Multiple toxic chemicals found in common consumer products

A dangerous amount of toxic chemicals have been found in day to day products, according to research they can be cancer causing.           

According to a research that was published this week in the Environmental Science & Technology journal, hundreds of different common consumer products contain a minimum of one and often multiple chemical products.

These chemicals that are often found in personal care products, cosmetics, art supplies, detergents, are reported to release nearly 5,000 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in American homes, annually. According to the research these chemicals are cancer causing.

Researchers from Silent Spring Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, cross referenced two separate databases that were preserved by the state of California, to gather a list of possibly harmful products. Combining the two databases and comparing them, the researchers were able to determine that 33 VOCs were recognized by Prop 65 as being damaging to health.

A scientist at Silent Spring Institute and study co-author, Kristin Knox said, “It just highlights that there are a lot of products that people use every day that contain many of these harmful chemicals.” “People can be exposed to the same chemical in a whole bunch of different products,” she added.

A VOC is a vast class of chemicals that can disengage from surfaces or products and travel through air, many of which pose extreme health risks and combine with other chemicals to form air pollution.