our toxic world

These days it is hard to not be aware of all the toxins in our environment. And as a new parent and mild environmentalist, I would say that I am hyper-aware. It is all so daunting though. I mean it seems as though everything is toxic these days and it all ends up in your baby's mouth. I just read this list published on a blog that I follow, and although most of it was already information I knew, it still troubled me. Of course I have only BPA-free bottles and sippy cups but there are so many little plastic toys that have made their way in and out of Eddie's hands and mouth and I know that they cannot be the "safe" kind of plastic...if there is such a thing. He loves his bath tub squirter toys...hard and soft teethers really aided his teething period...and what about all the plastic baggies I use to hold his frozen cubes of food? Should we all get rid of our Ziplocs too? I mean our mothers used plastic and WE turned out ok, right? I know that one tragic result of BPA-exposure is obesity - actually there was a recent study of Harlem teenage girls and those with high rates of BPA in their systems were also more likely to be overweight or obese. It all comes down to the endocrine system; these harmful chemicals seem to disrupt hormone levels and could lead to metabolic and even neurological disruptions/disorders as well. I even just read something about chlorine-ridden pools and how all indoor pools should be avoided because the air hovering over them is full of toxic VOCs that can cause asthma. Sure. I will tell that to my son when he is older and I explain why he cannot go swimming like his friends. Even worse, I read that parks should be avoided, as in the grass there, because most cities use pesticides on the grass. And here I was concerned about dog poops and urine...

What are we to do, our over-informed, over-paranoid, over-analytical generation of parents? Reject or return all the gifts that could be toxic? Avoid potential hazardous environments...gasp...a less-informed friend's home? It all sounds so ridiculous, and yet I find myself gravitating towards these types of news blurbs that indicate yet another reason to be angry with our commercialized world that cares more about making something cheap and easy instead of making it healthy and safe. And god help the Monsantos of the world and their beliefs that the planet is a much better place with the creation of pesticides. We have a container of Round-Up in our garage; we used it last summer to kill the weeds and grasses growing between the cracks in our brick path. I was extremely opposed to its purchase and usage and still flinch when I see the thing sitting on our garage shelf. And yet it is still there. We own it. Those made-in-China plastic toys are still in the toy bin, wet from Eddie's saliva. Like many of the toxins in our world, we seek to eliminate them, to avoid them and even actively speak out against them, and yet when it comes down to the reality of things, they are still ever so present in our daily lives.