Our plastic lives

FARIHA AFSAR

A woman, Yvonne Burkart, hit her menopause at the age of 30. She wanted to have kids, but the doctor’s only suggestion for her was to give up the dream of having a normal pregnancy.  She was advised to go for IVF. She couldn’t bear the thought of menopause at 30, she was too young for this. She fell into depression, but how come that was the solution? 

But guess what? She wasn’t a housewife or someone with a 9 to 5 job. She was a board-certified toxicologist with a PhD. So, that made her not to give up, but to probe for a solution on her own. 

She researched the causes of her not being able to be a mother.  After so much hard work, she came to the conclusion that using fast foods might be causing the reverse effect on her health.  She stopped consuming foods in the name of fast or junk foods and started cooking homemade meals using fresh vegetables, meat and dairy products. Within a few months, she noticed a huge improvement in her health, which was previously a deterioration. But she didn’t conceive. 

She wasn’t fully satisfied with her work.  She looked for more ways to restore her childbearing nature. At last, she decided to cut the usage of daily chemical products. She threw all those things in the trash can, where the ingredient list didn’t specify their organic nature. Her cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, toothpaste,  perfumes, and thousands of other similar chemicals fell into the dustbin, those products that we gleefully apply every day without a speck of second thought. These cosmetics have more than 200 endocrine disruptors in them, which cause huge turbulence in the human body.  

The results?? Incredible! She restored her health and, in a few months, became a mother.  Wait wait… did you just assume that only chemicals that we apply can harm us? Nope! In her ground-breaking research, Yvonne not only just proved the fatality of these daily used products but also specified that many house appliances we use for cooking, serving food, etc, are also linked to ailments of the human body.  Specifically, the most dangerous item that we love to use for cooking, “the non-stick” cookware, is linked to fatal human diseases. Just one scratch on the surface of a non-stick frying pan, for example, and millions of chemicals pool in your food, going into your bloodstream and causing cancer. 

The most common item that we all use, regardless of any biases, are the ‘plastic products’, especially plastic bottles,  for drinking water. If the water in that bottle gets sun exposure or heat,  it can emit 250,000 nanoplastic particles into the water which we drink. Or simply just one squeeze of the water bottle and it disposes thousands of micro plastics into the water.

Dr Yvonne’s research states that because of our daily consumption of these micro plastics through bottles of water or the clothes we wear (which are mostly plastic in nature), our bodies are accumulating these toxins more and more and storing them in the brain, stomach and other vital organs. These plastics contain chemicals like Bisphenol A (BPA), which is a major endocrine disruptor that causes hormonal imbalance,  cancer and other health issues.  Phthalates are the most toxic chemicals related to DNA damage, liver cancer and other neurological problems. And so many other more serious toxins which are linked to infertility and cancer. This clearly indicates that if too much plastic is deposited in us, we become prone to chronic diseases and perhaps our lives will turn into plastic too: (Switched scene!

A few months back, my mother, with pain in her voice announced that a lady in our area who was battling cancer had died. The look “she was too young to catch cancer” was on everyone’s face. But then again, cancer doesn’t bother with age limits anymore. In the past,  cancer was supposed to affect people of older ages, but today, anybody is falling prey to this malicious disease.  

Another notable change (not sure whether good or bad, but it seems the only way),  which I’ve observed among the people in my vicinity, is the infertility rate of married couples. Here again, regardless of their ages, so many women have been sent to have kids through the process of IVF. Those who can’t afford this expensive technique of baby-making are visiting equipment-less hospitals (of no use)  or sometimes visiting any old ‘claimed’ sage (last and only futile hope), who assures people of performing miracles. People flock towards those “Babas, or Nanis”,  but the results are pretty much the same as disappointments. 

The world is developing, but the cost has been our health. What if, instead of spending tons of money on surgeries or medicines, we adopt healthy habits and support the well-versed sentence “ prevention is better than cure”? The decision lies with us. 

All in all, dear ones! I know you would be thinking (if you’ve decided to go for the better ways, of course), how would we know which product is safe to use or where we can find it? The story of Dr Yvonne Burkart can make anyone sceptical about the authenticity of everything (if that “anyone” is health conscious for sure),  but here are some  common warning signs you need to look for:  

All the scented items are red flags.  Yep, you read me right.  Those products which don’t specify the nature of the scent they are using, there is a 100% chance of using phthalates in them.  When you see, in the ingredient list, a word called ‘fragrance/perfume’ guess what? RUN…. That’s the perfect sign you’re searching for not to use that product. They need to specify the nature of scents they are using in the product,  like if it’s essential oils as fragrance, cool then, go for it…….otherwise don’t.  

Similarly, more chemicals are present in cosmetics and beauty products,  and we need to dig for the ingredients list. Although these are the backslashes of technology, but thank heaven, that same technology has invented apps that you can use to scan your products and grab those which the app approves. 

I don’t know how many of you just skim it, skip it, scan it, or implement it, but if only one person,  just one person’s gonna take this seriously and implement it, I would consider myself accomplished. 

In the world of brands and other not-so-serious items,  we’re losing touch with ourselves and what we need to do. We’re becoming the products of plastic, and this is hampering our intuitions and all the sly abilities which a normal,  organic human being possesses.

We’re losing our humanity!

I know the time is hard and somehow our lives are too, but you’ll be okay, beautiful people.