Some Chemicals Are Just Bad. Get Over It.

Michael Pollan recently said you shouldn't "eat any food that's incapable of rotting." In a similar vein, my Grandma, in response to my diet Coke-addicted, pregnant aunt said, "If you're not supposed to have it while you're pregnant, you aren't ever supposed to have it." These two words of wisdom follow me throughout my day as I sometimes struggle to ignore the beacon of fatty, delightful neon pink light shining down on my hunger as I drive past the closest Taco Bell. But high fructose corn syrup or aspartame in our food isn't the only issue.

The BBC online posted yet another article about how much synthetic chemicals in cosmetics are changing our lives, and the prognosis is grim. Yet another reason, to trust Grandma and her anti-diet Coke agenda. Although many European countries have banned nearly 500 dangerous chemicals, the United States has turned a blind eye to the issue as usual.

This new article comes right after the FDA announced that BPA, the hormone disrupting chemical notoriously found in baby bottles and Nalgene bottles is considered safe, despite the fact that they admit that some danger still exists with it's use. Why are we so wedded to keeping these products on the market instead of pressing for safer alternatives?

Several organizations have sprung up to help spread the word and convince the government that this is a valid issue. You can visit the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Database to see how dangerous your cosmetics are and seek out safer alternatives. They include not only make-up, but also everything from toothpaste to contact solution, and help sort out the real non-toxic stuff from the falsely labeled "organic" or "natural" ones.

Although you could easily argue that any number of things in this life are toxic and probably already killing you, I figure, it doesn't hurt to try to avoid certain things. You never know, maybe one day we'll wake up and most of these bad things will have disappeared, simply because we requested them too: with both our voices and our pocketbooks.