Cleaning out the poisons

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 29, 2004


When Mae Burrows looks at statistics that point to an alarming increase in cancer rates across Canada, she gets worried.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, diagnoses of cancer are expected to rise by 60 per cent over the next two decades, resulting in one-third of all Canadians having some form of cancer in their lifetimes.

While some people may attribute the increase to the fact that Canadians are simply living longer, Burrows offers another sobering statistic - cancer is now the second leading cause of death in Canadian children, up nearly 30 per cent since the 1970s.

But Burrows, a mother who lives in Burnaby, is convinced that the average person can do something to reduce their risk of contracting cancer. And it starts with understanding where the risk comes from, and then eliminating those hazards from your home.

And as the executive director of the Labour Environmental Alliance Society (LEAS), Burrows is in a unique position to help the public reduce their risk of bringing cancer-causing chemicals into their homes.

This spring, LEAS published the CancerSmart Consumer Guide, a 24- page booklet, published in association with Environment Canada, that looks at some of the most toxic substances found in the common Canadian home.

And some people may be surprised to learn that some of the most toxic substances are actually products that are intended to make the world a cleaner, healthier place, she said.

"I don't think the general public has a very good understanding of how strong some of the chemicals are in their cleaning products," Burrows told the Burnaby Now recently. "Most people think cleaning products are natural."

And that's where the CancerSmart Guide comes in handy. The booklet names the most toxic chemicals and then recommends products that may contain less harmful substances.

The booklet is divided into three main sections - pesticides, cleaning products and food - outlining what the main hazards are with each, and offering practical alternatives to the most dangerous choices.

Burrows says pesticides are the worst household toxins, and believes Burnaby council should follow the footsteps of 64 other municipal governments across Canada and institute a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides (see story below).

Cleaning products are tougher to get a handle on because the level of toxicity truly depends on what brand is used. While most hand soaps, liquid dish soaps and laundry fabric softeners are fairly safe, some of the leading brands of laundry soap contain some of the worst hazards.

For instance, all laundry detergents contain trisodium nitrilotriacetate, a known human carcinogen. Some brands contain ethoxylated nonyl phenol, an endocrine disrupter similar to those known to cause reproductive problems in river otter, wild salmon and other fish, and other laundry detergents contain 2-butoxyethanol, a 'suspected' reproductive toxin.

Burrows believes the public should seek out environmentally friendly brands such as Seventh Generation, Nature Clean and Ecover that use fewer toxic chemicals, and list their ingredients on the label.

However, because Canada does not have products labelling laws, which are mandatory in many European countries and some American states, it is almost impossible for the average member of the public to know which products are safe.

For instance, Burrows believes that the alarming increase in asthma rates among Canadian children may sometimes be related to the overuse of cleaning products. She relates the story of one young mother whose child had asthma that just seemed to get worse, even though the mother took every precaution imaginable, such as washing his bed sheets every day.

"When I suggested that she talk to her doctor about cleaning products, she was stunned," said Burrows, who convinced the mother to use just plain hot water for the daily wash, and laundry soap every two weeks.

Besides outlining the hazards, the booklet also offers a list of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals used for weed control, insecticides, fungicides, pet flea control and other miscellaneous uses.

But the only way for the public to know for sure which cleaners contain which chemicals is to ask the manufacturer for the official Material Safety Data Sheet - a formal document demanded by the government for every chemical product used in the country. Unfortunately, the data sheets are difficult to understand, even for a person with a background in chemistry. That's why Burrows believes the safest route is to simply reduce the number of cleaners used in the house.

"The first thing people should be doing is recognizing that cleaning products, pesticides and other products have quite strong chemicals in them," she said.

"The second thing is realize that a lot of these products simply aren't necessary," she said. "Check under the sink. If you have more than two or three cleaning products, you probably have too many."

The CancerSmart Consumer Guide was produced by LEAS with assistance from the Bullitt Foundation, Tides Canada Foundation, the Vancouver Foundation and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

To order copies of the booklet, which are $5 apiece, call LEAS at 604-669-1921, send an e-mail to info@leas.ca or visit their website at www.leas.ca.