Everywhere. The widespread use of chlorine is causing far flung and extremely serious risks to our health and the health of the environment. Unfortunately, this damage isn't easy to see at first glance. Only researchers using special tools and methods can observe it. Because the harmful effects of chlorine are hidden from direct view, we haven't had any reason to stop and think about the possibility that using it could be dangerous. After all, chlorine is so common it's sold in every supermarket in the country. True enough, but the evidence scientists have gathered seems to tell us that it shouldn't be. Far from being America's household helper, and industry's best chemical friend, chlorine is something we should stop using right now. In fact, on October 27, 1993, the American Public Health Association unanimously passed a resolution urging American industry to stop using chlorine. The chlorine controversy covers two separate but related issues. There's the issue concerning the use of chlorine to bleach paper. And there's the issue that has to do with using chlorine in household cleaning products. Let's look at paper bleaching first.
What's So Bad About Using Chlorine to Bleach Paper?
Chlorine is used by the paper industry for two purposes. The first has to do with a substance called Lignin. Lignin is the natural material a tree uses to hold its cellulose fibers together. Cellulose fibers are the raw material for paper. Because chlorine dissolves Lignin, paper mills use it to rinse the Lignin out of the wood pulp they need to make paper. Once the Lignin is washed away, and the pulp is ready to be made into paper, chlorine is used again to make the paper white. If this were all there was to it, we wouldn't have much to worry about. Unfortunately, there's more. When wood pulp or recycled paper is bleached, the reactions that take place between the chlorine, the Lignin, and the cellulose fibers produce the most toxic substances ever created. The most dangerous of these includes a family of 75 different chemicals known as dioxins and a host of other chemicals called organochlorines.
How Does Paper Bleaching Affect Me?
The wastes that paper mills discharge into the environment after paper is bleached contain dioxins. And dioxins don't readily break down, which means that over the years they've been accumulating in our air, water, and soil. Once they're out there, they enter the food chain and we're exposed to them through the food we eat. Dioxins are now so widespread in the environment that virtually every man, woman, and child in America has them in their bodies. In fact, each day we ingest 300-600 times more than the EPA's so-called "safe" dose (1). As they accumulate inside us to critical levels, the effects begin to show. Dioxins are deadly. In fact, dioxins are believed to be the most carcinogenic chemicals known to science (2), and the U.S. EPA's Dioxin Reassessment has found dioxins 300,000 times more potent as a carcinogen than DDT (the use of which was banned in the U.S. in 1972) (3). There's no way to sugar-coat the effects dioxins have on people and the environment. Recent research has conclusively Linked dioxins to cancer, reproductive disorders among adults, deformities and developmental problems in children, and immune system breakdowns (4). And dioxins can cause these effects at exposure levels hundreds of thousands of times lower than most hazardous chemicals.(5)
What About Organochlorines?
Like dioxins, organochlorines are extremely long-lived, highly efficient travelers that have spread throughout the global environment. Every human being on the planet now carries organochlorines in his or her body (6). Scientists are concerned about these chemicals because they believe that when organochlorine molecules enter the body, they mimic hormones, the natural substances we produce in minute quantities to regulate our bodies' many functions. Because organochlorine molecules are shaped like hormone molecules, they can slip into cells in place of our hormones and cause terrible effects (7). These may include lower IQ, reduced fertility, genital deformities, breast cancer, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, dramatic reductions in human sperm counts, and abnormalities within the immune system through a process called endocrine disruption.(8)
Should I Worry About Chlorine in Household Cleaners?
In a word: Yes. Many household cleaners contain chlorine, though it often masquerades behind aliases such as "sodium hypochlorite" or "hypochlorite." Whether found alone or in a mixture of other chemicals, household products that contain chlorine pose a number of serious health risks. Products of special concern include: automatic dishwashing detergents, chlorine bleach, chlorinated disinfectant cleaners, mildew removers, and toilet bowl cleaners. Breathing in the fumes of cleaners containing a high concentration of chlorine can irritate the lungs. This is particularly dangerous for people suffering from heart conditions or chronic respiratory problems such as asthma or emphysema. And the risks are compounded when the cleaners are used in small, poorly ventilated rooms, such as the bathroom. Chlorine is also a highly corrosive substance, capable of damaging skin, eyes, and other membranes. Chlorine was listed as a hazardous air pollutant in the 1990 Clean Air Act, and exposure to chlorine in the workplace is regulated by federal standards. Using detergents that contain chlorine in the dishwasher or clothes washer can pollute the air in your home. The water in the machines, which contains chlorine from the detergents, transfers the chlorine to the air through a process called "volatilization." We then breathe the contaminated air. Dishwashers are the worst culprits, releasing chemicals in a steamy mist when the door is opened after washing. In a clothes washer, chlorine mixes with the dirt in clothes to generate airborne, toxic chlorinated organic chemicals (9). Generally, chlorine is a dangerous chemical to keep in your house. In 1993, 40,000 household exposures to chlorine were reported to poison control centers, more than any other chemical. Particularly dangerous are fragranced chlorine bleaches and products made with chlorine bleach plus surfactant. Disguising the odor--actually making the experience of inhaling chlorine bleach pleasant--can lead to over-exposure as we inhale the fumes unchecked. Another danger lies in mixing household products containing chlorine, either intentionally or unintentionally. These mixtures can create chlorine gas and chloramines, both of which are toxic gases that can injure the deep tissues of the lungs. although the number of reported incidents is relatively small, the percentage of accidents with moderate to serious outcomes is high (10).
Once These Chemicals Are Inside My Body, What Can Happen?
Research has now begun to conclusively link dioxin and organochlorine exposure to birth defects, cancer, and reproductive and developmental disorders (11). Many scientists believe that the recent reports of declining sperm counts among men in industrialized countries can be traced to organochlorines (8). Similar problems in wildlife populations have been definitively traced to this type of pollution, and we're not as different from our friends in the animal kingdom as appearances first suggest. Many biologists now believe organochlorines are responsible for the strange mutations, sterility, immune system failures, and local extinctions they've been noticing for years in animals from the Great Lakes to the North Sea (12).
What Can I Do to Protect My Family from the Hazards of Chlorine?
You can do plenty. One of the most important things you can do is buy paper products that aren't bleached with chlorine. Use paper products that have been bleached with hydrogen peroxide and sodium hydrosulphite, totally safe bleaching agents that work as well as chlorine. The only byproducts that result when paper is bleached with these chemicals are oxygen and water.
References:
(1)(3) (6) (13) Risk Characterization of Dioxin and Related Compounds, Draft Scientific Reassessment of Dioxin. United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, May 3,1994.
(1)(4)(6) (11) DeVito, Michael et at. Comparisons of Estimated Human Body Burdens of Dioxin-like Chemicals and TCDD Body Burdens in Experimentally Exposed Animals, Economic Analysis of the Proposed California Water Quality Toxics Rule, U.S. EPA, 1997. Pp.820-831.
(2) Healing the Harm: Eliminating the Pollution from Health Care Practices, Health Care Without Harm Campaign Report, 1997
(4)(7) (11) Birnbaum, Linda et al. Developmental Effects of Dioxins and Related Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals. Toxicology Letters. Experimental Toxicology Division, U.S. EPA. 1995. Pp.743-750.
(5) Henshel, Diane. Dioxin's Fowl Deed, Environmental Health Perspectives. July 1998.
(8) Colburn, Thea, Dumanoski, Dianne, and Myers, John Peterson. Our Stolen Future, Plume/Penguin, 1997.
(9) Corsi. Richard et at. Environmental Science and Technology, ASC Publications of the American Chemical Society. July 1.1999.
(10) Dickey, Philip (Washington Toxics Coalition), Duxbury, Dana (Dana Duxbury & Associates and The Waste Watch Center). Galvin, David (Local Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County), Johnson, Brian (City of Santa Monica. Environmental Programs Division), Weissman, Arthur (Green Seal). Concerns with Household Cleaning Products-A White Paper. Revised Draft. August 22,1995.
(12) Steingraber, Sandra. Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment Addison Wesley, 1997.
The above information was taken from a brochure from Seventh Generation. Based in Burlington, Vermont, this company provides safe and environmentally friendly household products to natural food stores, supermarkets, e-commerce sites, and mail order catalogs throughout the United States and Canada. Their web site is www.seventhgen.com, and the address is: Seventh Generation, 212 Battery Street, Burlington, VT 05401, or e-mail at recycle@seventhgen.com.
