Almost five years ago, I became pregnant with my first child. I had just graduated college with a BS in Microbiology, and was working in a cancer research laboratory, waiting for grad school.

I tell you this with the hopes that maybe you’ll understand that I was, in a sense, trained to research, and to question things. Anybody with a science background, and many without, can appreciate this.

My concern over chemicals began by simply wanting to protect my unborn child while at work. A research laboratory has a plethora of nasty chemicals, pregnancy notwithstanding. I read Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) profiles on more chemicals than I care to remember. I paid close attention to the professor-next-door’s research on dioxins—a class of highly toxic environmental pollutants that affect a number of organ systems; dioxins accumulate in our food chain due to their readily being stored in fat, and a long half life in the body (World Health Organization, 2007). I paid even closer attention to my own research, parts of which were based on high levels of growth hormones, stimulated by a number of different chemicals, resulting in some type of cancer.

One thing led to another with my personal and work research, and before I knew it, my husband thought I was 100% certified crazy. The rest of my extended family, and probably his, agreed.

I would only drink organic milk; I would not eat “dirty dozen” fruits and veggies unless they were organic; I avoided fire retardant pajamas for our son; I spent almost $10 for a small bottle of baby wash, in order to avoid the dioxins, phthalates, and parabens found in the ubiquitous Johnson’s; I switched to cloth diapers, in part to avoid the chemicals used in the manufacture of disposables; I threw out all of our plastic sippy cups the minute I heard about BPA; I started getting rid of any suspicious plastic and wooden toys, bought by well-meaning relatives, to avoid lead, phthalates, and BPA; my sons have been on alternative vaccine schedules to avoid the huge influx of formaldehyde, thimerosol and aluminum that the normal vaccine schedule would bring; I began canning my own tomatoes to avoid the BPA-laced lining of commercial cans; and so on, and so forth.

And see, you probably think I’m crazy now, too…

Slowly, along the way my husband has been convinced. I’ve left web sites up, articles lying around, and we’ve talked (and discussed and debated and here and there, bickered). He has pleasantly surprised me: in large groups, he is now the one to be vocal about the choices we make, defending them when necessary. He is leaving up web pages full of new information and new research, for me now! I feel very lucky that I haven’t been left to wage this war for my family, all alone.

However, it makes me incredibly angry to think that so many other Americans are being exposed to these proven dangerous chemicals, on a daily basis. As I said above, many simply lack the background encouraging them to question. Others trust that our government should regulate these things. Still others can’t afford the $10 bottle of baby wash, or organic apples and milk, or the expensive wooden toys.

And then there are the things that simply no one, myself included, can control: what are my neighbor’s spraying on their grass to keep the weeds away? What kinds of chemicals is my husband, an ER nurse, being exposed to and unknowingly carrying home? What chemicals are evaporating out of my computer and its respective cords and cables, as I type? Are there contaminants in our water supply that our city may not be testing for? What has been stored in my body that I have been unwittingly passing to my children through pregnancy and breastfeeding?

For all of these reasons, and more, I support legislative action for further study, and to reduce the amounts and types of chemicals that normal lay people are exposed to, particularly babies, growing children and women of childbearing age. These populations are simply too vulnerable to ignore. How far are we going to see the incidences of cancers, allergies, behavioral disorders, and asthma rise before people realize we have to do something?

I hope, for my children and grandchildren that it is soon. I hope the groups involved in the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families coalition are able to make themselves heard and reform the Toxic Substances Control Act.

And in the meantime, I will be thankful that my husband finally purchased his own stainless steel water bottle and brags about my mostly organic, all-natural cooking to his co-workers.

Michelle Yenderozzos
Battleground, Washington