Some people believe that toxins we encounter in our everyday lives are making many of us fall ill. Sylvia Thompson reports.
Pat Thomas is repeatedly told that her new book, Living Dangerously: Are Everyday Toxins Making You Sick?, will incite panic. "But those who say this are assuming that people only operate in two modes, ignorance or panic, whereas I believe there are lots of states in between, such as bewilderment, a desire to ask questions, a reassessment of lifestyle and beliefs, anger and action," she says.
Living Dangerously is disturbing reading. Thomas brings together a number of studies on environmental toxins and builds an argument around the prevalence of symptoms such as nausea, headaches, chronic fatigue and sinusitus and conventional medicine's inability to explain them. She claims, with a growing number of alternative-health practitioners and some conventional doctors, that such vague feelings of unwellness are due to long-term exposure to chemicals in our home and working environments.
Thomas uses the book to examine airborne pollutants (benzenes, xylenes and other solvents and volatile organic compounds used in everything from perfumes to petrol), endocrine disrupters (present in pesticides, plastics, toiletries and flame retardants), electromagnetic fields (the magnetic waves that surround us when using electrical equipment), heavy metals (including the mercury found in dental fillings) and pesticides in food and water.
She includes a shocking snapshot of how many of the toxins we encounter in 24 hours. So everything from wearing dry-cleaned clothes to using a cordless phone via sleeping in a bed with a metal frame brings us in contact with toxic chemicals. It's not surprising that some suggest the book will provoke panic.
But call her a scaremonger and she says: "We are told repeatedly that humans are living longer, healthier lives now than at any other time during our evolution. Longer, yes, but if we are so healthy why are we popping so many pills?" Thomas believes it is not enought to analyse health only in terms of "genetics and germs". She says: "A new healthcare paradigm needs to be based on not what magic bullets you take but what toxins you choose to avoid."
A psychotherapist by training, Thomas works for two London-based alternative-health newsletters, Proof and What Doctors Don't Tell You. Her previous book, Cleaning Yourself To Death: How Safe Is Your Home?, looked at the chemicals in toiletries and household cleaners, suggesting ways of using fewer and making your own.
Dr Philip Michael, a GP and member of the Irish Doctors Environmental Association, agrees with many of Thomas's points. "I see environmental medicine as the next major advance in medicine. The problem is that chemicals are so ubiquitous it is extremely difficult to have controls in a scientific study that will prove their effects on humans."
Chooing to avoid toxins also isn't easy if you consider that most people now live in homes with doubled-glazed windows, synthetic carpets and soft furnishings, varnished floors and an abundance of electrical appliances. Many workplaces have air-conditioning systems that rule out natural ventilation. New cars are possibly the most toxic environments of all; Australian studies point to high levels of toxic emissions remaining in new cars for as long as six months after they leave the showrooms.
"People say to me, you don't want me to have any luxuries, or, if I follow your advice life will no longer be fun. But the purpose of my book is an exercise in consciousness-raising about what types of toxins can affect us and suggest ways in which we can lessen them. Making these changes can take a number of years."
But surely the impetus for change must come from industry and goverment-led initiatives, following initiatives such as Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) and last month's study of indoor air pollution by the EU's Joint Research Centre in the Italian town of Ispra? "The Ispra study only confirmed earlier US studies, such as one which showed that 80 per cent of pesticides exposure is actually indoors, in our homes, schools and offices. And the RCEP report put on the agenda that there are between 30,000 and 100,000 chemicals, \ up to 43 per cent of which there is no safety data at all," says Thomas.
"The British study also claimed that we can catch up with safety tests very quickly, but the problem is that these are long-term poisons and we need long term studies to find out their effects on humans. Many of the current studies just look at each chemical in isolation and not how they react with each other in humans over a long period of time."
Thomas doesn't have great faith in industry-led initiatives to clean up the chemicals business. She also believes talk of sustainable and green chemistry is "in the very early days". She does, however, believe that consumer power can change things. And choosing to live in a less toxic environment is within the reach of most people if they begin making small changes to the way they live. Just remember not to panic.
Living Dangerously: Are Everyday Toxins Making You Sick? by Pat Thomas is published by Newleaf, €16.99