Your House is Killing You
Personal care products (PCP’s) range from beauty and health (face washes) to cleaning products (Clorox wipes), while they do range from organic to hypoallergenic products, most of these products contain chemicals which can disrupt the endocrine and reproductive system.Several of thousands of PCP’s are found in surface water, yet the education about the toxicity is rarely known as these contaminants can form from human waste or medical, industrial, agricultural or household emissions
(1). Objective: Minimal research has been done regarding the toxicity of personal care products, therefore, a study on the concentration and acute & chronic data of these products on human health is being researched. Contaminants like triclosan, triclocarban, paraben preservatives, and UV filters in these products damage the endocrine system, as well as have effects on the reproductive system
(1). Methods and Materials: Several global studies were conducted on rivers and raw drinking water using algae, duckweed, bacteria, daphnids, freshwater bivalves, and fish were used for toxicity screening, and water samples were taken from each of the four rivers to detect the contaminants and health effects linked to that contaminant. Results: 36 contaminants were found in Beinng China, 37 in Switzerland with four hormones. These pollutants lead to human disorders like “histological and cytological changes, inhibition of enzymes or hormones, behavioral effects, or oxidative stress”
(2). Conclusion: The major concern with PCP’s is the buildup of human antibiotic resistance which can prevent humans from fighting the contaminants in this drinking water. More legislation prohibiting certain personal care product chemicals need to be established.
The water that individuals are drinking in their homes is the same water that is recycled through a home’s water system meaning that the same water used for face washing is the same water used for the toilet. Expanding on this concept, there has been a rise in personal care products and marketing as more and more celebrities are creating their own brand. Most of these brands are not eco-friendly, as most of the attention is put towards the branding, packaging, design, and sell of the celebrity’s image on the product. Due to this, consumers are using personal care products that are damaging to the ecosystem resulting in human disease and illness.
Personal care products contaminate the water in homes through human excretion, absorption, and commingling of these products in the water after use. What many individuals do not realize is that PCP’s include prescription and non-prescription drugs, hormones, antidepressants, anti-inflammatory drugs, and other drugs that fit among this category. Therefore, an individual who is diagnosed with depression or a hormone deficiency, will excrete these drugs in the water either through urine or by flushing the medication, which contaminates the water. Even though there are various filtration systems, every chemical is not caught which impacts human health.
Techniques to detect these contaminants have been evolving throughout time with the progress of environmental movements, Microextraction is a popular method which was used in a study in Switzerland where 36 pharmaceuticals and four hormones were found in the raw drinking water (2). The danger of these contaminants are a public health concern as it leads to an “array of carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reproductive toxicity risks” (2). One major public health concern is the reproductive disorders to be found due to these pollutants affecting pregnant mothers, prenatals, and even newborns. However, efforts for the elimination of dangerous PCP’s is still a movement that needs to be accelerated in the public health sphere.
Using psychiatric medications as our main variable, the environmental stressors of noise pollution and neighborhood violence can impact an individual’s mental health inducing them to be prescribed psychiatric medications. The formation of psychiatric medications then leads to pharmaceutical labs and production companies releasing waste, chemicals, sewage, and water runoff into the atmosphere and water. Human excretion from taking these medications also contribute to the release of chemicals and hormones in the drinking water and public water as well. Even though a majority of pollutants are filtered, there can still be environmental pollutants within the filtration system as well. The filtration system can be old or be infected with pesticides and litter from the street. Human absorption of the drinking water is next in the diagram resulting in biological changes and bacterial illnesses within the human body. Environmental exposures which lead to these illnesses can stem from exposure to power plants, sewage plants, dirty faucets, sink, handle, or tub. Individual exposure to radon, PM 1 & 2.5, TVOC, HCHO, and CO2 are pollutants that impact human health as well.
Many studies were conducted globally to test the raw drinking water. The researchers did not go into detail on how the pollutants were drawn and collected as they just presented the results. However In Germany and Poland, a microextraction technique was used, discovering four contaminants with dangerous concentrations ranging from 0.02 to 0.6 ug/1. Algae, duckweed, bacteria, daphnids, freshwater bivalves, and fish were used for toxicity screening, and water samples were taken from each of the four rivers to detect the contaminants and health effects linked to that contaminant.
A study was conducted on the rivers in Beijing, Changzhou, and Shenzhen, China detecting 36 toxic chemicals from personal care products which included phthalates, diethyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate. Butyl-benzyl phthalate and di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate with antibiotics accounting for half (2). Another study in Switzerland screened thirty seven pharmaceuticals with four hormones in the water (2). In the populations that had diethylstilbestrol in the raw drinking water, reproductive disorders following prenatal exposure was found with the wildlife in the water experiencing behavioral changes. The pollutant oxazepam which is a common psychiatric drug was found to increase the feeding rate, reduce sociability, and increase heightened activity in european perch animals (2) contributing to behavioral changes.
When it came to reproductive health, high chronic toxicity levels were found in the drinking water with the main sources being estrogen medication, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (2). Further studies conducted by the researchers found that ciprofloxacin, triclosan, and fluoxetine were the major producers of toxic impacts within the water system, even though these medications are the most common found in the human population. A study was conducted on zebrafish with the exposure of these pharmaceuticals and the results included “pericardial edema, spinal cord deformations, stunted growth, and yolk sac edema and kidney regression” (2).
Even though there is legislation on the concentration of bacteria in drinking water there is not any current legislation on limiting the concentrations of personal care products chemicals in drinking water. Personal care products do have to go through federal regulation, however, the chemicals contributing to disease from these products need to go through further legislation. Strategies brought by researchers start from the individual level to the population level. At the individual level, the strongest recommendation is to use organic products that are non-toxic to human health. More recommendations that follow this are cleaning your faucets, sinks, handles, and pipes to kill any bacteria and maintain your clean space so that these pollutants can not thrive in a disinfected environment. When it comes to psychiatric medications, a suggestion is to dispose of the medication in the trash instead of a toilet or sink where those chemicals are not intertwined into the water. For larger corporations, researchers suggest investing in a water treatment technology system that can filter these microchemicals further. A census was configured that more legislation and public attention needs to be brought to this topic as it is a major concern for the human population as individuals are being routinely exposed to pharmaceuticals in their water.
Personal recommendations for managing water pollution through the use of PCP’s is to also take care of your holistic environment. By monitoring air quality levels in your home like PM, TVOC, and HCHO, it will help mitigate the effects of water contamination in the human body. By testing your drinking water monthly using water testing devices and strips is another method of primary prevention to gauge your water pollution concentrations. Runoff from sewage, groundwater, radon exposure, and poor air quality are all exposures and related factors to the illnesses contributed with PCP contamination so it is important to gauge these levels as well. However, being conscious of the products and medications that you use, and how you waste them is the biggest prevention measure that an individual can take.
REFERENCES
(1) Brausch, J. M., & Rand, G. M. (2011). A review of personal care products in the aquatic environment: environmental concentrations and toxicity. Chemosphere, 82(11), 1518–1532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.11.018
(2) Cizmas, L., Sharma, V. K., Gray, C. M., & McDonald, T. J. (2015). Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in waters: occurrence, toxicity, and risk. Environmental chemistry letters, 13(4), 381–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-015-0524-4
