Flame Retardants May Retard Health

While we thought we were protecting ourselves we may have actually been creating more harm than good. According to new research, toxic chemicals used as flame retardants (PBDE’s or polybrominated diphenyl ethers) are rapidly building up in the bodies of people and wildlife around the world approaching levels in American women and their babies that could harm developing brains.

Toxins in the environment are a growing concern for many. The steady increase of pollutants in the environment everywhere from auto fumes to flame retardants is making life more difficult for everyone. One would be hard pressed to find anyone not affected by this.

Tom McDonald, a toxicologist with the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment stated, “We’re adding them [PBDE's] to consumer products, so they’re in every home, every office, every car, every bus and every plane.”

Researchers say the effects on children are likely to be subtle¾not mental retardation or disability but measurable changes in a child’s intelligence, memory, hyperactivity and hearing.

According to Per Eriksson, a neurotoxicologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, PBDEs mimic thyroid hormones, which regulate the growth of a baby’s neurological system. Because of that, if exposure comes during a critical phase of brain growth, it can alter how the brain develops.

Concentrations of PBDE's have been rising exponentially in human beings. Tests of breast milk showed Swedish women were carrying 60 times more of the contaminants in 1997 than in 1972. That means they double in the human population every few years, and by far the highest human exposures are in the United States. Exposure is probably highest in North America because it is the only place still using the form of PBDE most likely to accumulate in humans and the environment.

According to the book, Clear Body Clear Mind by L. Ron Hubbard, toxins are stored in the fatty tissues in the body and can remain there for years after the exposure. The book offers a program that can reduce the amount of toxins in the body. It is a carefully balanced program of exercise to increase circulation, vitamin and mineral supplements and time sweating in the sauna. Many of those who have completed the program have experienced results such as thinking more clearly, having more energy and living a fuller and happier life.

According to the independent journal Freedom, in 1984 the first study on Hubbard’s detoxification program was undertaken on seven subjects in Michigan who had eaten meat laced with the highly carcinogenic flame retardent PBB (polybrominated biphenyls) after it had been inadvertently fed to cows there in 1973.

The men who participated in that first trial of the detoxification program were tested using fat biopsies before, during and after the program, and again four months later. Sixteen separate chemicals were measured at the outset, and all but one reduced by significant amounts: an average of 35 percent during treatment and 59 percent in the four months after. This later reading indicated that the detox program stimulated the body’s elimination mechanisms, resulting in continued reductions in toxicity and improvements in health long after the program was completed—a phenomenon confirmed by later studies.

We live in a toxic world and need to minimize our exposure to pollutants and toxins while at the same time addressing the accumulated toxins in the body. For more information visit www.clearbodyclearmind.com.