Testing for Toxins: Women Are Taking Env'l Health . . .

[MountainLaurel]

Becky Allen is the kind of glamorous woman whose fiery red hair announces her presence like an exclamation point. But her luxuriant locks can also be a red flag, a warning of the toxins in her body.

Today, in her sunny Mission District apartment, she's letting her friend Nina Luttinger snip wantonly at the back of her scalp -- definitely not the kind of haircut Allen is accustomed to. "Hey, that looks like a lot!" Allen says as Luttinger places the cuttings in a plastic bag.

Meanwhile, across town in her apartment overlooking Golden Gate Park, Susan Kim-Stuart, who is pregnant, is also chopping at her tresses. Both women are sending their hair samples to a lab at the University of North Carolina, where it will be tested for the presence of mercury. Like many women, they have special concerns about chemicals in their bodies.

"Women have more body fat than men, so our bodies can store more toxins," says Tina Eshaghpour, program officer for the Women's Foundation of California, a Bay Area organization that gives grants to nonprofits working on women's issues in the state. The natural changes women experience as part of their menstrual cycles and during pregnancy also increase their susceptibility to toxins, she adds. "With each of these hormonal fluctuations, different toxins keep getting re-released into our bodies, so we're constantly getting re-exposed even to chemicals that have persisted for many years or many decades in our bodies."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/06/08/gree.DTL&type=health


A friend e-mailed this to me with a question about whether these issues are for real, or if it's an underhanded attempt to keep women frightened and at home. I told her that this jibes with everything I've read on the topic. Does anyone have some book recommendations: perhaps on the role of cancers caused by environmental factors and their rise as we put more chemicals into our daily lives without having any idea what they'll do? Other than "Silent Spring"?

[China_cat]

1. Check this out first

http://www.quackwatch.org/

Search for hair analysis, mercury, etc.

[bloom]

2. I think women are being under-warned

about ingesting mercury through fish (esp. tuna) and other things. Though I've noticed it looks like there are more articles about toxins in women's magazines than there used to be.

Seems like it having warnings/recommended limits on cans of tuna would be in order - for instance. Our gov't isn't going to do it - I guess it's everyone for themselves.

It also seems that there is more awareness about these things in Europe - more mainstream publicity.

Sites:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/states.asp

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/get-tested-for-mercury-contami