Summary
It's yet one more reason to avoid personal care products containing artificial fragrance. And even if you don't care about the fish downstream, consider the fact that these toxic chemicals are also absorbed through the skin and cause cancer in your own body. Why are people so insistent on scrubbing their scalps with poison products anyway?
Original source:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041030223254.htm
Details
-
Those fragrant soaps and shampoos we casually rinse down the drain may be causing long-term damage to aquatic wildlife downstream by interfering with the animals' natural ability to eliminate toxins from their system, according to a new Stanford University study published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
- "Synthetic musks can be easily produced and are very cheap," said Stanford postdoctoral fellow Till Luckenbach, lead author of the study.
- "They get into the environment through sewers and drains, but wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to handle them."
- In their study, Luckenbach and Stanford biologist David Epel tested six synthetic musk compounds widely used by industry.
- Their goal was to determine if these artificial fragrances affected the animals' "xenobiotic defense system"--a biochemical process that allows cells to get rid of poisons and other foreign substances.
- "This is the first line of defense used by all cells," said Epel, the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr.
- "It consists of a special protein, called an efflux transporter, that's embedded in the cell membrane and pumps out toxins that get into the cell."
- For the experiment, gills were carefully sliced from living mussels and placed in water containing very low concentrations of synthetic musks--300 parts per billion or less.
- "What we found is that musks are harmful in the sense that they compromise the defense system and let other chemicals in that could be more harmful," Epel said.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Email this article to a friend
Share
this article on: 
