1.4: List of Environmental Exposures
This exercise for day one was really interesting and a bit disheartening. To begin with, thinking of individual toxins for each environment was harder than I thought it would be since there was so much overlap. It seems like no matter where I look, there is some sort of toxin I am ingesting that I would have to take painstaking measures to avoid. The naturally occurring ones like dust or mold were a bit less alarming to consider. However, I still don't know how to process the fact that there is glyphosate (aka Roundup) on oats and toxic flame retardant chemicals in our furniture that does not even retard flames.
Almost a week later, and I don't have anything to add to the list as this list was pretty comprehensive. I know it wasn't exhaustive and that sets an ominous tone for the next few months of learning. That said, I am particularly interested in learning more about what I have in my home, school, work and community and how I may avoid it. Everything in moderation, including toxins (as there seems to be no avoiding it) and avoiding toxins (as it seems I'll never be 100% successful).
Hi Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, although the in-class exercise was interesting it was disheartening to hear how all these toxins were surrounding us. I don't think it is 100% possible to avoid them but I feel like being aware of there harmful effects and what they are doing to our bodies is extremely important. I am too excited to learn more about them in class.
Alex
I agree that the first class was disheartening as it really opened our eyes to the chemicals surrounding us. By the end of the assignment, our group believed that we had gotten all the chemicals in the environments but we learned about more when we shared our findings as a class. I also do not have anything else to add to the list but I am sure more will be uncovered during the course of this class.
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