Dangerous Products Many dutifully do what they are told when it is said it will save the planet. I try and do my share, but it is such a let down when you find out what you were told is not true and you have been doing something for years which helps only the businesses. It is now being said that recycling plastics is just a waste of time for the average person. Supposedly some experts are now saying less than ten percent of plastics are being recycled. No, it isn’t because we are not separating them, it is because of what happens to plastic after that. It got even worse during the pandemic because we were using a lot of single use plastics and the use of this stuff increased by almost 300 percent. When we are told to recycle plastic supposedly it means it will be reused and made into something else or the same thing again. Webster’s dictionary defines the word recycle as meaning to use (something) again. This word was conveniently used as a label for what we were doing with the plastics to make us think we were doing a good thing even when most of the recycling stopped, when plastic has turned out to be the scourge of the planet. Most of our “recycled” plastic we separated using our precious time to do was being sent to China where it was supposedly recycled. It had actually been sold to China so money was being made by both American companies and Chinese ones on our labor. China decided it didn’t want to do this anymore so over a year ago the plastics stopped being sent there and now they are being buried in landfills. One of the problems is we were not recycling all the plastic and much of the stuff was getting into our environment. You and I are part of the environment. Our bodies are filling with plastics. It is said everyday we are ingesting plastic and it is getting into our bodies and into our organs. Some of the plastic bits are microscopic and we are eating them, breathing them in and drinking them and no one is sure what they are doing to us. Could the increase in some diseases be due to plastic ingestion? Sooner or later, we are going to find out what it is doing to us and all we can do is hope it is not too late. We are not the only ones suffering from plastic contamination. The oceans are full of plastic and so are the sea creatures we eat, giving us even more plastic contamination. There is nothing good health wise about using plastic as bottles, food packaging and cups. Plastic leaches chemicals under certain conditions. We never should have given up the glass bottles for liquids and the former packaging for our food. It is a lucky thing for us someone hasn’t figured out how to make workable plastic cookware. There are plenty of other things we use which are bad for us but no one ever talks about them. Take one of a woman’s favorite products which turns out to be perfume. The Environmental Protection Agency found potentially hazardous chemicals in many of them. They listed some of the chemicals which inhaled could cause all sorts of problem such as irritation to eyes, throats, skin, and even the lungs. On top of that they found it could cause kidney damage, but I guess, but don’t know because I am not a doctor, you might have to use it a lot for that to happen. Even headaches were found in the study to be from some perfumes. I have always said anything you spray for any reason and get a whiff of is not good because all sprays are dangerous especially household cleaners and such. One of the things which might surprise people as being a health problem is a mattress. Some have high levels of PBDEs and that is a big problem. Afterall, we spend about eight hours a day on one and while we are laying on them, we are breathing in this stuff. Some states have banned PBDEs and so has Canada. One thing I noticed when I bought a new foam mattress was the smell. There was a chemical smell which took a couple of weeks to wear off. I don’t think it was harmful and noticed all the foam mattresses from this manufacturer had the same smell. The University of California at Berkeley found using some air fresheners in unventilated areas or used excessively can release toxic levels of pollutants. There are said to be chemicals which are released by some of the air fresheners such as ethylene-based glycol and paradichlorobenzene to mention a couple. One of the things which is also used by women is cosmetics. It is said there is one type which seems okay to use, but there is another type which is not. The organic type made from natural oils and are mineral based are said to be the safest which the ones containing synthetic fragrances are worse for you according to scientists. The whole world is full of potentially dangerous items and many of us are using them every day without realizing the risk. One of the reasons is the risk is hardly ever mentioned unless a tragedy occurs. Taking the wrong supplements or mixing some can put people at risk. There were said to be some cases where it was found by an autopsy people were taking far too much fish oil thinking more was better even though they passed the point they needed. Just like anything else, over doing something is not good for you. There is a disagreement in the medical profession over whether taking Folic Acid and Vitamin B12 increases the risk of lung cancer. One scientist once said, whatever we put into our bodies will eventually change it for better or worse. I believe this. Genes play an important part on how the things we use affect us. Some people could eat poison and it wouldn’t hurt them, while most of us would die. There are a lot of cases where people smoked their entire lives and it had no effect on them, yet most of the population got cancer of one kind or another. It seems some of us are immune to some very bad things. It is impossible to avoid all the dangerous stuff out there and there is plenty I didn’t mention.
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