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“I have friends who have lots of money but no time, and friends who have lots of time but no money,” Jason says. “I guess you could say we didn’t have either one.”
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A FEW years ago, Stacy Brown was a successful executive in corporate
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- Win President’s Club
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Naturally Speaking
The Dangers of Chlorine Bleach
Most of us have grown up with the idea that whiter whites (and brighter colors) mean
 cleaner
clothes. We continue to use chlorine products with abandon to whiten
and to disinfect. We write on white paper and bathe in and drink
chlorinated water. After all, who wants bacteria- infested water? In our
society, chlorine is ubiquitous-and so are its side effects. In fact,
the long-term residual effects from chlorine are becom- . ing such a
health hazard that the American Public Health Association is urging the
American paper industry to stop using chlorine. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has found dioxin (a toxic byproduct of chlorine)
to be 300,000 times more potent as a carcinogen than DDT.
Healthy
& Natural speaks with Stephen Ashkin, director of product
development and environmental affairs at Seventh Generation, a
manufacturer of green, non-toxic cleaning products. Although he has a
degree in chemistry, Ashkin gained most of his practical knowledge and
experience through direct contact in the chemical industry. He literally
grew up in the laboratory of his parent's cleaning products
manufacturing company. Ashkin chaired the American Society for Testing
and Materials' task force that wrote the national cleaning standard for
commercial and institutional buildings. He has also chaired President
Clinton's Green Chemistry Challenge Task Force. Ashkin is acting advisor
for a number of EPA programs including the Indoor Environment Division.
He has published numerous articles on environmentally preferable
products and is a very popular conference speaker.
Q: Does chlorine occur naturally?
Typically
chlorine does not normally occur in the environment except as a yellow
gas on rare occasions. It's a manufactured substance produced through an
industrial process. An electrical current is passed through salt water
producing chlorine and caustic soda.
Q: Is chlorine very toxic?
This
is where this topic gets very interesting. Many people argue that
chlorine is basically safe-that it breaks down into harmless salt and
water. Well, that's true-in a laboratory test tube under very controlled
conditions. The real issue is not just how toxic chlorine itself is but
how the unintended byproducts of chlorine (organochlorines and dioxins)
remain in the environment. They are persistent in the environment; they
do not break down readily and therefore bio-accumulate.
Q: Is there a chlorine pollution problem?
One
of the largest uses of chlorine is in the paper industry. Chlorine is
first used to break down the lignan that holds the wood fibers together.
Then chlorine is used to bleach the paper to make it white. The
effluent or wastewater containing dioxins and other organochlorines are
then dumped into streams and waterways. These ingredients are highly
toxic and carcinogenic. Once in the waste stream, they come into contact
with other organic materials and surfactants and combine to form a host
of extremely toxic organic chemicals. A chain of events occurs: The
water becomes polluted; the fish become contaminated; animals eat the
fish and people eat the contaminated animals and fish. This can create a
very serious health problem; the dioxins and other toxic chemicals,
when consumed, accumulate in the fatty tissues. These contaminants are
also hormone disrupters because they mimic estrogen. The EPA has
observed and documented hormonal imbalance, suppressed immune systems,
reproductive infertility and alterations in fetal development of
animals. In viewing the big picture, these factors are perhaps the most
frightening results from the widespread use of chlorine.
Q: How widespread is chlorine contamination?
It
is so widespread that it would be difficult to find any human being who
does not have detectable levels of dioxin in his/her blood. While we
know that chlorine is a substantial environmental problem caused by the
paper industry, household bleach and cleaners containing chlorine also
pose a serious health risk. For instance, in 1997, 217,989 calls to the
Poison Control Center concerned household cleaners. Of those calls,
54,453 were about chlorine bleach and 7,570 were for chlorine
disinfectants. So, that means that 28.4 percent of all calls were
related to poisonings by chlorine products. What's even more important,
most of those calls were about children under 6 years old.
Q: What can happen if these chemicals get into our bodies?
Our
bodies are very good at metabolizing many things. Through special
enzymes, our bodies are able to rid themselves of many environmental
toxic substances that we come into contact with daily. However, dioxins
(and other organochlorine compounds) aren't included. Even if we are
exposed to very low levels, dioxins remain in the body and accumulate.
The EPA is now saying that this is soon to become a major health risk
problem. The cumulative effects of dioxin in humans have been linked to
birth defects, cancer, reproductive disorders and immune system
breakdown.
Q: Should chlorine be used in our public water supply?
The
alternative question would be, should we drink contaminated water? The
answer, of course, would be no. It's very important that our water is
sanitized. Years ago, there were very few alternatives. However, today,
while chlorine is a very effective (and cheap) sanitizer, many
scientists are recognizing some serious side effects from chlorine.
Today, our technology is getting to the point where, I hope, we will
look into a better means of sanitizing our drinking water. This will not
be easy because one of the biggest advantages (and ultimately the
biggest disadvantage) of using chlorine is the fact that chlorine
doesn't break down. Water can be treated with chlorine at the filtration
plant and 10 miles away the chlorine is persistent enough to remain in
the water and pipes when it reaches the home. There exist many other
ingredients that are good sanitizers, but they break down quickly, and
the water would become contaminated by the time it reaches someone's
home. We may have a problem if we need to sanitize via a chemical
additive. It becomes a sort of oxymoron: chemicals that are persistent
also tend to be toxic. The ultimate solution may be to have home-based
water filtration/sanitizing systems. This would eliminate the problem of
trying to prevent hundreds of miles of pipes, installed a hundred years
ago, from contaminating the water.
Q: Are there safe, effective alternatives to chlorine as a bleaching agent and disinfectant?
Absolutely!
Primarily, hydrogen peroxide is available to the paper industry and to
the soap industry as a bleaching agent. Another new technology uses
ozone. Other non-chlorinated household cleaning products, readily
available to the consumer, achieve the same bleaching and disinfecting
results as chlorine but are nontoxic. I don't understand why anyone
would want to use chlorine products anyway. Chlorine is a respiratory
irritant and when mixed with other common household products, it gives
off a toxic gas.
Q: What can we do to make a difference?
We
could request and purchase processed chlorine-free paper, not just in
writing paper but in paper towels, napkins, tissues, and toilet paper.
It's a vote for our environment and our health. It may seem to be a
small thing, but collectively it really can make a substantial
difference. We need to realize that the technology in the chemical
industry has changed as dramatically as in the computer industry. We no
longer need to use harmful substances simply because they worked for our
grandparents. The technology in the chemical industry is allowing us to
replace many of these toxic ingredients with others that are not only
nontoxic but have renewable resources and many environmental benefits.
It's
a major educational process for consumers to understand that they,
through their buying choices, can make a difference. Did you know that
only about 20 percent of shoppers buy their household products in
natural food stores? What that says to me is that while consumers
recognize the importance of buying supplements and organic foods, they
don't recognize the same environmental and health benefits associated
with buying chlorine-free paper and other non-toxic cleaners.
Chlorine Facts
Dioxin,
a chemical byproduct of the manufacturing of chlorine bleached paper,
is believed to be the single most carcinogenic chemical known to
science.
When
you open the door of your dishwasher after washing, toxic volatized
chlorine from dish detergent and tap water is released into the air.
Thanks to chlorine pollution, Americans ingest a daily amount of dioxin
that is already 300 to 600 times greater than the EPA's so-called "safe"
dose.
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found dioxin to be 300,000
times more potent as a carcinogen than DDT.Dioxin has been linked
to endometriosis, immune system impairment, diabetes, neurotoxicity,
birth defects, decreased fertility, and reproductive dysfunction in both
women and men.Studies show that 40-70 percent of the dioxin in bleached
coffee filters can leach into your coffee; dioxin found in paper milk
cartons also leaches into the milk you drink. Cancer-causing chemicals
like chlorine found in many household products such as coffee filters,
disposable diapers, paper towels, and bathroom tissue are readily
absorbed through the skin.
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