Understanding Toxic Burden: Why Everyday Choices Matter
“When you’re a hammer, everything you see is a nail.” This was one of the first things Dr. Deanna Minich told our class during the very first Zoom of my Detoxification and Biotransformation Pathways class in my Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine Masters program. She said this in reference to the fact that once you start to discover all of the toxins and toxicants we’re exposed to and that surround us, it can feel overwhelming, and while we may want to try to change every habit to minimize every exposure, it simply isn’t possible.
Environmental exposures to chemicals of all kinds are ubiquitous – so much so, that it’s been 20 years since the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) startling study that discovered nearly 300 chemicals in the umbilical cord blood of newborns (180 chemicals known to play a role in the development of cancer and 217 known for being toxic to the brain and nervous system). Since that study, there have been a number of other studies that have found the presence of forever chemicals, phthalates, phenols, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), persistent organic pollutants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in cord blood.
Not to be a downer, but this means we literally come out of the womb with chemicals in our body and only accumulate more from there. These chemicals are in everything – from food packaging and clothing to upholstery, rugs, flooring, paint, the lining of the cans and liquid-containing boxes, air pollution, wild fire smoke, microplastics, feminine hygiene products … we can’t get away from them. This total exposure is known as our total toxic burden.
We have no idea what the long-term effects our toxic burden and the continued accumulation will have on us – many of the guidelines for what constitute safe levels of exposures were not designed to take into account ALL of the chemicals we’re exposed to simultaneously. So, yeah, that PCB may be within safe human limits, but what about its effects in consideration of our total toxic burden?
I don’t say all this to make it sound or feel hopeless, because it’s not hopeless. While we can’t control many of the exposures and things in our environments, we can:
Influence how our body responds to these stressors
We can choose what matters most to us to change
Much like many things in life, it’s about the tradeoffs we want to make. Here are a few of the things that I have chosen to change:
Not microwaving in plastic containers. In fact, if there’s only one single thing you can do, this is the one.
Changing out my personal care products to natural, safe ingredients. I started slow; ripping and replacing produces waste and can be expensive. Some of the personal care products I’ve specifically chosen to replace include deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, and lotion.
Switching to glass storage containers for food items.
Opting for a dishwasher that doesn’t use a heating element to dry the dishes when we needed to replace our dishwasher.
Minimizing the use of scented candles and room deodorizers.
Swapping our household and cleaning products.
Recycling and composting.
Stopping the use of Splenda (which 15-ish years ago used to be my go-to). When my mom had breast cancer, her doctors told her that she needed to stop using aluminum-based deodorants and Splenda because they were toxic for her body after chemo. I figured if they weren’t safe for my mom post-chemo, I didn’t need to be using them either, and I haven’t looked back since.
These are my personal selections. Yours may look different, and, honestly, they should, because they should reflect what matters to you and what makes sense for your life.
If you want to give making changes a try to reduce your total toxic burden, here are some things to consider:
You don’t have to do it all at once. Start small and make changes over time.
Check out EWG if you want to see how your personal care products currently stack up, or if you want to find products with less physiological impact. EWG isn’t perfect, but we have to start somewhere.
Consider the flow of your day and where it makes sense to make changes. This could go beyond product swaps and even look like altering your commute time and methods to reduce pollution exposures.
Account for everyone in your household. There may be changes that will work for everyone and some that will only work for you.
Keep it simple. If you decide to try something new, like trying recycling and you're in a region that requires sorting, keep it as simple and easy as possible. The more complex and outside of your normal, the more challenging it will be to make it a long-term change.
Here at MTGS, we champion founders who lead impact-driven startups that affect what we put in and on our bodies. Supporting Femtech, food and health startups are often obvious; we get the most curious looks when we talk about climate and sustainability, but that is where all of these things that surround us in the environment live, and they impact our health and wellbeing in myriad ways.
If you decide to make some changes or already have, let us know! We’d love to know what’s worked for you or how it went when you tried.
Sources
Body Burden: The Pollution in Newborns. https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns
Exploring the levels of persistent organic pollutants in umbilical cord blood and their connection to gestational age and birth weights in Şanlıurfa, Turkey. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11270763/
Cumulative Chemical Exposures During Pregnancy and Early Development. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4626367/
