Home, Toxic, Home

Let's take a peek at what we would consider one of the safest environments, our homes. In the 1970s we had a flood of people who innocently insulated their houses and offices with urea foam formaldehyde insulation (UFFI) or moved into a new mobile or prefab home (Gupta, Dally, Broder, Konopinski, Wanner, Thrasher). Suddenly we had people pitching tents on their suburban lawns for survival. As with any new plague, it was vehemently denied for years by those with a vested interest, but the battle was slowly won as thousands of scientific papers, lawsuits and dozens of books can attest. The symptoms ranged from brain fog, headaches and depression to arthritis, asthma, or nausea. Some were totally incapacitated. The price paid by the innocent pioneer victims can never be remunerated (Samet, Sullivan).

At that point in time, I was not only one of the original victims, but also one of very few physicians throughout the world who were treating these people. We saw a wide range of symptoms emerge within days or weeks of installing or being exposed to formaldehyde insulation. For some, treatment was as simple as avoiding exposure, removing it or moving. Or, as you will learn later, we could beef up their ability to detoxify the formaldehyde, while we also showed them how to accelerate its off-gassing. Others were more damaged and they required years of treatment, while some needed special environmental units, the most effective of which was (and still is) Dr. William J. Rea's in Dallas. And some, because of financial limitations or our rudimentary state of knowledge in that decade, never healed.

The average carpet outgases over a dozen chemicals, all of which are capable of creating disease. Beebe and others have written books about the devastating health effects from new carpeting. Anderson Labs demonstrated on TV just how toxic new carpeting can be. They placed a little patch of carpet (that patients had been complaining of) in the bottom of a glass jar with some mice. In the morning the mice were dead. 4-PC was one of the chemical culprits, which also included the other common carpet chemicals: benzene, toluene, xylene, formaldehyde, butadiene, styrene, methacrylates, and more (Anderson 1997).

Your most important chemical environment is the household environment, first because that's the one that you spend the majority of time in, and second because it's the one you have the most control over. Most people don't give a thought to the paints, solvents, insecticides, greases, oils, lawn mower, gas cans, heated car engine, furnace, gas dryer, gas water heater, washing machine and other sources of toxicity lurking in their basements and garages.

Certainly many a faulty furnace has spawned articles in women's magazines. Reporters have told how one member of the family had body aches and migraines, another had mood swings and depression, another had nausea and stomach problems, and another had recurrent bronchitis andinfections. Even the family dog was sick with vomiting and rashes. It took months before anyone realized the malfunctioning furnace was the universal culprit. The out-gassing hydrocarbons created mysterious diverse illnesses throughout the unsuspecting family.

Construction materials like paints and wallboard, plasticizers in wallpaper, phenols in plywood, formaldehyde in pressed wood kitchen cabinets, bookcases and dresser drawers, and wood preservatives are just a few of the common home construction materials, not to mention foam formaldehyde in sofas, shares, mattresses, and insulation or boron insulation. Back drafts from creosote-lined chimneys and flues can trigger symptoms.

Further inside sources of pollution include appliances and computers with their plastic housings and plastic-coated heated wires, all out-gassing above the background level of furnishings and carpets with their hydrocarbon-based glues, adhesives, formaldehyde stain-resistant finishes and dyes. In addition to formaldehyde foam, mattresses and pillows usually contain pesticides and fire retardants. It's a wonder we get any sleep with our noses nestled in those disease-producing chemicals that we force our bodies to detoxify all night long. It is the reason why many are restless throughout the night, while others awaken feeling like they have never slept.

Wool blankets can emit trichloroethylene dry cleaning fluid and moth-deterring pesticides. Air fresheners and pesticides in the home are definitely avoidable toxins in your own home, thanks to the many books on organic and alternative pesticide control measures. Sometimes a simple air cleaner works wonders, but there is much more to learn about getting rid of mold (The E.I. Syndrome). Please don't use air fresheners! Besides causing many allergic symptoms, molds contain powerful hormone mimics as well as some of the world's most lethal cancer-causing mycotoxins. Carbon monoxide and natural gas from malfunctioning furnaces, and molds from humidifiers and air-conditioners, unvented bathrooms and undiagnosed roof leaks have slowly poisoned entire families, causing the most mysterious and diverse symptoms.

And we haven't even begun to touch the chemicals that lurk in our air. Styrene (from plastics), benzene (from plastics and rubber), toluene and xylene, trichloroethylene, dichloro-methane, trimethylbenzene, hexanes, phenols, pentanes and much more outgas from our everyday furnishings, construction materials, and appliances. And chloroform out-gasses from the aerosolized water from the shower spray.Due to the body's large surface area, EPA studies show an enormous amount can be absorbed through the skin. You don't have to work in a factory that produces an exotic chemical. You are surrounded by them in your everyday home environment.

And then there are the unsuspected deadly chemicals that make their ways into our homes that we would never dream of. An on-duty trooper was called out to an accident of an overturned truck one night. After his shift was over, he returned to his home exhausted, for a good night's sleep. Within 24 hours his life turned to tragedy, because he had unknowingly tracked the spilled chemical from the roadside truck onto his home carpet where his baby crawled the next morning. The baby died, while the trooper and his wife were hospitalized.

Two decades ago patients in my testing room were having a little contest to see who had come from the furthest away. One lady thought for sure she had come the farthest as she proudly announced she was from Alaska. "Me, too ! I'm from Moose Pass. Where are you from?", enthusiastically came from across the testing room. They brought newspaper reports of how a Borden's railroad tank car passing through their town had malfunctioned and accidentally spewed 93,000 pounds of formaldehyde into the air, resulting in evacuation of the entire town. Days later as people filtered back into their homes, a core of folks badly damaged by the formaldehyde fumes were never able to tolerate their homes, trucks, autos, and even their clothes and furnishings again. These were the folks that we were treating (and have recovered!).

In Your Water

We should have known we were in trouble when a decade ago the cover article of USA Today showed that the average city water contains over 500 different chemicals. Considering that it takes decades for this type of information to trickle down to the lay person, this should have been a big clue that we had been missing the boat in protecting ourselves. But now anyone who doubts the toxicity of water needs to only ask themselves why local spring water costs more per gallon than gasoline hauled from thousands of miles away via expensive wells and refining.

Real uncontaminated, clean water does not contain 500 different chemicals, nor does it have an objectionable odor or taste. And in contrast to the average city water, real water does not require the addition of multiple chemicals to make itsafer, more palatable, less acidic, more healthful or change any of its other characteristics. Our water is poisoned chiefly by industrial pollution via smokestacks and waste water, plus artificial fertilizer (often recycled toxic sewage sludge loaded with heavy metals that bioaccumulate in the body) and pesticide runoff from agriculture. But not being content with that, man has figured out many more ways to increase the toxicity of drinking water.

Fluoride is a good example of a toxin that is deliberately added to water. Fluoride is a halogen that is a potent enzyme inhibitor that is even used as a preservative and anticoagulant for biological specimens. It is known to cause excessive calcification not only in arteries but joints and ligaments, and contributes to many forms of cancer and osteoporosis.

For 11 years between 1986 and 1997 a national survey of 39,000 United States schoolchildren revealed no statistically significant differences in tooth decay between children drinking fluoridated versus non-fluoridated water. In addition it was found that instead of building strong healthy teeth, fluoride damaged brain enzymes and lowered IQs (Zhao, Foulkes). And we certainly have an epidemic of learning disability to back that up.

Fluoride has also been linked to behavioral disorders, birth defects, flu-like symptoms and arthritis. Fluoride acts much like a heavy metal (even though it's a halogen) in damaging enzymes. Also once in the cell membrane, it can cause malfunction as well as damage hormone receptors and other regulatory sites. If that were not enough, fluoride has also caused an increase in bone cancers as well as hip fractures from skeletal fluorosis (accumulation of fluoride in the bone).By displacing minerals that belong in the bone, fluoride leads to a weakening of bone and an eventual increase in fractures.

Death rates are also higher in fluoridated communities versus those living on well water (Yiamouyiannis, Hoover, Cohn). In one study by the United States National Cancer Institute, there was a 70% increase in osteosarcoma (bone cancer) among young men in fluoridated areas of Iowa and Seattle versus a 4% lower incidence among young men in non-fluoridated areas in the same states. In regions of New Jersey, the incidence of osteosarcoma was 3-7 times higher in fluoridated areas. Remember osteosarcoma is a rare type of bone cancer, so when you see a startling increase, you know ithas to be something pretty pervasive in the environment that many are exposed to.

Studies also show that fluoride can damage the heart and other organs like the brain, kidneys and hormones. It interferes with the metabolism of testosterone (contributing to the Viagra epidemic, ushered in by physicians writing over 100,000 prescriptions a week). Many researchers are particularly concerned about fluoride in infant formulas, baby foods, juices, tooth treatments, and prescriptions from their pediatricians, in addition to being deliberately added to water. It turns out that children with immature detoxification systems are getting a higher dose than most adults, and they are less able to handle it. And if you want to boost your fluoride intake fast, begin Prozac, the prescription anti-depressant that contains three fluoride molecules per molecule of fluoxetine. See the reference chapter (VI) for organizations active in opposing fluoridation in municipal water supplies.

Chlorine, used for decades to kill the bugs in drinking water and as a home cleanser, turns out to be a free radical initiator that elevates cholesterol and accelerates aging. When chlorine drills holes in arterial walls (called lipid peroxidation), the artery has no choice but to call for help from the body's Band-Aid to plug these holes before we bleed to death. What is this emergency Band-Aid? Cholesterol.

Statistical analyses and comprehensive articles have documented how the chlorine in our drinking water promotes not only arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), but various types of cancers of the rectum and bladder. Bathing the interior lining of our arteries in a free radical initiator such as chlorine from drinking water can only hasten hardening of the arteries, already the number one cause of death in the United States. In the American Journal of Public Health, researchers have shown how we also absorb a damaging amount of everyday chemicals like chlorine and chloroform through our skin while showering and bathing in city water. Clearly we should all have shower and drinking faucet filters to obtain the cleanest water possible. We will explore this later and Chapter VI provides the sources.

Since dilution is the solution to pollution, we need a lot of quality water each day. Clearly, water is one of our most important nutrients. So it is ironic that one of our most important detoxification tools is progressively more polluted. Lots of times we find elevated copper levels in folks and the primary source is copper piping with acidic chlorinated water running through it that pulls the copper from the pipes into the water. One great clue that you have too much copper in your water is if there are any blue-green stains in the tub, toilet or sink.

When I recently tested the faucet water in my home, through Dr. Wm. Rea's drinking water analysis (also available to you, see AEHF in the resources), it was 0.65 for copper and the reverse osmosis machine dropped it to 0.008. But my Alkaline Water Machine dropped it to 0.007. As well, the measurable chloroform in the tap water was 0.008 and the reverse osmosis water purification produced the same, but through the Alkaline Water Machine it was 0.005. Correspondingly, the trihalomethanes were 0.023 in the faucet water, but half of that or 0.012 in the reverse osmosis water. But it was reduced nearly 80% to 0.005 in the Alkaline Water Machine (High Tech Health, see Resources).

Since the pH of reverse osmosis water was 6.6 and for the Alkaline Machine water was 9.6 (on the maximum setting that I had chosen), many of us have chosen to drink alkaline water. The Alkaline Water Machine is easy to install on the countertop, is a cinch to operate and has an adjustable pH setting. Many studies improving the health of diabetics, arthritics, some cancers and other diseases have been done. Why are so many diverse conditions improved? Because alkaline water scavenges free radicals (ROS that you will learn more about) that are the basic cause of all disease (Shirahata).

Clearly we are already too acidic from processed food diets, too much meat and the acidity caused by disease. We don't need to impose further acidity on our bodies through acid drinking water. For this uses up or depletes our natural buffers, like calcium, that could be put to better use, as in preventing osteoporosis or improving heart function. Certainly we are better off drinking alkaline rather than acidic water. If you get pH paper (resources) and measure the pH of your tap water and bottled waters, you'll be amazed at how acidic they are. But real water, having a pH of around 7, is neutral.

We can always rely on the mistakes of man to give us great history lessons on what not to do. The case of Woburn, Massachusetts is a glaring example of how toxic our modern water system has become. One unfortunate mother of a child with leukemia got suspicious that there were so many other children with leukemia in the oncologist's office. Her suspicion was confirmed when she found that there was indeed a much higher rate of leukemia in children in her small town than there statistically should have been.

Through great effort, one mother found the cause. Trichloroethylene (TCE) from a decades-old plowed under ammunition factory had contaminated the underground water supply. Young children with immature immune systems were most vulnerable to this known and very prevalent carcinogen. In fact, it is in most water supplies in the United States with some in as great amounts as it was in Woburn.

Contamination from old industry, old forgotten rusting underground storage tanks, and leaking municipal waste sites all compound the toxicity from agricultural pesticides and synthetic fertilizers (with carcinogenic nitrites and heavy metals). In addition, mountains of other chemicalsreleased into the water supply and ground from acid rain via the manufacturing industry, vehicle exhausts, coal burning power plants, and much more. But the source of the water itself does not have to be the problem. Copper, lead, PVC (polyvinyl conduits), acrylates, vinylidene and other plastic components leach out from the conduits or pipes for water.

Buy a shower filter (American Environmental Health Foundation, see Resources) and then decide what type of water filter best fits your needs and budget. For starters, a carbon filter that easily connects to the faucet (AEHF, N.E.E.D.S., Natural Lifestyle) is far better than none. Later you may want to invest in an Alkaline Water Machine that filters as well as alkalinizes (High Tech Health). It provides the only water I know of that is alkaline. The rest are all highly acidic, thereby overburdening your body. For disease already makes us acidic.