Toxic Chemicals And The Human Body

Your body is a very complex, very fragile system of chemical reactions and electrical impulses.  When you consider a single cell breathes, uses energy, and releases waste much like your whole body does, you can begin to understand how even small amounts of harmful chemicals can affect the performance of the body’s processes. 

Chemicals Enter The Human Body in Three Ways

Ingestion

Ingestion brings to mind the image of a young child opening the cabinet under the sink and drinking something deadly.  Each year 1.5 million accidental ingestions of poisons are reported to U.S. Poison Control Centers.  (The National Safe Kids Campaign)

Inhalation

Poisoning by inhalation is more common, and can be much more harmful, than ingestion.  When something harmful is swallowed, the stomach begins breaking down and neutralizing the poison before it is absorbed into the bloodstream.  However, when you inhale toxic fumes, the poisons go directly into the bloodstream and quickly travel to organs like the brain, heart, liver, and kidneys!  Many products give off toxic vapors, which can irritate your eyes, nose, throat and lungs, and give you headaches, muscle aches, and sinus infections.  This process of releasing vapors into the air is called outgasing.  Outgasing occurs even when a chemical is tightly sealed in its container. 

Absorption

Absorption poses perhaps the biggest threat of all.  One square centimeter of your skin, an area less than the size of a dime, contains 3 million cells, four yards of nerves, one yard of blood vessels, and one hundred sweat glands.  We’re all familiar with the patches for administering medicines like hormones or for stopping smoking.  These medicines work by being absorbed into the bloodstream through the skin.  Even some heart medicines are administered through transdermal patches because of the absorption process. 

Any chemical that touches the skin can be absorbed and spread throughout the body.  Our skin is like a sponge and within seconds after contact with a toxic chemical that toxin is being spread throughout the body in our blood stream. 

American Lung Association Gets Involved!

“Household cleaning agents, personal care products, pesticides, paints, hobby products, and solvents that make our lives so easy are also sources of hundreds of potentially harmful chemicals, The range of household products that contain potentially harmful substances that contribute to indoor air pollution is wide-reaching and diverse.  Some of these products release contaminants into the air right away: others do so gradually, over a period of time.  The harmful components in many household and personal care products can cause dizziness, nausea, allergic reactions, and eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation; some can cause cancer.”  (American Lung Association)

Handbook Of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals And Carcinogens

“Exposures to toxic substances are linked to a variety of health problems.” 

“The immediate effects of high level exposure for a short time include:  BURNS, RASHES, NAUSEA, LOSS OF EYESIGHT AND FATAL POISONING”

“Prolonged exposure to low doses can cause:  CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE, HEART DISEASE, AND DAMAGE TO THE KIDNEY, LIVER, BRAIN, AND NERVES.”