Pollutants are all the dead things around us that should not get into your body because they interfere with its work. As long as they don’t penetrate your tissues, they won’t interfere, like plastic eyeglasses and clothing. But if they are invasive, your body must fight to remove them.
Pollutants can invade your body via the air you breath, the foods and beverages you eat, and the products you put on your skin.
The biggest tragedy is not recognizing
when a pollutant is harming you.
Two people can use the same face cream. One develops a rash, the other does not. The one who did not assumes the cream is not harmful to them…that they are like a bank vault, impregnable to that product. A better assumption is that the face cream is somewhat toxic, as evidenced by the rash that can develop, and they escaped the rash only because they had a stronger immune system. The immune system is like money, paid out of the bank vault, for every toxic invasion. When the money is gone, the bank (your health) fails.
Solvent Pollution
Solvents are compounds that dissolve things. Water is a useful, life giving solvent. Most other solvents dissolve fats and are life threatening, because fats form the membrane wall around each of our cells, especially our nerve cells.
The solvent that does the most harm is benzene. It goes to the thymus, ruins our immune system, and causes AIDS. The next worst solvent is propyl alcohol. It goes to the liver and causes cancer in some distant organ. Other major culprits of disease are xylene, toluene, wood alcohol, methylene chloride, and trichloroethane (TCE). I’ll discuss each one later, with the ailment it’s associated with.
Metal Pollution
Biochemists know that a mineral in raw element form always inhibits the enzyme using that mineral. Copper from the meat and vegetables you eat is essential. Inorganic copper, like you would get from a copper bottomed kettle or copper plumbing, is carcinogenic3. Unfortunately, the inorganic form of metals is what pervades our environment. We put metal jewelry on our skin, eat bread baked in metal pans, and drink water from metal plumbing.
Another obvious metallic threat is tooth fillings. Mercury amalgam fillings, despite the assurances of the American Dental Association, are not safe. And sometimes the mercury is polluted with thallium, even more toxic than mercury! Gold and silver seem to have fewer harmful effects, but no one should have any pure metal in or on their body.
Other prevalent toxic metals include lead and cadmium from soldered and galvanized plumbing, nickel and chromium from dentalware and cosmetics, and aluminum from food and drink cans, and cooking pots.
3Haleem J. lssaq, The Role of Metals in Tumor Development and inhibition. From Carcinogenicity and Metal Ions, volume 10, page 61, of a series called Metal Ions in Biological Systems, edited by Helmut Sigel, 1980.
