Exposing Toxic Chemicals in Consumer Products
In an eye-opening interview, I spoke with Leah Segedie, the founding father of Mamavation, about her groundbreaking work investigating and exposing poisonous chemical substances in meals and shopper merchandise. Segedie’s group has change into a beacon of hope for health-conscious customers, conducting impartial testing and analysis to assist individuals navigate the often-murky waters of grocery procuring and make knowledgeable, more healthy decisions.
Segedie’s journey into the world of shopper product security started with a private tragedy that reshaped her life’s function. She recounted the pivotal second that set her on this path:1
“When my father handed away from mesothelioma, it simply rocked our household. After which after he handed away, I had an aunt die of breast most cancers and uncle die of lung most cancers and one other uncle die of, you realize, issues to pharmaceutical medicine.
From that complete expertise of getting an enormous prolonged Nordic household, we had been so tight knit to only decimation and my cousins transferring all throughout the US, it was so impactful on me, it simply gave me this need to have two issues. Well being and household had been an important factor for me after that.”
Mamavation’s Mission: Empowering Customers By way of Data
Since its creation in 2009, Mamavation has targeted on an important but typically neglected facet of well being: the presence of endocrine-disrupting chemical substances (EDCs) in on a regular basis merchandise. Segedie defined the group’s core mission: “We assist ladies navigate the grocery retailer by offering actually hard-hitting investigations about hormone disrupting chemical substances in meals and shopper merchandise.”2 This mission is carried out by a multifaceted method:
- Impartial testing — Mamavation commissions research on a variety of merchandise, from dental floss and make contact with lenses to coconut oil and ghee, sending them to labs for evaluation of contaminants similar to PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), phthalates, heavy metals and pesticides.
- Scientific collaboration — The group works with a crew of scientific advisors, together with companions at prestigious establishments like Carnegie Mellon Institute, to research the information and interpret the findings.
- Public training — Mamavation communicates its findings to the general public by its web site and social media channels, making advanced scientific info accessible to on a regular basis customers.
Emphasizing the influence of this work, Segedie says:3
“I do know that if I spend my very own cash and spend my sources and simply begin testing issues, it strikes the needle straight away, as a result of a variety of these corporations, for the contaminants, a variety of these corporations have not carried out this testing. And the second I begin doing it, it is on the market in public, after which it sort of stops them from with the ability to say, ‘Oh, we do not know.’ Then they’ve to begin wanting into it themselves.”
Growing Consciousness About EDCs Could Decrease Continual Illness
My new e-book, “Mobile Well being: The Unifying Concept of Well being for Final Longevity and Pleasure,” will probably be out shortly and is full of particulars on learn how to enhance your mitochondrial perform. It identifies three components that contribute to just about all illnesses. Should you handle these components, you possibly can get better from most any illness.
The three components embrace seed oils (linoleic acid), electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and EDCs, which is basically associated to plastics, although there are a lot of others as effectively. EDCs signify a broad class of drugs that intrude with hormone perform and have been linked to varied well being points, together with reproductive issues, developmental problems and sure cancers.
These chemical substances primarily work by activating estrogen receptors in your cells, much like how EMFs activate voltage-gated calcium channels. This activation will increase calcium inflow into cells, and extra intracellular calcium dramatically will increase superoxide and nitric oxide. These can rapidly mix to type peroxynitrite, which is an especially potent oxidant stressor. This results in extreme oxidative stress and mobile injury.
Apparently, ladies naturally have larger estrogen ranges than males, which may clarify why most autoimmune illnesses are considerably extra prevalent in ladies. Examples embrace rheumatoid arthritis and a number of sclerosis.
Whereas organic estrogen is critical for optimum well being, EDCs present a further estrogenic stimulus that prompts estrogen receptors. When mixed with pure estrogen, this could result in overload and a wide range of illnesses by a harmful chain of occasions:
- It decreases mitochondrial power manufacturing.
- This discount in power disrupts the no-oxygen atmosphere wanted for useful intestine micro organism.
- With out the precise atmosphere, these micro organism cannot produce short-chain fatty acids that nourish and keep intestine well being.
- This results in elevated intestine permeability, also referred to as leaky intestine.
- Proteins that resemble constructions in your physique, like joints or neurological tissues, can then leak by the intestine barrier, and your physique might begin reacting in opposition to these proteins, triggering an autoimmune response.
The important thing to addressing these points is lowering estrogenic stress. So, Segedie’s technique of testing shopper merchandise for EDCs and rising consciousness of the place to seek out them — and learn how to keep away from them — is a robust method to tackling these autoimmune illnesses by decreasing this estrogenic burden.
PFAS, Phthalates and Different EDCs Are Key Chemical compounds of Concern
Segedie mentioned a number of courses of chemical substances which might be of specific concern as a consequence of their potential well being impacts. These embrace:
- PFAS — Also known as “ceaselessly chemical substances,” PFAS are a bunch of artificial chemical substances that persist within the atmosphere and human physique for prolonged durations. Segedie famous, “PFAS is primarily the one which my advisors are involved with … The explanation for that’s the persistence of the chemical substances … relying on the kind of chemical you’ve got in your physique, it may possibly take from months to 40 years to get it out of your physique.”
- Phthalates — These chemical substances are generally used as plasticizers and might be present in a variety of merchandise, from meals packaging to private care gadgets.
- Bisphenols — Together with the well-known BPA and its substitutes, these chemical substances are sometimes present in plastic merchandise and meals can linings.
- Sure pesticides — Some agricultural chemical substances, like glyphosate, have been linked to endocrine disruption and different well being issues.
By testing shopper merchandise for these poisonous chemical substances and alerting the general public, Segedie and her crew are, in some ways, doing what many individuals understand to be the job of the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Safety Company (EPA). This contains wanting on the cumulative burden of environmental chemical substances, which Segedie describes as a “chemical hormonal soup:”4
“My advisors are all about that soup that we’re unaware of. , the chemical hormonal soup. All of those EDCs are working collectively in a soup that we do not perceive. Lobbying for a lot of, many many years has created a state of affairs the place the FDA … ignores many of the soup.
Simply to offer you an instance, when the FDA evaluates pesticides, they solely have a look at the energetic ingredient, they do not have a look at the entire extra chemical substances within the formulation … if we depart it as much as the FDA, man, we’re gonna be useless earlier than they began testing all the pieces.”
The Problem of Testing and Transparency
One of many main obstacles in addressing chemical contamination in shopper merchandise is the shortage of complete testing and transparency within the provide chain. As an illustration, PFAS are used to make fluoropolymer coatings and different merchandise, however there aren’t any assessments to establish them. With 15,000 recognized PFAS chemical substances, this presents a big danger for customers. Based on Segedie:5
“The toughest factor concerning the fluoropolymers is they’re unattainable to establish … there aren’t any assessments to establish these fluoropolymers. So, PTFE Teflon, that is only one instance. that chemical is on the market, however there’s not a check to establish it.
So, if you do not have a check to establish one thing, you possibly can’t check the well being influence of the chemical … there’s 15,000 of those PFAS chemical substances on the market … many of the assessments which might be used [only test for] 18 chemical substances, 25 chemical substances, 40 chemical substances, and that is what the manufacturers are testing for. And that is just about it.
So, what I am doing is a little bit totally different. And I am doing this with the blessing of my advisors who work with PFAS chemical substances. I am doing natural fluorine testing, as a result of natural fluorine is what all of those chemical substances have in frequent. And 99.9% of the time, if you’re discovering natural fluorine, you might be discovering a kind of PFAS, otherwise you’re discovering a kind of chemical that you do not need to place in your listing.”
This lack of testing, whether or not as a consequence of ignorance or deliberate avoidance, creates a big info hole for customers. Mamavation’s work goals to fill this hole, offering impartial information that may drive each shopper consciousness and trade change.
Some of the surprising outcomes of Mamavation’s investigations has been the invention that some natural merchandise might include larger ranges of sure contaminants than their typical counterparts. Segedie defined this counterintuitive discovering:6
“The toughest factor about that is the quantity of natural merchandise that we now have discovered which have international nation points the place the standard stuff doesn’t … These producers or smaller producers that a few years in the past weren’t as related determined to change into natural, however do not have the extra fashionable services … to have the ability to help a product that will not be contaminated with a fluorine or one thing like that.”
This revelation underscores the significance of complete testing throughout all product classes, together with these perceived as more healthy choices. It additionally highlights the advanced nature of chemical contamination within the meals provide chain, the place well-intentioned decisions, like switching to natural merchandise, is a step in the precise path however isn’t all the time sufficient to ensure your meals is toxin-free.
“I put … a few years [into] rising the [organic] trade. And now I discover myself in a really ironic place the place I am testing them fairly a bit and saying to them, y’all want to begin engaged on PFAS, you really want to begin testing for these items,” Segedie says.7
Blood Donation and Sauna Utilization Are Essential Cleansing Methods
Given the ubiquity of those chemical substances in the environment, methods for lowering the physique burden of those substances are urgently wanted. For PFAS particularly, Segedie highlighted an fascinating discovering from analysis on firefighters, who’re uncovered to excessive ranges of those chemical substances in firefighting foam: “One of the simplest ways that they discovered to eliminate PFAS is to donate your blood.”8
This discovery provides a possible avenue for people seeking to scale back their PFAS ranges and provides extra well being advantages as effectively, together with decreasing your iron ranges. This can be significantly vital for males and postmenopausal ladies, as menstruating ladies lose blood with every month-to-month cycle.
You can even use an infrared sauna to help detoxing. Whereas Segedie stated she begins her sauna at 100 levels F and goes as much as 120 levels F over the course of half-hour, I like to recommend beginning at 120 levels and steadily rising the temperature by 2 levels per week. The drawback of utilizing decrease temperatures is that it’s good to keep within the sauna for much longer to get the advantages, one hour at 120 versus 16 minutes at 150 (in a far infrared sauna).
As a veteran sauna person, I take advantage of temperatures in a far infrared sauna between 160 and 170 levels F. Nonetheless, you don’t must go that prime — and shouldn’t begin out that prime in case you’re a brand new sauna person.
The Energy of Shopper Consciousness and Motion
Segedie’s work with Mamavation demonstrates how impartial testing and data sharing can affect each shopper decisions and trade practices. Organizations like Mamavation are filling within the gaps left by regulatory businesses and holding industries accountable.
Finally, Segedie stated, “I wish to check your entire grocery retailer. I imply, that is my first plan proper now’s simply to get as a lot as I presumably can examined and I am increasing our testing.”9 This objective underscores the huge scale of the chemical contamination problem and the necessity for complete, impartial testing to offer customers with the data they should make knowledgeable decisions.
It additionally serves as a robust name to motion for customers, trade leaders and policymakers alike. By shining a light-weight on the hidden risks lurking in on a regular basis merchandise, Mamavation’s work empowers people to make more healthy decisions and places strain on corporations to enhance their practices.
As extra individuals change into conscious of those points and demand safer merchandise, corporations will probably be compelled to reply, probably resulting in a more healthy, much less poisonous future for all. By staying knowledgeable, supporting impartial analysis and making aware decisions, we will all play a component in making a purer world, free from the poisonous chemical substances in our on a regular basis lives. You could find out extra about Leah Segedie and her many shopper product investigations at Mamavation.com.