Did you know that cancer is the main cause of death among people 45-64 – and the second-leading killer for most other age groups? Well, I didn’t either until I was face to face with cancer.

Once you’ve lived through the experience of surviving cancer, your world becomes different. You look at things with new eyes, new thoughts. What could I have done different, how can I change my environment to be safer - to never get cancer again?

Those who work in industries that use chemicals that are known carcinogens protect themselves armed with best safety practices from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS’s). Imagine the horror when you start looking at labels and find those very same chemicals in your household products and - worse yet – in your heath and beauty products. At work you may have gowned and gloved and masked to protect yourself from the carcinogenic effects of the chemicals. Then you find you’ve been coming home and putting products directly on your skin which have these chemicals in them!

When you look at studies of water quality in our environments like the one done on San Francisco Bay in 2007, you realize nothing is separate. What we put on or in our bodies goes into the water system. It’s not being removed at the water filtration plants. It gets evaporated into the air and comes back to our ground water in the rain that falls. Or it ends up back in the streams and ground water used for tap water a second time around.

As we continue to use products with toxins, we continue to contaminate our world and with the contamination come a rise in cancers and other heath issues from ingesting and breathing the toxins. The following list contains some of the most dangerous toxins used in consumer products today:

Red Flag Ingredients (toxic synthetic chemicals) to Avoid:
• Alcohol, Isopropyl (SD-40)
• Benzoyl Peroxide – found in many acne products
• DEA (Diethanolamine), MEA (Monoethanolamine), & TEA (Triethanolamine)
• Dioxin – extremely toxic, by-product of manufacturing Tirclosan, etc.
• DMDM Hydantoin & Urea (Imidazolidinyl)
• FD&C Color and Pigments
• Fragrances – a term for all synthetics
• Parabens - Methyl, Propyl, Ethyl, Butyl
• PEG (Polyethylene glycol) with any number or addition
• Phthalates - (often present with sunscreens and other ingredients on this list)
• Propylene Glycol (PG) and Butylene Glycol
• Quaternium 15
• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), Sodium Methyl Sulfate
• Sunscreen chemicals: avobenzone, benzphenone, methoxycinnamate, paba, etc.
• Triclosan – antibacterial agent

When I’m feeling over whelmed, I begin to think, “I wonder how I can change this?”

If each person evaluates their choices and makes even small changes in what they buy and what they use, we can start to correct the number and amount of toxic elements poisoning our environment.

Use reusable stainless steel drinking containers instead of bottled water. You’ll eliminate chemicals out-gassing from the plastic, polluting the water in the container and the amount of waste in landfills will be reduced.

Look at the heath and beauty products you use. Find products that have the fewest toxic ingredients. You’ll expose your body to fewer chemicals and there will be fewer chemicals in our precious water supply.

Use household products and laundry detergent that is toxic free. You’ll introduce fewer toxins into your home environment and onto your body from clothing washed in synthetic chemicals and you’ll protect the water supply.

Use reusable shopping bags in stores instead of the dozens and dozens of plastic bags that are simply thrown into the trash. According to National Geographic, it takes 500-1,000 years to decompose the plastic in those bags, so making a simple change will make a BIG difference in our environment.

This really is a serious topic to consider. As we reduce the toxins that impact us and our environment, we reduce exposure to chemicals or things which may contribute to cancer and other chronic health issues. Remember, if synthetic chemicals can impact our health, they can also affect our loved ones and the pets in our homes as well.