Duke - The non-toxic avenger: one womans mission to reduce her toxic body burden

I thought I lived a fairly clean lifestyle. I didnt use pesticides in my yard, tried to choose organic foods, stayed away from overly processed products and didnt smoke. What I thought was the whole shebang of avoiding toxins. But, like most people, I had my faults. I still used conventional cosmetics and some body and hair care products and I relied on the good old power of caustic cleaners. Since I lived a pretty focused life of trying to lower my carbon footprint, I thought that, by reducing my petroleum usage and generally choosing natural products, I was in the clear.

I firmly believed that if a product were sold on the shelves in the store, that product was safe to use unless it stated otherwise. Some of them may not have been the most environmentally friendly to use but they were safe. The FDA says so, doesnt it? And I was more than happy to put my faith in government agencies and turn a blind eye to the real story just to keep believing that those plastics in my mascara and the preservatives in my shampoo were innocuous and I could have silky hair and glowing skin in spite of what the ingredient labels did and did not tell me.

It wasnt until I received a review copy of the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things for my environmental blog, The Crunchy Chicken , that I started to think otherwise. In the circle of individuals who were blogging on environmental topics, there was always a subset that focused on toxins in products. I figured that was their bailiwick, not mine. I was more concerned with reducing waste, energy usage and the strain on the environment from personal carbon footprints. The closest I got to dealing with the topic on my blog was really in relation to issues with agriculture and its incumbent petroleum-based fertilizer and pesticide use. But that didnt matter to me personally because I didnt choose products produced by conventional agriculture. Or did it? Were the health problems my family faced a result of environmental toxins, bad genetics or both?

Since I started writing my blog and really focusing on environmental issues, two very personal things had happened. The first was that my son, Henry, was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, a mild form of autism. The second was that my husband, Hank, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable, extremely life-shortening form of leukemia. Both were diagnosed the same week in September 2007. I still havent recovered from it all but, then again, neither have they.

During the last six months of Henrys preschool year, in 2007, I would be filled with dread every time the phone rang. I was convinced that it was his preschool calling to tell me, yet again, that Henry had hit, kicked or, God forbid, bit another child. His school environment was more staid than the average preschool given that it was a Montessori school and a fairly rigid one at that. But it was far too stimulating for my son and, when it got overwhelming or when kids got too close or too much in his face, he lashed out.

His physical reactions always appeared to be unprovoked and I knew some of the other boys would goad him on since he was easily manipulated. But in the end he was the one hurting the other kids in spite of whatever they were doing to get him into trouble. I lived under the daily stress of not only getting a bad report, but also of the school telling me it was the last straw, that Henry could no longer be a student there and then what would I do? I had a full-time job and finding a new preschool in an area where there was a years waiting list for most places was nearly impossible. Fortunately for us, Henrys preschool was able to deal with his behavior, calling in a specialist from the public school they worked with to come in and observe him in the classroom and make suggestions for how to better deal with and, ultimately, prevent his outbursts.

My sons diagnosis wasnt exactly a shock as I had suspected since he was a baby that he was showing signs of autism. His hyper-focus on what he was working on, the inability to carry on a two-sided conversation, his not seeing the world from any perspective other than his own and various sensory issues were early clues. On one hand, it was good to have a diagnosis to some degree, but on the other it was daunting to know that he faced a lifetime of struggle in understanding others and having to learn things that come naturally to most people.

Specialists refer to Aspergers as high-functioning autism but it is still disabling when you lack social skills and the ability to moderate your emotions. And then there are all the so-called comorbid issues that tend to accompany the diagnosis: anxiety disorder, sensory processing disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These are the daily issues that made life difficult for him and, in turn, the rest of our family. His behavior and comfort level over the next few years became increasingly disruptive and this, combined with his inability to manage his anxiety and OCD, had us turning to medication for help.

Id be lying if I said that I never thought that somehow it was my fault that my son had autism. Was it something that happened during my pregnancy? Was I too anxious and it elevated my cortisol levels and made him more susceptible to this? I had avoided the more commonly known toxin issue at the time (phthalates and nail polish), but those toxins affected reproductive organs and not brain development. Were all those Rh-immune globulin shots I received during my pregnancy, used to prevent Rh incompatibility and chock-full of mercury, part of the cause? Or was a genetic predisposition to being on the autistic range triggered by some environmental factor the reason for his neurological problems?