[frankthetank]

Its so nice to know that we are ALL walking lab rats. Good article @ what you and I have been consuming for years.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n fact I'm a writer engaged in a journey of chemical self-discovery. Last fall I had myself tested for 320 chemicals I might have picked up from food, drink, the air I breathe, and the products that touch my skin—my own secret stash of compounds acquired by merely living. It includes older chemicals that I might have been exposed to decades ago, such as DDT and PCBs; pollutants like lead, mercury, and dioxins; newer pesticides and plastic ingredients; and the near-miraculous compounds that lurk just beneath the surface of modern life, making shampoos fragrant, pans nonstick, and fabrics water-resistant and fire-safe.

The tests are too expensive for most individuals—National Geographic paid for mine, which would normally cost around $15,000—and only a few labs have the technical expertise to detect the trace amounts involved. I ran the tests to learn what substances build up in a typical American over a lifetime, and where they might come from. I was also searching for a way to think about risks, benefits, and uncertainty—the complex trade-offs embodied in the chemical "body burden" that swirls around inside all of us.

Now I'm learning more than I really want to know.

[frankthetank]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he European Union last year gave initial approval to a measure called REACH—Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals—which would require companies to prove the substances they market or use are safe, or that the benefits outweigh any risks. The bill, which the chemical industry and the U.S. government oppose, would also encourage companies to find safer alternatives to suspect flame retardants, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals. That would give a boost to the so-called green chemistry movement, a search for alternatives that is already under way in laboratories on both sides of the Atlantic.

As unsettling as my journey down chemical lane was, it left out thousands of compounds, among them pesticides, plastics, solvents, and a rocket-fuel ingredient called perchlorate that is polluting groundwater in many regions of the country. Nor was I tested for chemical cocktails—mixtures of chemicals that may do little harm on their own but act together to damage human cells. Mixed together, pesticides, PCBs, phthalates, and others "might have additive effects, or they might be antagonistic," says James Pirkle of the CDC, "or they may do nothing. We don't know."

[frankthetank]

SOme pics!



$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')o raise tobacco fit for export cigars, workers at a Nicaragua farm wade through clouds of pesticide.

[holmes]

The sad part is that these chemicals we have have value. However they are a blossoming effect. The blossoming is now being seen in the hormone disruptors, endocrine disruptors, etc...
Its a great now, horrible later type of tragedy. Its actually a slow die out type of thing. The effects are just now being seen. Horrible stuff down the road.

[TheDude]

Recommended reading: Fast Food Nation. You'll hurl! I'm currently reading the Omnivore's Dilemma, which is also gross in spots.
Friend of mine says never to buy chicken parts from Tyson etc. Reason? The rest of the bird was discarded due to tumors.