Man is well on the way to poisoning himself.
In everything we eat, drink and breathe, there are now laboratory-produced substances, the diversity of which is constantly increasing.
Medicines, pesticides, plastics and preservatives, plasticizers, disinfectants, cleaning agents and flame retardants, paints and other chemicals are constantly getting into our environment and from there into our bodies.
For her book “Endlager Mensch”, the science journalist and chemist Susanne Donner researched which substances we come into contact with on a daily basis.
What she rolls out in a total of eighteen chapters should not only shake the unsuspecting awake.
Because many of the topics she deals with have so far not played a role in general perception.
The tunnel vision of the authorities
It is generally ignored, for example, that the combination of different foreign substances could be more threatening than the individual substances in and of themselves. What can happen when chemicals combine in the human body, as it were, the author discusses using the example of drugs, which have been very well researched in this regard. The situation is different for many other classes of active ingredients: “Whether cosmetics, pesticides, varnishes or shoe creams - most goods consist of very different substances. The composition, in plastic terms: the cocktail, is what makes it - not only with regard to the intended function, but also with a view to the effects on people and the environment. "
The tunnel vision of the authorities, who only check individual substances for their harmfulness, does not help.
For example, the foreign substance cocktail on fruit and vegetables is no reason for complaint as long as each individual chemical does not exceed its limit value.
The producers and the industry thus bypassed the basic idea of the regulation, not to overload vegetable food with pesticides.
Researchers have long warned
Spray agents have been studied comparatively well, at least the individual substances. But what about the effect of foreign substances that get into our lungs, stomachs and skin from other branches of industry? Based on the results of scientific studies, the author explores this question in detail. It deals with almost all areas of life in which we come into contact with verifiably or suspected harmful foreign substances.
Among other things, she is following up on evidence that parabens, common preservatives in cosmetics, promoted the development of breast cancer.
It also shows the intricate ways in which mineral oils get into our food and beverages, why chlorates contaminate our fruit and vegetables despite official bans, and why polyfluorinated carbons are still used as a water-repellent coating for disposable packaging such as pizza boxes and popcorn boxes, even though researchers have long lived before these Warn substances.
Curious findings
In a separate chapter, Donner deals with a phenomenon that has been bothering scientists and consumer advocates for some time.
Hundreds of chemicals are suspected of interfering with the hormonal balance of humans and animals and - for example by leading to feminization or masculinization - impairing fertility.
Hence the name "environmental hormones".
It is striking how little we know about the health consequences of these and most of the other foreign substances.
Naming this uncertainty is one of the book's strengths.
In doing so, the author largely resists the current temptation to portray potentially coincidental connections as causal and to forge evidence from an indication.
Donner also comes up with strange findings. She reports on a Dutch company that specializes in recycling metal-containing implants from the ashes of the deceased. Every year, the family business is supposed to collect a thousand tons of pacemakers, replacement joints, artificial vertebrae and other medical technology products, thereby helping to ensure that fewer implants rot in the ground and that the metal salts released from them contaminate the soil and groundwater.
Can the flood of foreign substances be stopped at all?
Donner explains pragmatically and without moralizing undertones that there are definitely solutions and how each and every one of us can contribute to a cleaner environment.
It also outlines what should be done at a political level to increase the safety of foreign substances.
It would therefore be important, among other things, to oblige chemical manufacturers to be more transparent.
Because so far there is hardly any reliable information about which ingredients are in clothing, furniture or sports equipment.
Susanne Donner: "Human repository". How pollutants affect our health.
Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2021. 288 pp., Br., 12, - €.