Pay Attention

We pretty much all know by now that we’re bathing in, slathering ourselves with, inhaling, or ingesting millions of chemicals every day that are just gonna give us cancer or melanoma or two left feet. From lead to arsenic to lead to asbestos to lead and lead and…lead, we’re pretty much surrounded. But we can still fight back. We can still choose some cosmetics, foods, clothing, and furnishings that don’t contain a molotov chemical cocktail of death–or, at least, the lesser of the evils.

So we should also feel more than comfortable demanding products without these chemicals. One such chemical, triclosan, is found in everything from toys to toothpaste to detergent to clothes. We’ve probably all got a little on us right now.

Do you know what triclosan is? It’s a freaking pesticide–marketed as an antimicrobial. I don’t think I’m alone when I say, “Hey you manufacturing people, I don’t want pesticide in my clothes and toothpaste, thank you very much.”

And according to the Food & Water Watch website, it has a ton of averse affects:

“Triclosan is washed down the drain and accumulates in waterways and sediment harming algae and fish. Triclosan has been identified as an endocrine and thyroid disruptor and is detectable in human blood, breast milk and urine. Furthermore, the frequent use of triclosan has been linked to antibiotic resistance.”

Um, yeah. It’s bad news.

So the EPA was supposed to publish a study about what the effects of triclosan are. They were due last fall. So let’s ask these fine fellows (and gals, I’m sure) to get those findings to us, like, ASAP, so we can find out what triclosan has done to us–and if it’s something super awful, let’s ask them to adios it entirely.

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