Since World War Two, over 75,000 new chemicals have been introduced into our world. Plastics, pesticides, refrigerants, insulators, paints, dyes, detergents, degreasers, deodorants - these are just a few of the many synthetic products created in chemistry labs for 'better living' over the last 50 years. The simple answer is that they're aliens in a world where life has taken millions of years to evolve, to exist in a state of balance. Nature, to put it simply, has trouble assimilating new substances, or breaking them down. On the other hand, many of the most toxic chemicals are quickly and efficiently dispersed far and wide through the elements of air, water, fire and soil.
Chlorinated solvents contaminate our groundwater.
And then there are chlorine-based pesticides such as DDT, chlordane, dieldrin and endrin, the subject of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, which spread their harm far beyond the target pests they were intended to kill. For women and children, who have more fatty tissue than men, the toxic impact of chlorine and its byproducts is potentially much greater. Chlorine chemicals also account for about half of the substances in our environment known to act as hormone disruptors . Hormone or endocrine disruption is one of the most unexpected and disturbing side-effects of the chemical revolution, because hormone systems are so crucial to healthy growth, development and reproduction. We need to divorce ourselves from these dangerous substances, and to relentlessly pursue safer alternatives.