Alice and Philip Shabecoff’s book, Poisoned Profits. It’s very well documented and describes how the chemical industry and regulators have conspired to sacrifice children’s health for extra profit. It also includes an appendix with common-sense suggestions about how to avoid many sources of toxic pollution. Tom, could you invite the authors to do a follow-up show on this topic?

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:48:46 +0000

First of all: Don’t Play Golf!

Golf courses use more toxins that a big corporate farm. My problem is that I live in a townhouse condominium, and I am the only one there who does not believe that green grass is more precious than life itself.

BTW, save a lot of money and avoid a lot of household toxins. Use baking soda and vinegar as your primary household cleansers. I tried for 20 minutes to clean my steering wheel with Formula 409 with no luck. It took me less than 10 minutes to get it spotless with baking soda and a moist rag.

By: justanother

justanother — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:58:50 +0000

Another myth is cancer. Medical industry would tell you since our medical technology is more advanced to detect cancers now than ever, giving us false sense cancer patients are rising. They explained in old days, people died without ever knowing the cause, those causes could be cancer. Do you buy that?

By: justanother

justanother — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:51:43 +0000

I haven’t read every comments above, so maybe this question has been posted.

I have always wondered if gay populations rises because of our exposure of chemicals? Some people explain because people are more open about this now, therefore it gives us a sense of gay population has risen. I don’t think anyone has the answer yet.

By: Chemicals in Our Bodies | WBUR and NPR - On Point with Tom Ashbrook | CancerBIOGEN.com

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:32:46 +0000

[...] Read more here: Chemicals in Our Bodies | WBUR and NPR – On Point with Tom Ashbrook [...]

By: Aiwen

Aiwen — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:58:28 +0000

Dear Tom:

Thank you so much for this important broadcast. I am among those who are deathly sensitive to chemicals, especially scented personal care products, cleaning chemicals, air fresheners, pesticides, smokes etc. Due to the overload of our environment with environmental chemicals/toxins, some of us are permanently harmed. I hope the chemical industry will see what the chemicals they are producing have been doing to our health, environment, and future, and be responsible, and do the right things to remove all those harmful chemicals from our daily lives. People who suffer from Environmental Illness (or Chemical Intolerance) are already paying a heavy price. If nothing is done timely, more will suffer this devastating illness.

Aiwen Li