Where it all began...

I have learned a lot recently about toxins, products, and home health. (What I mean by "it" in the blog title...) This emerged as a result of part of my personality that I recently explained to a coworker... I'm a nerd. In my opinion, everything is an opportunity to learn and to study. I don't know where I got this idea, exactly. But what it means, practically, is that anything that I start learning about that seems kind of important becomes something I want to learn everything about. I know, it sounds a little obsessive. It might be. But I haven't studied up on that one, so I don't know if we should really call it that...

My foray into the world of information on toxics today started pretty simply. All my baby supplies say "BPA free." I decided maybe I should know why they felt the need to tell me that. What was BPA, after
all? Turns out, BPA is a synthetic estrogen. It was made in hopes of being used for that, but it wasn't as good as others, so it got shelved... until somebody discovered that it was pretty useful for hardening plastics. I think the assumption must have been that once it was in something solid, it would stay put. Problem is, it doesn't. As we are finding out about so many things in plastics, it leaches out--into whatever it is next to...

Which turns out to be everything.
Okay, maybe not everything.
Just peas and carrots, soup, baby formula, water, fruit cocktail, tuna, beans, leftovers, soda, and pretty much anything in a can, water in old Nalgene-like water bottles (usually coded #7; the new ones use polypropylene instead, so they are safer)... more that I can't remember.
And it's in even more things that come into direct contact with skin. Cash register receipts (carbonless). Plastic flatware. Dental sealants. So it might be absorbed through the skin, or it might get into the system by eating with hands that have touched it.

The problem with it being so pervasive and getting into food and human bodies is that it is extra estrogen that our bodies weren't counting on working with. The Washington Post article above says that the concentration found in most people's bodies might be small, but it's 1,000 times the body's natural level. That doesn't sound so small when you think of the proportion. Based on animal studies, it is believed to contribute to: undescended testes, early puberty, male sexual dysfunction, polycystic ovarian syndrome, miscarriage, thyroid disregulation, diabetes, even ADHD. A new study (out yesterday) confirm it does cause hormone changes in men.

All these things make me extremely grateful that it's no longer in my baby bottles or my plastic water bottle. Yet I am disturbed that it is still in canned foods and plastic flatware, and even used as sealant on the metal lids of glass jars... It's ubiquitous! I've found out that small children and pregnant women are most vulnerable. But I didn't find out until after little Beckett was born, and so I don't even know how many canned foods I ate during my pregnancy with him.
I have decided, however, to minimize his exposure through my milk. I haven't opened a can for our food for weeks now. Our beans now come from a bag, and I soak them and then cook them myself. Soups so far are ones I have made. Sauces come in jars. Fruit for my cottage cheese is in a jar. And tuna... well, I don't know when I'll eat it again.

If you are curious about what it would take to decrease your exposure to BPA, look at the sidebar in a Washington Post article.
I also decided it was time to take some public action to make my voice known. There's a bill before Congress right now about chemicals...

My evil toothpaste

I mentioned before that one of the things I'm doing now that I have a son is thinking more about health and safety. And that is true. But I'd also started thinking about health and safety and the environment before now.
It started with theology, I think. I got to really thinking about what it means that I believe that we are stewards of God's earth, and that as stewards we are meant to care for it and tread a little lighter than we are perhaps apt to do in this age... Maybe we are even meant to improve our little corner of earth instead of razing it and its adjacent plots. So, for example, I have thought about my own contribution of waste to landfills, and I work at recycling as much as I can every day. Sometimes I even let things accumulate in my car during the day so that I can bring them home and recycle them when I don't find bins along my way. I've tried worm composting twice (um, my worms keep dying), because I have seen pictures of 30 year old heads of lettuce that fail to biodegrade in mixed landfills.
More and more these days, I am finding that my concern to be a good steward of the earth overlaps with my own interest in being healthy, and now, in keeping my son healthy. I found out recently that a common ingredient in household items--one that I was putting in my mouth twice a day, actually--is not only an environmental contaminant, but also a possible health risk. It's name...duhn duhn duh: triclosan.

Here's what my toothpaste used to be

You'll find it in any of your hand soaps labeled "Antibacterial." (Yep, that means every soap from the popular Bath 'n' Body Works. Sorry friends.) In socks that are supposed to prevent odor. Ironically, I had done a hard target search (oh, at Target... the unintentional pun that now I have kept and even mentioned!) for hand soap that was non-antibacterial a few years ago in an effort to minimize my own home breeding of super-bacteria by wiping out every little thing on skin. And because all the doctors and research say that what really matters is washing thoroughly with simple soap and water. At that point, there was only ONE option in a whole section of hand soaps. So that's been our home soap for a few years.
It turns out, triclosan is probably worse than I suspected, and it's in more things than I knew!  Before you think I'm all conspiracy-theory crazy, please remember that I'm just looking to minimize unnecessary things that I do that can cause harm.
I won't bore you with all the details. But here's my summary. Triclosan persists in groundwater (i.e., doesn't biodegrade.) It also persists in human tissue. Meaning the body can't filter it out as waste very well. And now it is suspected to disrupt human hormones. For these reasons, among others, it is already banned or restricted in parts of Europe.
And I was putting it into my mouth! Ick.

Here are my toothpastes now (I found the 2nd one cheaper, and with fluoride).

There are other reasons I didn't just choose original colgate (sans triclosan) or something comparable, but we won't get into that now. For now, let's just say I didn't want my toothbrushing to pollute the fresh water I'm lucky to have, deposit a strong chemical into my body, or possibly make me grow chest hair. Okay, so that last part probably wouldn't happen. But it sounds a little wild to let my toothpaste affect my hormones!
And if you're like me, and curious about all the details, read more. Here. And here.

Everyday routines

I've been thinking about how having a new baby brings many additions to our daily routine. Not that any day is even near the same... But there are some things now that James and I do everyday--that have become normal--that were never a part of our life before Beckett. For instance, I wash soothies (what we call his pacifiers) multiple times a day after they fall to the ground, or get rinsed in spit up, or just start to look blech.

Some are these mundane things. We wash diapers daily (yes, we use cloth: amazing BumGenius diapers, one on Beckett at right.) We pack and unpack a diaper bag with wipes, diapers, burp cloths, extra clothes. I pump milk and then wash all the accompanying parts--okay, maybe not daily, but often, and for a while there it was at least daily. 
Other things are more poignant. Every day I feed my sweet boy, and I look at his face as he falls asleep nursing, or peeks up at me with a smile during a break. Every night I wake up multiple times  to feed him in the dark, and I check for his breathing when things seem too silent in his bed. Each day I make chomping noises as I kiss his tummy because he laughs out loud each time. I make up songs, often complete with dances that no one will ever see (voluntarily, that is--you have to catch me!) because little B loves a tune and I'm a sucker for his smile. Every day feel at least a little bit tired and understand our parents' failings  with more empathy. I thank God for my little boy's life, and pray fervently that it will be long,  healthy, and full of joy. Each day I laugh at Beckett's sudden, toucan-like exclamations, or sometimes his more mellow "Waaaaaaaaaa"s that trail off into nothing, because he is more and more verbal these days.
And every day I give a little more thought to stuff I didn't ever pay much attention to before Beckett. Learning about how one chemical, BPA, could affect him if he were overexposed got me thinking and learning about other chemicals. And changing products and habits in our home. Because I'm fully grown and doing fine and it seems like nothing is affecting me. It seems. But he's still developing, and very vulnerable, and so I want to be more conservative about possible dangers with him. And who know? Things might be affecting my body more than I know.
I'm also spending more time at home. It's just easier, with a nursing baby in diapers who needs 2-3 naps a day (and is rather sensitive to light, sound, and other anti-nap agents that abound in the outside world.) Yesterday I stayed out from 11 am until 2:30 pm, and Beckett's naps during that time consisted of falling asleep twice in the car and then waking up when we stopped: 15-20 minutes sleep total. With just that much thwarting of his naps, he was a little fried in the afternoon and wouldn't sleep.
All of these factors have converged, along with the suggestion of my dear friend Sarah, and converted me to blogging. I have lots of thoughts about many things, and only a small little person with coos to tell them to. I am learning lots of useful things that I want to share about products and chemicals and health. And already, in my first blog, I have found out that this is a medium that bears many interruptions. 4 times I have attempted to write this. And now, here it is. My first blog post.