Environmental Toxicity

Environmental toxins are any substance or forces in the environment that act against our health. Toxins can come from manmade chemicals, living creatures or physical forces. Chemical toxicity is increasing with more than 100 000 toxic chemicals in routine use, with many more being invented each year. Pollution is a form of environmental toxicity. This article introduces environmental toxicity and overview of how to manage it.

Introduction

A toxin is defined as any chemical, substance or force that has a bad effect on the body. These may come from the natural world (house dust mite, mould), from the physical world (UV light, coal dust) or increasingly from manmade chemicals.

The rate of industrial activity and concentrations of toxins found in humans, fish and vegetation matter has increased dramatically in the last 50 years.

Environmental toxicity describes all forms of toxicity to the human body. It broadly takes into view emotional stress, disruption to sleep, traffic noise, the pollution in the air, the sea and the soil, chemicals in our food supplies, kitchen products, clothing, cosmetic and personal products, in packaging, in the buildings.

What kinds of toxins are there?

Broadly speaking toxins can be categorised as chemical, biological or physical; although there is much overlap. Sometimes it is more helpful to group toxins by where they occur such as at the household, building and construction, water, air etc.

Chemical Toxins

Chemical toxins describe molecules and metals that can enter and impact our body. They are generally manmade or released by industrial activity.

Examples of Chemical Toxins:

• Polychlorinated Bisphenols (PCB) (in electrical equipment)
• Mercury (a heavy metal released from factors, accumulates in fish)
• Lead (a heavy metal, found in old pipes)
• Arsenic (a heavy metal found in pesticides, tobacco)
• Bisphenols A (a harmful plastic derivative )
• Perfluorinated compounds (a chemical leached from Teflon pans and food packaging)
• Bromine containing fire retardants, (durable chemicals used to prevent fires)
• Organophosphate pesticides (found in food)
• Diesel combustion fumes (vehicle exhaust fumes)
• Air pollutants (E.g carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide from cars)
• Plastic particles or derivatives such as Bisphenols A (plastic particles do enter our body and become stored and interrupt the immune system)
• Pesticides (glyphosate) (used in agriculture)
• VOCs (Volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde)

Biological Toxins

Biological toxins describe harmful substances originated from living creatures. These are quite common in the household with mould and house dust mite being the most common. Biological toxins often trigger allergic or fatigue responses in the body; including asthma, chronic fatigue and other more subtle diseases.

Examples of Biological Toxins include:

• Moulds
• Allergic compounds from animal hair or faeces
• House Dust Mite

Physical Toxins

Physical toxins interfere with the body by virtue of their physical properties. Typically this involves damaging a part of the body. An example is coal dust, silica or asbestos which can harm the lungs if inhaled. Acids or hot substances can burn the skin.

Examples of Physical Toxins:

• Asbestos
• Electromagnetic radiation (affects Ca channels in brain-linked to fertility)
• UV

Radiofrequency energy used in household appliances

How do these toxins get into our body?

Our world is chemically transformed. Well over 100 000 toxic chemicals are used routinely and over 1500 new chemicals are used each year. Many of these chemicals have never been fully tested in humans for toxicity nor studied in terms of how they transfer to humans.

Toxins enter the body in many ways such as the air, skin contact or eating it. For example,

It takes less than 30 seconds for many compounds to be absorbed through the skin.

Where are toxins found in the household or office?

Toxins can come from any source in the home or office. Any product used or consumed with significant chemical alteration can pose some risk unless assessed carefully.

Food

• Packaging: plastic, BPA in tin cans
• Preservatives and artificial flavours and chemicals
• Agricultural chemicals (pesticides and fertilisers)

Bathroom and Cosmetic

• Deodorants
• Fragrances
• Shampoo
• Hand wash
• Makeup
• Hair gel or spray
• Soaps

Kitchen

• Aluminium pans: leach chemicals
• Teflon pans (types of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) have been associated with harm)
• Plastic cooking wear
• Microwaves
• Water supply
• Plastic utensils used on the stove

House Dust Mite

Humans shed an entire layer of skin each month. House Dust Mite is a small bug that eats dead skin. Even when dead, this mite can cause an allergic reaction in humans such as asthma, runny nose and sneezing and feeling tired.

Mould

Many houses are not designed to drain well and attract mold. Air conditioners can act as a reservoir of toxic material from fungi. Mould is a major source of problems including fatigue, interruption to body function, allergies to name a few.

What Effect Does Toxicity Have on humans?

Toxins have a huge capacity to impact our health. At the extreme end environmental toxins can produce specific outright diseases. In most circumstances it will build up and interrupt many functions of the body, affect hormones, influence cancer risk, impact fertility and make us feel run down, tired or unwell in other ways.

It should be noted also that we accumulate many toxins over time, often stored in fat and so things can get worse over time.

A few examples of common toxic compounds:

Mercury poisoning from fish can cause fatigue, hair loss, anxiety etc. whilst mould toxins in damp or humid apartments can cause systemic fatigue syndrome due to the toxins impacting the body.

Bisphenol A and S have been found to affect sperm production and hormone levels (Vitku et al 2016) [BPA free containers are not necessarily better either!]

Toxicity is associated with many diseases including eczema, asthma, hay fever, lung cancer, lung infections, autism, infertility, alzheimers, menstrual problems, breast cancer, obesity, diabetes, cardiac disease, liver cancer, leukaemia, etc. It can also cause chronic fatigue, aerobic exercise intolerance.

One unique form of toxicity is called Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS.

How do we get rid of toxins?

The body manages unwanted chemicals in a range of ways. The gut naturally has 100 trillion bacteria. When in balance, these help remove the toxins. Thus if there is a problem with good gut bacteria, which will reduce toxin clearance. Similarly, the liver and lymphatic system will break down toxins and remove them. Toxins are also removed via the kidney and skin.

Children and toxicity

Children are especially vulnerable to toxicity. This is because:

• Children have less organ development to protect from toxins (e.g thinner skull)
• Children have less surface area to get rid of toxins

There are many chemicals found in products marketed at families.

Some common sources of toxicity include:

• Fluoride (which is found in water and can be bad for bones)
• Flame retardants in clothes and furniture and carpets are toxic
• Alcohol, mercury, lead, arsenic are heavy metals found in foods, environmental and industrial pollution
• BPA is not safe when you look at non industry studies

Handy Hint on water bottles: even if your plastic bottle is BPA free on a label, it may contain BPS which is another harmful plastic derivative. It is better to go for glass, ceramic or metal

Assessing toxicity

Assessing for environmental toxicity involves a multistep approach. The services of a doctor or naturopath, building biologist and online toxin databases such as the Environmental Working Group can be useful.

Assess the person or people involved

The first step involves taking a history of a person’s health and potential lifetime toxin exposure. It starts with an overview of health, assessing for any symptoms of poor health and then taking a thorough history of potential areas of exposure; whether it be the workplace, the home or current or past industrial exposures. Think about how well this person is able to detox any toxins taking into consideration their genetics, exposure, health and dietary habits; this is often best achieved by eating sufficient vegetables and being physically active and with good sleeping habits.

Assess the environment

General Tip:

Check product packets against online information on toxic ingredients:

A good resource for assessing your home is the Environmental Working Group or EWG. The EWG have a number of consumer guides on common house hold toxicities:

https://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides

Kitchen:

Are there multiple packaged foods with high plastic burden, is food stored in plastic containers, are the cooking utensils and equipment ‘safe’ or could they potentially leech toxins. How is food stored?

Household:

Look at the fabric surfaces for house dust mite contamination, are there areas of rising damp that could harbour mould? Assess the filters of the air conditioner units for mould overgrowth that could be producing toxins.

Clothing and personal appliances:

Is there fire retardant on certain clothes, what chemicals are in the washing detergent.

Beauty:

what chemicals are in any detergents, deodorants, shampoos, beauty products etc.

Test for toxins

Unfortunately, not every toxin can be easily identified or tested in humans due to technological and cost reasons. Much is based on history and inspection.

There are two ways to test for toxicity; we can test the patient or we can test the environment.

Patient

• Assessment of general health, hormone levels, vitamins
• Hair mineral analysis for heavy metals
• Urine or hair mycotoxin analysis
• Specific metabolic tests to assess for known toxins
• Heavy metals panel
• Lung function test (if relevant)
• Sperm assessment (if relevant)
• DNA testing to look at detox pathways
• Testing the environment
• Assess any filters, windows, air conditions for mould
• A mould specimen can be taken by a Building Biologist to assess for presence
• Indoor formaldehyde and VOC testing
• Check sofa, curtains, carpets for house dust mite
• House Dust Mite testing can be ordered
• Water levels can be run for heavy metals (some home filtering systems automatically do this)

Managing toxicity

The two main steps here are to minimise and eliminate toxins and then to help the body eliminate stored toxins.

Practical Steps for the home:

• Look at all household products and aim to replace them with environmentally safe brands and products. This may take some time.
• Get an air filter for 2.5nM particle pollutants in the air.
• Get a water filter, ideally recommended by professional bodies.
• Have the home or office assessed and cleaned by a professional building biologist to clear out mould and house dust mite.
• Personal Steps for detoxification.
• Enhance your detox pathways by avoiding processed foods, alcohol and consider a periodic detox program.
• Have your health and toxicity assessed.
• Avoid exposures to toxins as much as possible; buy organic, avoid packaged foods, avoid potentially toxic cosmetics.
• Finally, detox any specific toxins or enhance your detox pathways.

What is detoxification?

Detoxification means assisting the body’s ability to remove toxins naturally.

This can be done many ways, depending on the nature of the toxins, but generally involves unique steps

Firstly, you want to remove any toxins from your diet, environment, home etc.

Secondly, you want to support the body to do the best job in removing toxins. This means assessing the gut and fixing it, assessing nutrition and hormones and optimising, having a vegetable rich organic food diet and getting good sleep.

Thirdly, you want to support the liver so it can help with detoxification; this involves glutathione, dandelion root, NAC, Fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K), brassica vegetables, Alpha lipoic acid just to name a few.

Fourthly, you want to keep toxins moving through the detoxification organs which include the liver, kidneys and skin. This involves keeping moving, doing yoga (which helps lymphatic clearing), drinking lots of water, avoid constipation.

Finally, encourage movement of bile from the gall bladder for which cholestyramine or a coffee enema have been used.