Remember a few months back, when I was all freaked out about the Bisphenol-A that leaches from plastics? And my sister calmed me down to a point where I could at least pretend to function around the kitchen like a normal person?
Recently I read that the self-same chemical leaches from white plastic piping, the kind that cheap-o builders use these days in mass-market housing instead of quality copper piping, to save a few bucks. And guess who’s house is chock full of white plastic piping? Yup. Ours.
Apparently the leaching is worse when hot water is run through the pipes. Like say, when you are giving your kids a bath. Or getting some hot water to wash the dishes you will later use to prepare food for your family. Sometimes I feel like that mom in Erin Brockovich, the one who learned that it was their drinking water giving their kids cancer, then freaked out and ran outside to stop her young daughters from frolicking in their swimming pool.
Then some friends of ours told us that the amount of fluoride in our drinking water is too much for small children, and it basically amounts to an overdose situation for kids under 4. And know what? It’s apparently true.
And about a week ago, I heard a story on the CBC about phthalates, which are some crazy chemical that is often found in perfumes and scents, only you don’t know about them because manufacturers of soaps and shampoos are only required to list “parfum” on the label, not the actual chemical makeup of said scent. Apparently, this chemical acts like estrogen in the body, and when they tested babies who had been bathed with baby soaps, they had an elevated level in their bloodstream. As in, absorbed through their skin. Know how many baby-marketed soaps you can buy at our drugstore that do not contain “parfum”? Zero.
You know what? That’s it. I think I have hit my limit of worry.
There’s only so much of this kind of stuff I can take. I already have enough to worry about. I have to fret about whether or not they are eating enough or sleeping enough. I have to make sure they grow up to be nice people and get read to enough and feel loved and safe in their own home. I have to worry about kidnappings and other people being mean to them and not having enough money to pay for them all to go to university. I have to worry about drunk drivers and sledding accidents and whether everyone has had a poop today.
I don’t have any worry parts left over to feel scared to give my kids a glass of water, or to give them a bath. It’s too much!
I’m not saying that I’m going to just stick my head in the sand and ignore anything that may be a health threat. I’m sure these concerns are very real and the public has a right and a need to know. But I can’t keep living in constant fear of everything in our house. I can’t overthink my decisions to brush their teeth or let them have their juice in their favourite Buzz Lightyear plastic cup. I’ll never make it through the day. I just have to accept that there are weird chemicals around us and we don’t know what kind of risks are there and then just live with that. Otherwise my head will explode.
We live in a country where we have access to almost-unlimited clean, fresh water, with more than enough food of all varieties at the grocery store. We don’t have people shooting in the streets or planting car bombs outside schools, we have good health care and good schooling and public transit and malls. I think it’s a shame that we can live in one of the safest, nicest places in the world and still have to fear like bad things for us and our children lie in every nook and cranny. I have a need now to focus on the positive, good things for a little while and let these other worries go.
Maybe someday they’ll figure everything out and this Bisphenol-A and phthalates and whatever will turn out to be as bad an idea as lead in gasoline and asbestos siding. Maybe it’ll turn out to be nothing. Until we know for sure, I just have to stop overreacting to every single news story. I have to stop worrying about these things for my own sanity.
If there’s something concrete I can do, let me know. Sure, I’ll stop putting plastic dishes in the microwave. I’ll supervise teeth brushing and limit the amount of toothpaste. Beyond that, please stop with the fear-mongering and just let me get by with the usual amount of fretting.
(Although I am thinking about getting a quote to have our plumbing replaced. Just in case.)
TurtleHead 
I read an article once about an old russian couple who were living in a tiny little shack which happened to be located a few kilometers away from the remains of Chernobyl. They were in their eighties at this point, and had basically spent their lives in an area which was bathed in nuclear radiation. The reporter was incredulous, and said to them: “Don’t you realize that your whole house is radioactive? Don’t you care?”
They were like: “Meh. This is where we grew up. We’re sure not leaving now.” They were both perfectly healthy, by the way.
It kinda put things in perspective.
I remember back in the eighties when the “science media” starting telling everyone that butter was bad for you. Everyone stopped eating butter, and started eating margerine. Then ten years later, margerine was bad for you. Now they are saying “hmmm, maybe butter’s not so bad after all.”
Seeing as how humanity has been eating it for five thousand years, this isn’t all too surprising.
My stepmother sent me an article, telling me to throw out all my teflon pans because “they’ve found it in mothers milk”. I don’t know what negative effect that implies, but I’m sure mothers don’t want teflon being fed to their babies, even if it gives them super-powers.
All of this is to say that I fully support your commitment to not let these things bother you. Because you know what? Not only are all these “reports” going to be proven wrong eventually anyway, but the news media consistently misunderstands scientific discoveries, screws up the statistical significance, and reports things wrong in the first place.
You will be a happier person if you just stop watching the news altogether. And no less informed, believe me. Once you force yourself to turn away from any news show, you’ll realize that it wasn’t giving you any useful information anyway, only morbid hysteria.
Don’t forget to worry about nanoparticles in the water as well!