When worlds collide
Dark clouds behind your shower curtain
I just completed a five-month certification program in Environmental Health. Over the last several years, I have been learning more + more about the ties between health issues, chronic illness + everyday exposures to environmental toxicants.
This course allowed me to take a deep dive into the topic of toxins - from the turn of the century to modern-day public policy, potential exposures in our everyday life, epigenetics, toxicology + detoxification protocols.
It’s been fascinating, to say the least.
I don’t think most people are thinking about the connection between various environmental toxins + health issues. We’ve learned that certain foods are bad for us. We know smoking is bad for us. We know we need to exercise more + how important movement is.
But, learning about how certain chemicals like BPA or phthalates can contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, fertility issues, inflammatory bowel disease, thyroid dysfunction…until you’re facing one of those issues first-hand, it may not be on your radar at all.
Sometimes it takes a big dark cloud to get our attention. And, boy did we get one this month.
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WHERE THERE IS SMOKE
Hopefully, you have at least heard about the catastrophe in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023. What a mess!
In the past, this would have been one of those news stories that I would hear, but I wouldn’t really take it to heart. Yes, I’d be sad for the community - their air, water, soil, + health. But, I wouldn’t have really understood the complexities of it all or how it tied directly to my life.
With so many things going on in the world, why would this event 2400 miles away stop me in my tracks? Why would it derail my week enough to stop + write about it here in The LIFT?
I’m glad you asked! Let me see if I can unpack it a bit here.
When that train derailed, five of the cars were carrying vinyl chloride - a gas used to make plastic.
Ironically, just a few weeks before this train wreck occurred, I learned about vinyl chloride in my environmental health class. Something I would have never known if not for the class.
Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen. And, when it is burned, it releases dioxins into the environment. Dioxins are highly toxic. They can cause reproductive + developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones + also cause cancer.
That said, vinyl chloride is used to make PVC plastic which is used in ALL kinds of products: shower curtains, inflatable pools, children’s toys like dolls + balls, vinyl flooring + PVC windows to name a few.
In fact, PVC is the second largest commodity plastic in the world.
In class, we were talking about shower curtains in particular. Why? Because most people still use plastic shower curtains + it’s a great example of the kind of product most people have in their homes, but don’t ever think about.
I remember opening up new shower curtains on several different occasions. Back when our girls were in high school, we moved into a new house where each of our daughters would get their own bathroom + they both needed shower curtains. Each of the girls got to pick out their own curtain design + we had fun decorating each bathroom with a different look.
Of course, each of those shower curtains needed an interior curtain to keep the water inside the shower. I remember peeling those packages open + unfolding them to weave into the curtain rings.
There’s just nothing like that ‘new shower curtain smell’. You know the one?
I remember that glorious smell again when I helped our daughter move into her college dorm + later her first apartment. Those move-in days always seemed to include a new shower curtain somewhere. It was a small purchase. Something we didn’t give much thought to. We just grabbed the cheapest one we could find knowing it would probably be thrown out at the end of the school year.
It never crossed my mind to question what that smell was or whether it was safe. I never gave much thought to the end of life for that sheet of plastic. Where it came from. Where it would eventually end up. What it would release into the air upon opening or when exposed to heat + humidity.
Did you know that vinyl shower curtains release a wide variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including toluene, phthalates, lead, cadmium, mercury + tribuytltin?
And, it’s just one of many things that produce VOCs in our homes.
Again, something I hadn’t really thought of - indoor air pollution.
When we moved into a high-rise in a more urban area a few years ago, one of our first purchases was an air filter for each room. Something about ‘city life’ brought air pollution to our attention. All the cars. The surrounding businesses. We figured our air quality was probably going to be more polluted than it was in suburbia where we had spent the last 25 years. Every six months when I change out the filters, I am amazed at how gross they are. I always think how my lungs would have had to filter that stuff out if not for the filter.
Turns out, we were focusing on the wrong air. Most of that stuff in our filter wasn’t coming from outside, it was coming from inside.
EPA studies have found that indoor air can be significantly more polluted than outdoor air - up to 100x more polluted! Crazy, right?
It kind of makes sense when you stop to think about it. There are safety standards in factories, offices, etc. But, we don’t have any sort of federal agency in the U.S. that regulates consumer products that release toxic chemicals into the air in our homes. It’s something we don’t think about until we find ourselves faced with a health issue.
Of course, seeing is believing. Much like seeing that black cloud over East Palestine or the black soot in my air filter, you start to make the connection. It’s something you can’t unknow. And, once you learn about VOCs + indoor air quality, it’s something you want to clean up. How?
A few of the most common sources of VOCs in our homes:
Shower curtains, nail polish remover, furniture polish, wallpaper, paint, burning candles, stoves, detergents, tap water, household cleaners, plastics, aerosol sprays, air fresheners, dry-cleaned clothes, etc.
The good news is that indoor air quality is something within our control. We can’t control our outdoor air, but inside our homes? That’s something we can address. And, if you look at the list above, you can see many of these are things you can very easily improve upon. If you’d like some support with that, please let me know.
WHERE THE BUCK STOPS
Which brings me back to East Palestine, Ohio. It’s easy to see something like this happen + feel sorry for the residents there. But, it’s so much more complicated than that.
This incident really shines a light on the bigger problem. Much like the shower curtain shines a light on the one at home.
For one - we are learning that train derailments happen all the time + transportation safety is an issue. The volume of hazardous chemicals we transport is also going up. So, yeah, transportation safety is important.
But, what about the chemicals we are transporting? Clearly, these chemicals are not good for us in our homes. They are not good for our environment at large. They aren’t good for the people making them, using them, transporting them, or disposing of them. So - maybe we need to get rid of them?
Speaking of disposal - remember how I mentioned how vinyl chloride releases dioxins when it is burned?
Where are those shower curtains we tossed away with each move? What happens when a plastic doll or bouncy ball ends up in the trash? It gets incinerated - releasing one of the most toxic substances on earth to nearby communities.
I grew up in the era of recycling. These days, we all have our separate trash containers for plastic + recyclables. But, we have a long way to go there, too.
Did you know we only recycle 5% of our plastic waste here in the U.S.? (Germany recycles half of its plastic as a comparison.) So where is our plastic waste going? Well, we export billions of pounds each year to countries like Malaysia + Vietnam - where it is often burned in open pits. (Yeah, that one hurts to hear).
Who to blame? How to fix?
Sadly, it’s cheaper to create more virgin plastic than it is to improve our recycling infrastructure - which means trucks + trains have to keep shipping things like vinyl chloride through our communities.
Train safety is certainly important. Sure, Norfolk Southern should have to clean up the mess. But, you can see how complex this issue really is.
It’s also a lot more complex than debating whether a chemical in our shower curtain is posing a threat to our health.
When considering safety, we have to look at the ENTIRE lifecycle of a chemical - production, transportation, use + disposal.
This is not a problem of train safety or the dangers of transporting hazardous materials. It’s not a problem of our dependence on these toxic chemicals or denying that toxic chemicals in consumer products are a concern.
It’s ALL of these.
It’s a train wreck. That’s for sure.
This is why reducing our use of plastics is so vital. Whether you chose to do it for your own health, the environment, or for vulnerable communities, it all counts. We also need to advocate for public policies that address these concerns.
Our worlds really do collide.
YOUR MISSION:
Next time you shop for a shower curtain or cleaning supplies or air fresheners or flooring, I hope you will think of where your decision collides with these greater issues. There are lots of little things you can do + each of those little things makes a big difference.
RESOURCES:
READ: The Chemicals in Ohio’s Toxic Train Derailment Are Likely Used in Products all Over Your Home | Lindsay Dahl
READ: The Ohio Derailment Lays Bare the Hellish Plastic Crisis | Wired
READ: ‘We Don’t Know What We Are Breathing’: A Report from East Palestine | The Free Press
READ: Volatile Vinyl: The New Shower Curtain’s Chemical Smell | Center for Health, Environment + Justice
READ: Volatile Organic Compounds' Impact on Indoor Air Quality | U.S Environmental Protection Agency
READ: Plastics and carcinogenesis: The example of vinyl chloride | National Library of Medicine
IN SUMMARY:
I’d love to know if you’ve given any of this some thought at your house? Are you doing things to reduce your use of plastics + VOCs at home? Would love to hear from you.
See you next week?
Meanwhile - you can read thru the archives here. And, please reach out to me anytime!
Email: karen@becounter.com
Instagram: @redefiningkaren
I will definitely start more of those recommendations today!
Great article…..this is an overwhelming topic and you chunked it down so as a reader I could find ways to STOP some of what seem like simple things that I’m doing that contribute to this enormous problem. With that said, thank you for so adamantly jumping in last week when I casually mentioned that I needed to get a new shower liner for our jacuzzi tub where my hubby relaxes in a hot jet bath while breathing the fumes of that old plastic liner. It took a little shopping (not my forte’) to find a new liner made of 100% polyester. They are in most stores but they are on the shelves with dozens of others with confusing descriptions of luxury and beauty(?). It was a small step but there was a sense of satisfaction when I realized there there is NO new plastic liner smell. And then of course….I’m wondering about many features and luxuries in our home where we are endangering our own health and contributors to an unhealthy environment in the world around us. Jeez…..one step at a time. But a huge thank you for planting awareness and knowledge that I can get my head around. Also I think this unusually cold & wet winter we are having in So California has us breathing indoors more than ever — really causes pause for thought …& action.