Last week, I wrote about ways to protect children and adults from everyday toxic bombardments. I also started with what Christopher Gavigan, author of Healthy Child, Healthy World and CEO and Executive Director of the non-profit www.healthychild.org, recommends of healthy practices to parents in order to reduce toxins in their children’s lives.

In the previous article, I stopped at chemicals in processed, fried, and fast foods, soda and sweetened beverages, and additives (colorings, preservatives) in foods and medicines, which have become part of our children’s daily consumption. Today I will continue with Gavigan’s recommendations:

• Overcleaning and sterilizing children’s environments with chemical cleaning agents and bleaches can become more toxic to them than the outside world; unless you use nontoxic products. Air-fresheners contain harmful volatile chemicals that go straight to the lungs via airways. Instead, open windows to let in the fresh air for a few minutes, which is energizing and renewing to indoor oxygen. Another natural air cleanser and purifier is having indoor plants in your home. They clean and detoxify the air naturally. Use filtering vacuum cleaners. Switch on the exhaust fan to get rid of stale air during and after cooking and showering. Air-condition filters should be regularly cleaned and washed to remove germs, mold, and chemicals to stop their circulation in your home

• Reduce toys made from plastics and with batteries (they leak toxic substances). Children are better off with toys made from nontoxic materials like natural fabrics or wood. Prevent children from chewing on soft plastics.

• Avoid the use of sprays or slow-releasing indoor insecticides (bombs…) and pesticides in the garden, especially if kids get in close contact with plants and grass. Be careful with the use of poisons and sprays on mosquitoes, flies, pests, and rodents. Avoid spraying in children’s bedrooms. The fine volatile poisonous sprays settle on their beds, bedsheets, pillows, towels, toothbrushes, personal affairs, clothes, and everywhere. Wipe your feet on the doormat before entering your home to avoid carrying in contaminants. Teach your children the same habits and precautions.

• Don’t use detergents to wash clothes, bedsheets, and towels or avoid harsh household cleaning agents and pesticides. Their fumes get in contact with children’s skin or into their lungs and mucus membrane

• Make children drink plenty of purified water. Take precaution with plastic bottles; they leach harmful chemicals into the water when exposed to high heat or kept in a locked car under the sun. Glass bottles are, of course, safer, but they are more expensive.

One more thing, the Saudi Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) imposes the addition of fluoride to locally bottled water at the urge of dentists ‘to protect teeth from decay!’ Because fluoride is a trace (tiny amounts) mineral, it should not exceed the required amount. Our climate is so very hot in summer that we consume much larger quantities of water than people in other countries, thus exposing us to higher doses of the mineral. This could become toxic to the thyroid glands and reproductive systems. Moreover, our tap water is already contaminated with too much chlorine, copper, lead, or more, which are harmful to our children’s tiny bodies and underdeveloped systems. I recommend imported water, which might be safer, but uneconomical.

• In the US and other countries, furniture, mattresses, and beds are, unfortunately, made with toxic textiles, stuffing, paint, glue, and wood varnish, which release poisonous fumes or include lead and poisonous chemicals that cause cumulative toxicity.

I would like to add more to Christopher Gavigan’s advice in order to increase protection from everyday “hidden” toxins in food, drinks, water, air, homes, and environment, which are lurking under your own roof.

• Don’t reuse containers of transparent hard plastic with “PC” (polycarbonate) written on them, as well as scratched plastic containers. Some of them are manufactured with Bisphenol A, which releases toxic fumes when heated or left under the sun like plastic bottles of water. Glass bowls, jars, and bottles are safer for storing, drinking, and heating.

• Avoid using and spraying commercial air fresheners. They contain a chemical called phthalate, which makes the sprayed scent last longer. The harmful compound was shown in research to interfere with the development of reproductive systems in humans, especially male foetuses, and other mammals. Mothers-to-be should be extra careful with the products they use on their skins and the utensils they use to drink or eat in. Plastics leach dangerous chemicals. Young men should avoid sunscreens and commercial skin care products containing chemicals, which mimic estrogen in their bodies, thus jeopardizing their fertility. Excess estrogen in the bodies of little girls also makes them reach puberty much earlier (before 10 years of age) or cause breast or other hormone cancers in female adults. Chemicals and plastics disrupt the hormone systems. Make your own air freshener with rose or flower water or with diluted essential oils.

• Plastic cutting boards should not be used. Knife grooves and scratches allow bacteria and fungi to get embedded and multiply in them, making them difficult to clean; let alone the harmful chemicals leaching from such cracks. Glass and wooden boards are better choices. Wood contains sap that has natural antibacterial, antifungal properties

• Keep away from antibacterial soap antiseptics, which contain triclosan. Not only the chemical disrupts the hormone system, but also causes antibiotic resistance. The good news is the SFDA has banned it since 2011.

• Avoid soda and sweetened soft drinks. Too much sugar dampens the immune system and blunts signal transmission between cells; thus impeding the efficiency of the metabolism and triggering obesity. When disrupted, the system loses its ability to metabolize sugar, increasing the risk of obesity and metabolic syndromes (diabetes, hypertension…). As for artificial sweeteners (aspartame, saccharin, sucralose…), they have been found to alter the intestinal microflora (“beneficial” bacteria), which regulate the metabolic rate and help in the assimilation and synthesis of important nutrients.

• Trans fats, which include margarine, hydrogenated vegetable fats, and frying vegetable oils, are been shown in studies to be harmful to the cardiovascular system, by raising low lipoprotein lipids (LDL). However, butter was found to be less harmful than margarine to the vascular system.

• Diluted vinegar in water makes an excellent glass and surface cleaner. It is an antiseptic by itself. Soak your vegetables and leafy greens and fruits in a bowl of water and vinegar (several spoons of vinegar) for ten minutes. Rub them well with your hands. Remove them from the soaking water; rinse and dry them well; and store them in the refrigerator. They will last longer this way. Vinegar is a gentle, but potent antiseptic that kills the bacteria and removes much of the unwanted pesticides and chemicals

• Cheaper toys are sometimes made of toxic plastics or materials, some made in China and the Far East. Children and babies chew and suck on clothes, blankets, toys, edges of bed, pacifiers, and more, ingesting toxins that might contain formaldehyde, flame retardants, and others. I am sure the SDFA is following up on these imported tainted products.

I forewarned you that the articles have become longer than anticipated. You would not want me to keep any valuable information from you. More will come next week, Insha’Allah.

References:

• Chemical in Everyday Products and Children’s Health by Philip J. Landrigan, MD

• Planet in Peril by Anderson, Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin, and Sanjay Gupta for CNN

• Interview with vaccine researcher (refused to be named) by Jon Rappoport (www.nomorefakenews.com)

• Autism Statistics – mindspec.org

• Why the manufactured food supply is designed to keep you addicted, not nourished by Mike Adams

http://m.naturalnews.com/news/045514_food_addictions_chemical_ingredient...

• Four most dangerous toxins to the brain by Derek Henry

http://www.naturalnews.com/045510_brain_toxins_fluoride_heavy_metals.htm...

• Chicken feed contains cancer-causing arsenic: www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com

• Meat Companies Go Antibiotics-Free as More Consumers Demand It, by David Kesmodel

• http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jul2014/niehs-08.htm

• http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/09/06/red-bull-c...

• www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde

• Nick Meyer, althealthworks.com

N.B.:

Individuals with medical conditions or on medication should consult their physicians when they decide to introduce anything new in their diet even if it is natural.

The previous Health Solutions articles are located at www. arabnews.com.