Lot of people seem to think this is a choice between two extremes:
-- worry about every little thing that is reported
-- ignore all of it and do what you want.
Unfortunately, the news media tends to overstate the results and scope of research articles, I guess try to inject more excitement or something (almost without exception, the source articles are far more restrained. And I guess boring to most). Although there are certainly individual papers that are particularly significant and groundbreaking, for the most part consensus on a topic (eg the health effects of chlorinated DBPs) accumulates gradually.
Instead of choosing between the two extremes, I would encourage anyeone to take everything with a grain of salt and just apply common sense. There really ARE synthetic chemicals out there that can cause health effects that can lower quality of life. Pay attention to information about the ones to which you would be exposed to at the highest concentrations and/or for the longest periods of time. Also avoid the ones that seem unnecessary, doing a sort of quick risk-benefit analysis (eg, do you REALLY need potentially harmful fire retardants on pillows?)
Lot of people seem to think this is a choice between two extremes:
-- worry about every little thing that is reported
-- ignore all of it and do what you want.
Unfortunately, the news media tends to overstate the results and scope of research articles, I guess try to inject more excitement or something (almost without exception, the source articles are far more restrained. And I guess boring to most). Although there are certainly individual papers that are particularly significant and groundbreaking, for the most part consensus on a topic (eg the health effects of chlorinated DBPs) accumulates gradually.
Instead of choosing between the two extremes, I would encourage anyeone to take everything with a grain of salt and just apply common sense. There really ARE synthetic chemicals out there that can cause health effects that can lower quality of life. Pay attention to information about the ones to which you would be exposed to at the highest concentrations and/or for the longest periods of time. Also avoid the ones that seem unnecessary, doing a sort of quick risk-benefit analysis (eg, do you REALLY need potentially harmful fire retardants on pillows?)
