Opinion

What do Toilet Paper, Tampons and Bombs have in Common?

They’re more dangerous than you know.

Non members can read this story here.

On the Battlefield

Imagine for a minute, you’re a soldier kitted out in the latest military hardware and heading into a battlefield. Your face is painted with greaseproof crayons to break up the shape of your head. Your clothes are rugged and expertly designed to repel water and stand up to all kinds of weather.

Your weapons are just as refined with every kind of advanced design to help you rain destruction on everything you set in your crosshairs.

What you don’t know is that almost everything you have on and equipped with are simultaneously killing you and the planet in turn.

Just to start you thinking about it, ask yourself these questions: How do we make things rugged? How important is waterproof clothing? How useful is it to keep weapons lubricated and functional in hostile environments? We’ll come back to this, for now keep it at the back of your mind.

In the Garden

My wife hates that I keep worms. Not the visceral instinctive hate we reserve for snakes and other dangerous animals. She just doesn’t want to be around them. They’re gross she says.

But they also are environmentally friendly. They go through all our organic waste and eat discarded paper and cardboard to produce worm castings — worm poop basically, and that’s garden gold.

But I discovered I’ve been inadvertently feeding them an industrial chemical that’s contaminated their bedding and, if I use their castings, it will go into my garden vegetables and then right into us as we eat them.

Figured it out yet?

Turns out the same industrial toxin that is so important to the military is also in our kitchens .

In the Kitchen

My wife doesn’t care for doing dishes. Neither do I tbh. My old back problems together with being over weight makes standing at the sink a real chore. So she compromises. Every so often she goes to the dollar store and buys herself a stack of paper plates.

You know the kind. They’re shiny and sturdy. Grease and water proof. Use once and discard. She used to get those for beach outings, picnics at the state parks. And having them around, it’s easy to grab a couple when you don’t feel like stacking the dishwasher.

But we found out sometimes the grease and waterproof coating isn’t safe. Sometimes they use chemicals that are similar to the Teflon in non stick pans.

It’s PFAS. The ‘Forever Chemicals’.

Consumer reports suggest:

PFAS exposure has been linked to a growing list of problems, including immune system suppression, lower birth weight, and increased risk for some cancers.

In the bathroom

I’ve been aware of the dangers of PFAS. I’ve written about it here. I’ve known about it’s use in guitar strings and dental floss. What I wasn’t aware of is that it also shows up in toilet paper.

In searching for stories relating to safety in toilet paper, I found articles discussing how TP can cause microcuts which both creates discomfort and can reduce protection against infection.

I found articles exploring the safety of the chemicals used in preparing the paper. Chlorine for example is used to bleach the paper white and it produces toxic by products that remain in toilet paper.

But mixed in among all the others, I found these sledgehammers:

The Time article states:

There was little question that PFAS would turn up in toilet paper. Different forms of the chemical are routinely used in paper manufacturing, serving as wetting agents to increase the efficiency of the pulping process. In many cases, the pulp is twice exposed: recycled paper — which is used to manufacture some brands of toilet paper — already carries its own PFAS that it picked up during its initial manufacturing, which is only added to in the second go-around.

Sadly, industrial scale paper manufacturing seems to require PFAS and that absolutely includes feminine hygiene products.

In the Military

Remember our soldier from before? Turns out his effectiveness and readiness on the battlefield requires PFAS. In fact, it’s so important to the military, they consider it a matter of national security.

From the report above:

…most major weapons systems, their components, microelectronic chips, lithium-ion batteries, and other products contain PFAS chemicals. These include helicopters, airplanes, submarines, missiles, torpedoes, tanks, and assault vehicles; munitions; semiconductors and microelectronics; and metalworking, cooling, and fire suppression systems — the latter especially aboard Navy ships.

A google search for PFAS in the military returns over 1 Million results, of which the information on all on the first few pages are shocking. The military exposes our armed forces to concerning (even shocking) levels of PFAS. It’s a national scandal and it’s practically under the radar.

Where do we go from here?

We know how important this type of chemical is to modern industry. It’s used in everything. Even though I’m aware of it’s broad use, I didn’t think about everyday paper products.

I’ve been eating off paper plates and wrapped sandwiches in paper napkins. I’ve sent my daughter off to school with food in paper bags. Made bedding for my compost worms using shredded, recycled paper. I’ve put down cardboard as weed barriers. Deliberately bought groceries in recycled paper bags — because the environment.

And now I discover, none of these ordinary innocent activities is safe. Goddamn PFAS are even in my toilet paper.

Because PFAS does not break down naturally, it spreads. Seeps into ground water around manufacturing plants making and using it. Because it doesn’t break down it gets into the water cycle and now, it’s unsafe to drink simple rainwater.

We know it’s in the food chain, it’s unsafe to eat wild life in some places. Even if we don’t directly consume it, PFAS still accumulates in us. We breathe it in from the dust in our homes. We absorb it through our skin from our clothes. There may well be no place we can escape.

We know it’s a matter of national security. The military simply wouldn’t be able to function without it’s use. (We also need to consider we’re spreading it whenever they use ordnance in hot wars e.g. Ukraine and Gaza.)

It’s plain to see, modern ‘civilized’ society requires ubiquitous use of toxic chemicals including PFAS. No real attempts will ever be made to contain their use.

All we can do is minimize our exposure as best we can, knowing in order to do this we have to minimize contact with many of the conveniences that make our societies modern.

It’s not going to be easy. I’m not certain it’s even possible anymore.

I’ll leave you with two resources to explore because our health is literally in our own hands. The Government isn’t coming to save you. Turns out you have to save yourself. And that’s something we all need to increasingly think about in the days ahead.

In the meantime, Walk Good. Mitch.

Resources:

https://www.epa.gov/pfas/meaningful-and-achievable-steps-you-can-take-reduce-your-risk