The shower. Some of us get our best singing done here. We’re supposed to be relaxing at the end of a long day, cleansing our skin with pure organic skincare products, not worrying about toxins again right?
Well, think again because some of us may be breathing in fumes from the breaking down of the plastic shower curtain.
A recent study by the Centre for Health, Environment & Justice has been released after 2 years of information gathering.
But it has dolphins!
Key findings of the report
- That smell that a new shower curtain has when you open it is a cocktail of toxic chemicals weaving it’s way into your system via your nostrils.
- That smell subsides within a month but the hot water and humid environment in a shower causes more of them to be continually released into the air.
- Over 108 chemicals were released, many of them know carcinogens.
- The level of Total VOCs (Volitile Organic Compounds) was over 16 times greater than the recommended guidelines for indoor air quality established by the U.S. Green Building Council and Washington State Indoor Air Quality Program.
- VOCs can cause eye, nose and throat irritation; headaches, nausea and damage to the central nervous system.
- Many of the PVC shower curtains tested contained heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and chromium.
What you can do now
- Throw away that PVC curtain and just keep singing. Perhaps some towels on the floor would be advisable.
- Look for shower curtains made of other materials such as canvas, nylon or water resistant polyester.
- Share this information with your friends so that they too can be spared yet another exposure to toxins in the home.
In Closing
The modern world: it’s fraught with danger. But the more we learn to buy intelligently the more companies will stop trying to sell this stuff to us.
And look at it this way:
We’ve just eliminated yet another thing in our most precious environment, the home, that is damaging our health. And that is a good thing.
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