Everything is bad for you…

…and we’re all going to die. Not to get all alarmist on you or anything. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle, as usual.

I recently read an article somewhere that talked about how they suspect, but do not know, that declining fertility rates in first world countries could be tied to exposure to everyday household chemicals. Now, this theory plays right into my hippie-crunchy tendencies to worry about pesticides and fragrances and chemicals created by evil corporations, so I decided to do a little more research into the matter. Plus, some cleaning products seem to trigger headaches for John and sinus problems for me, so I figured maybe I’d pick up a couple of recipes for cleaning stuff with vinegar and baking soda and lavender or whatever, and then everybody wins!

So I got a book. I worked in a bookstore right after college, and I was a geeky library girl before that, so I usually turn to books for my answers. Well, books and now the Internet, but I still tend to favor books. In this case, that may have been a mistake. According to this book, just about everything in my house, from the foam in my couch, to the carpets, to my non-stick pans and my beloved Tupperware products, to the detergent I use to wash my dishes and my clothes, and the wax coating on my dental floss is chock full of harmful substances that disrupt hormones and cause cancers and destroy the planet.

It’s bad enough that I already spend a huge chunk of my time worrying about every single bite I take and the effect that it is going to have on my blood sugar and my efforts to lose weight. I do not need to add obsessing about the chemicals that apparently loom all around me, just waiting for their chance to strike. Seriously, this book makes it sound like you have to go be Amish to lead a healthy life. And the worst part is, it is filled with scary facts, and not nearly enough in the way of solutions. Now obviously I’m not going to trade in my Honda for a horse and buggy, nor am I chucking half my house into the front yard for some sort of purifying bonfire. I like modern life and its conveniences. I don’t really know how to react to all of this information. Can all of these products that are so readily available and so much a part of American life really be that bad for you? Aren’t there agencies and commissions and such that are supposed to protect us from this sort of thing? But then I think about how they’ve known forever that tobacco causes cancer, and yet I can go buy a pack of cigarettes any time I want to. Although there, at least it tells you right on the box “will cause cancer.” I don’t recall seeing a warning like that anywhere on my bottle of 409, my skillet or my couch.

Until I figure out what to do, I’ll just be cowering over here in the corner on my undyed cotton blanket, hoping that bottle of Windex doesn’t notice me. [Not really.] But I am trying to figure out what changes it might be worthwhile and reasonable to make. Perhaps I’ll poke around on the Internet for a few of those cleaning product recipes.