How
Much Impact Do Toxic Chemicals
Have on Society? Read the
Statistics.
More
than 7 million accidental poisonings occur each year, with more than
75% involving children under age 6!
The
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
According
to the U.S. Poison Control Centers, a child is accidentally poisoned
every 30 seconds at home.
The
Average American Uses about 25 Gallons of toxic, hazardous chemical
products per year in their home. A major portion of these can be
found in household cleaning products.
Prosperity
Without Pollution
by Joel S. Hirschorn and Kirsten V. Oldenburg,
1991
Women
who work at home have a 54% higher death rate from cancer than those
who work away from home. The 15-year study concluded it was as a
direct result of the much higher exposure rate to toxic chemicals in
common household products!
Toronto
Indoor Air Conference 1990
The
toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to
cause cancer than air pollution.
Environmental Protection Agency
report in 1985
Cancer
rates have increased since 1901 from only 1 in 8,000 Americans, to 1
in 3 today! By the year 2010, this disease will afflict 1 of every 2
individuals!
American
Cancer Society
Of
chemicals commonly found in homes, 150 have been linked to allergies,
birth defects, cancer, and psychological abnormalities.
Consumer
Product Safety Commission
Cancer
rates have continued to increase every year since 1970. Brain cancer
in children is up 40% in 20 years. Toxic chemicals are largely to
blame.
NY
Times, September 29, 1997
When
combined, chemicals are even more dangerous. Deadly fumes result from
mixing ammonia with bleach (both found in many household products)
creating lethal MUSTARD GAS!
U.S.
Government, E.P.A.
According
to the National Research Council, no toxic information is available
for more than 80% of the chemicals in everyday-use products.
Only
1% of toxins are required to be listed on labels, because companies
classify their formulas as "trade secrets."
Lorie
Dwornick, researcher, educator and activist, 2002
In
the past 50 years more than 75,000 chemicals have been introduced
into the environment. Today 300 synthetic chemicals are found in the
bodies of humans. Even newborn babies have synthetic chemicals passed
on from their mothers.
REACH
(Registration, Evaluation, and
Authorization of Chemicals, a
European Union program)
Unregulated
air pollution has caused one in six children in the Central Valley of
California to suffer from asthma. More than 5000 children in the San
Joaquin Valley Air District are hospitalized each year for asthma.
The death rate from respiratory diseases in the Imperial Valley -- at
times more than double that of the rest of the state. Up to 2.2
million Californians suffer from asthma.
California's
State Department of Health Services
Nationwide,
air pollution causes between 50,000 and 100,000 premature deaths per
year, and soot accounts for a majority of these. Soot is the most
deadly air pollutant, accounting for more deaths than homicides or
automobile accidents. According to the California Air
Resources Board, diesel soot accounts for 70 percent of the cancer
risk from toxic air pollution statewide.
Earthjustice
The
Washington (state) Department of Health discovered that one fourth of
tested farm workers handling pesticides were overexposed to extremely
hazardous chemicals. Carbamates or organophosphates can cause
dizziness, breathing problems, muscle twitching, and paralysis.
Scientists
are discovering a whole universe of health effects associated with
the products of our industrial age with profound implications for
public health and regulatory policy. The continuous appearance of
toxic effects at lower and lower levels of exposure is especially
troubling since low-level exposure to some chemicals is practically
universal.
The
2050 Project Newsletter, Fall 1994;
State of the World 1994,
Worldwatch Institute
More
than 32 million pounds of household cleaning products are poured down
the drain each day nationwide. The toxic substances found in many of
these are not adequately removed by sewage treatment plants. Guess
what happens when these are returned to the rivers from which cities
draw their drinking water?
Spring 2002 Edition of CCA
Newsletter Partners: Cleaning Without Toxic Chemicals
More
than 75,000 chemicals are licensed for commercial use.
More
than 2,000 new synthetic chemicals are registered every year.
The
EPA tallied close to 10,000 chemical ingredients in cosmetics, food
and consumer products. Very few of these chemicals were in our
environment or our bodies just 75 years ago.
In
1998, U.S. industries manufactured 6.5 trillion pounds of 9,000
different chemicals.
In
2000, major American companies dumped 7.1 billion pounds of 650
different industrial chemicals into our air and water.
Except
in the case of foods, drugs or pesticides, companies are under no
legal or regulatory obligation to concern themselves with how their
products might harm human health.
Alexandra
Rome, Co-director of the Sustainable Futures Group
at Commonweal,
a nonprofit healthand environmental research institute,
until
2000.
Within
26 seconds after exposure to chemicals such as cleaning products ,
traces of these chemicals can be found in every organ in the body.
More
than 1.4 million Americans exposed to household chemicals were
referred to poison control centers in 2001. Of these, 824,000 were
children under 6 years.
A
New York sanitation worker was killed in 1998 when a hazardous
liquid in household trash sprayed his face and clothes.
At
any given time, there is 3.36 million tons of household hazardous
waste to contend within our country.
Chec's
HealtheHouse, the resource for Environmental
Health
Risks Affecting Your Children
In
1990, more than 4,000 toddlers under age four were admitted to
hospital emergency rooms as a result of household cleaner-related
injuries. That same year, three-fourths of the 18,000
pesticide-related hospital emergency room admissions were children.
Over
80 percent of adults and 90 percent of children in the United States
have residues of one or more harmful pesticides in their bodies.
Petrochemical
cleaning products in the home are easily absorbed into the skin.
Once absorbed, the toxins travel to the blood stream and are
deposited in the fatty tissues where they may exist indefinitely.
In Harm's Way, a study
by The Clean Water Fund and Physicians for Social Responsibility,
May 11, 2000
Innovative
Sealing Solutions, Inc. offers
an ideal solution to the homeowner. We begin by sealing your home
environment so that germs, viruses, bacteria, fungus, mildew, and
mold don't have a surface to proliferate upon. By sealing these
surfaces, your cleaning efforts are reduced in half by not having to
clean as often: the sealed surface doesn't allow contaminates to
adhere to it very well so it's easily cleaned.
Since
the sealers prevent stains from penetrating into your surfaces,
there is no need for the use of harsh cleaning chemicals to get
those stubborn
stains
out. Also, people are under the false notion that the scented
cleaner odors
means that you have sanitized
your newly cleaned surface, but instead, you've only covered up
those malodors with scented
harmful
chemicals that are invasive to your physical well-being.
You
are also able to clean with a non-toxic, biodegradable, and
environmentally friendly cleaners from Tekon that are formulated
especially for these sealed surfaces.
Then
ultimately, for those that can afford and understand the importance
and beneficial qualities of Photocatalyst, if applied within your
home, you would be living in the the most sanitary condition that
modern science has to offer; CHEMICAL FREE! [Please read the
Photocatalyst section for more details on the deordorization,
disinfectant, and anti-pollutant qualities of Titanium Dioxide
(Photocatalyst).]
