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Toxic Chemicals in the Environment

Virtually no day goes by without an alert from the media about some chemical in the environment that is suspected of harming our health. It may do this by disrupting our hormones, triggering cancer, causing heart disease, affecting brain development, or any combination of these. Among numerous other substances it might be oxybenzone in sunscreens, tetrachloroethylene residue in dry cleaned clothes, caramel colouring in cola drinks, arsenic in rice or phthalates in plastics. The allegations are generally backed up by references to the scientific literature but interpreting the data in practical terms is very challenging. It has been said that our ability to collect data has outstripped our…

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 Flavoured vapes may produce many harmful chemicals when e-liquids are heated – new research

Our study has uncovered something that, until now, has received limited attention: the potentially harmful substances produced when e-liquids in vaping devices are heated for inhalation.

 In our blood: how the US allowed toxic chemicals to seep into our lives

Experts say that the majority of the 86,000 consumer chemicals registered with the Environmental Protection Agency have never received vigorous toxicity testing. Most people who have heard of the chemical likely know about it because it was found to be toxic and removed from consumer goods in 2015 after decades of use, leading to modern boasts of “PFOA-free” on product packaging.

 Many old books contain toxic chemicals – here’s how to spot them

In our modern society, we rarely consider books to be dangerous items. However, certain books contain elements so hazardous that they require scrutiny before being placed on the shelves of public libraries, bookstores or even private homes. The Poisonous Book Project, a collaborative research project between Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the University of Delaware, is dedicated to cataloguing such books. Their concern is not with the content written on the pages, but with the physical components of the books themselves — specifically, the colours of the covers. The project recently influenced the decision to remove two books from the French national library. The reason? Their vibrant green cloth covers raised suspicions of containing arsenic.

 The Toxic Twelve Chemicals and Contaminants in Cosmetics

Chemicals and contaminants linked to cancer can be found in food, water and many other everyday products. However, no category of consumer products is subject to less government oversight than cosmetics and other personal care products. Although many of the chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics and personal care products likely pose little risk, exposure to some has been linked to serious health problems, including cancer.

 Think all chemicals are bad? From our food to your phone, modern life relies on them

The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our new friend will usually go on to say they either hated or did terribly in chemistry at school. Or, depending on what’s been in the news lately, they might start talking about parabens in shampoo, or BPA in plastic poisoning our dogs, or the “forever chemicals” PFAS in everything. Chemistry, it must be admitted, has an image problem

 What I’d Like All Women to Know About Toxic Chemicals

Simple steps can help protect you from chemicals in personal care and household products.

Articles of Interest

A Toxic Legacy

Workers like Yvette Flores didn’t know their jobs in electronics manufacturing could harm their children. And the U.S. does tragically little to protect them.

After Maui fires, human health risks linger in the air, water and even surviving buildings

Chemicals like benzene, lead, asbestos and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, are common in ash, runoff and sometimes water systems after fires.

Common Consumer Products Contain Multiple Toxic Chemicals, New Study Shows

Hair and nail products, all-purpose cleaners and automotive products contain some of the highest numbers of chemicals.

Explained: the toxic threat in everyday products, from toys to plastic

Thousands of potentially harmful chemicals are in products ranging from electronics to medical equipment and carpets in the US.

Exposure to hazardous chemicals

The most common hazardous chemicals in the health sector include cleaning and disinfecting agents, sterilants, mercury, toxic drugs, pesticides, latex and laboratory chemicals and reagents.

Firefighting Chemicals Are Dangerous for the Environment. Can That Change?

In firefighting, different fuels call for different chemicals and techniques. Class A fuels, like wood or paper, can be put out using water, often made even more effective with additives. You’re probably familiar with Class A fire retardants from photos of air tankers dropping red clouds near wildfires; they slow oncoming flames by changing how they burn. To be clear, these are different from PFAS—although they have their own risks. Made of salts or chemicals used to make fertilizer, they have killed fish and caused algae blooms; their use is now restricted near water.

Flame retardant chemicals can cause serious health risks – and they only slow fire by a few seconds

House fires are many people’s worst nightmare. But chemicals created decades ago to protect people’s homes from out of control flames opened our front doors to a new menace: toxic chemicals. Ones that we are consistently exposed to in our homes, offices and vehicles. Plastics are everywhere and are highly flammable materials. To combat this, in around the mid to late 20th century, a class of chemicals known as flame retardants (FRs) were developed to reduce the fire risks of plastic materials.

Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is

f you are newly suspicious about the safety of the products in your medicine cabinet, there’s a good chance you have Valisure, a tiny laboratory in New Haven, Conn., to thank. Or blame. Tucked away in an unassuming office park, Valisure’s team of about a dozen scientists has over the past five years detected potentially cancer-causing chemicals in widely used medications, hand sanitizers, sunscreens, antiperspirant body sprays, dry shampoos, and—most recently—acne treatments.

The Toxic Twelve Chemicals and Contaminants in Cosmetics

Chemicals and contaminants linked to cancer can be found in food, water and many other everyday products. However, no category of consumer products is subject to less government oversight than cosmetics and other personal care products. Although many of the chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics and personal care products likely pose little risk, exposure to some has been linked to serious health problems, including cancer.

These toxic chemicals are everywhere — even in your body. And they won’t ever go away.

They say nothing lasts forever. Nothing, that is, except a group of toxic chemicals that may be associated with testicular cancer, kidney cancer, high cholesterol and suppression of vaccine effectiveness in children. They are now in nearly all of our bodies, are found in the air and water around the globe, and they never go away. They are "Forever Chemicals."

Why Are These 6 Beauty Ingredients Banned in California?

The presence of formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing ingredients in hair-straightening formulas like keratin treatments and relaxers is a huge problem that’s been the subject of multiple FDA warnings and a proposed ban on a federal level. When these hair treatments are heated during the application process, formaldehyde is released as a gas, posing serious inhalation risks, especially when salons aren’t properly ventilated. You should never apply hair smoothers with formaldehyde — which may go by the names formalin or methylene glycol on ingredient lists — at home, cautions the FDA.

Resources

Toxic Substances Portal

ATSDR’s Toxic Substances Web Portal makes it easy for researchers and individuals to find information about toxic chemicals, understand how these chemicals can affect health, and learn how to prevent exposure.

Toxic-Free Future

List from Toxic-Free Future.

EWG

At EWG, we’ve spent decades working to get toxic chemicals out of the food we eat, the water we drink, the clothing we wear and the goods we purchase. From arsenic to asbestos, pesticides to phthalates – the list of chemicals that have been found in our homes, in our bodies and in the environment is endless. Enough is enough.