Soaking In It
I was just listening to this. Just in case you don't have time to listen to the segment, here is the synopsis, courtesy WNYC:
Our Chemical "Body Burden"
The average American carries a “body burden” of hundreds of synthetic chemicals—like Teflon and pesticides. In The Hundred-Year Lie, investigative journalist Randall Fitzgerald says everyday chemical exposures are ruining our health…and making humans the most polluted species on Earth.
Randall Fitzgerald is basically saying that DDT, formaldehyde, birth control pills, etc. etc. is coursing through our veins--every single one of us--and if you buy into the detox hype, you can manage to get like two-thirds out regularly.
And maybe this is too easy for me to say, as a healthy person who, knock wood, seems to be co-existing peacefully with my toxicity, but this detox prescription seems wrong-headed.
I have no reason not to believe this guy. I have seen how strangely plastics behave, I have read enough MSDS to know that everything hurts you, I know that my body is permeable. And if I had Parkinson's or Crohn's disease I would probably be singing a different tune...
...But resistance is futile! The very concept of pollution is based on the idea that there is something pure to besmirch. The body is not pure, is not just flesh. It pokes out into space and space pokes back into it, and there is contamination both ways. Just as my thoughts and actions affect the world, the things in the world affect me.
To attempt to detoxify oneself is to attempt to preserve a boundary that is false.
This is not to say that pollution is OK. Far from it. Because there is no boundary between ourselves and our environment, we need to stop putting things out there that we won't eventually want to eat.
What I am saying is that any movement forward depends on completely believing in this interdependent state. Not working to detoxify myself, because that strategy is based on anxiety and personal gain and this fallacy that I can be separate from the world. But total acceptance of my permeability can lead to change. Total acceptance of the toxicity of the food I eat and the water I drink.
And that feels weird to say, but how else is forward movement possible?
Our Chemical "Body Burden"
The average American carries a “body burden” of hundreds of synthetic chemicals—like Teflon and pesticides. In The Hundred-Year Lie, investigative journalist Randall Fitzgerald says everyday chemical exposures are ruining our health…and making humans the most polluted species on Earth.
Randall Fitzgerald is basically saying that DDT, formaldehyde, birth control pills, etc. etc. is coursing through our veins--every single one of us--and if you buy into the detox hype, you can manage to get like two-thirds out regularly.
And maybe this is too easy for me to say, as a healthy person who, knock wood, seems to be co-existing peacefully with my toxicity, but this detox prescription seems wrong-headed.
I have no reason not to believe this guy. I have seen how strangely plastics behave, I have read enough MSDS to know that everything hurts you, I know that my body is permeable. And if I had Parkinson's or Crohn's disease I would probably be singing a different tune...
...But resistance is futile! The very concept of pollution is based on the idea that there is something pure to besmirch. The body is not pure, is not just flesh. It pokes out into space and space pokes back into it, and there is contamination both ways. Just as my thoughts and actions affect the world, the things in the world affect me.
To attempt to detoxify oneself is to attempt to preserve a boundary that is false.
This is not to say that pollution is OK. Far from it. Because there is no boundary between ourselves and our environment, we need to stop putting things out there that we won't eventually want to eat.
What I am saying is that any movement forward depends on completely believing in this interdependent state. Not working to detoxify myself, because that strategy is based on anxiety and personal gain and this fallacy that I can be separate from the world. But total acceptance of my permeability can lead to change. Total acceptance of the toxicity of the food I eat and the water I drink.
And that feels weird to say, but how else is forward movement possible?
posted by fisher6000 at 8:34 AM
2 Comments:
What's weird is that people are now living much longer than they did in the non-chemical olden days. Of course, I say this while swigging Diet Pepsi...
Right???
This guy would say that it's a quality of life thing--people are also much more sick, and Americans spend way more on health care and are not as healthy as other people...
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