As folks understandably search for answers to the growing levels of ADD, Autism, learning disabilities, and less devastating but equally serious issues of asthma/allergies and cancers in us and our children, vaccines as the culprit are a red herring.

What is irreparably harming our children (and us), from their time in utero to their daily lives once living among us, is something so insidious that we remain oblivious to it: toxic chemicals in our household products at levels that would be banned in the workplace by OSHA if they were being regulated (which home chemicals are not), chemicals spewed into our air and waterways by industry, and the ever increasing amount of chemicals added to our foods to improve shelf life, enhance flavor/color artificially, etc.  Add them together and we have a health issue so large it can account for many if not most of the illnesses we’ve seen mushroom, from cancers to brain damage.

Just a few research examples of this phenonema:

• Starting as far back as 1997:
  Stemming from a 1997 University of South Florida graduate research project study investigating environmental and chemical causes of learning disabilities, a growing number of scientists continue to provide strong evidence for the leading cause of the increase in learning and behavior disorders in children over the past 30 years – on-going exposure of the developing child to common everyday chemicals used in the home can result in learning or behavior problems evident throughout life
• US EPA:
   Collected and analyzed fish samples from 500 US lakes & reservoires over a 3 year period (200-2003); they found that 49% of the fish contained mercury concentrations exceeding levels that they (the EPA) consider safe for consumption (this is the most common way Americans are ingesting mercury that causes brain damage)
• Associated Press, November 3, 2009:
  A study appearing in November’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections, and birth defects.  This is the first large analysis of antibiotic use in pregnancy…
• The National Resources Defense Council:
  effects of these chemicals used or found in your home;
  Lead: More than a quarter century after the 1978 ban on lead in paint, nearly half a million American prekindergarten children have elevated levels of lead in their blood. That’s largely because old lead paint remains on the walls in many homes, workplaces and schoolsOld, corroded lead pipes are another common culprit. Elevated blood-lead levels in kids increase risk of learning disabilities, behavioral problems, anemia and, in extreme cases, serious brain damage
  Formaldehyde: used in fertilizers, glues, plywood, fiberboard, particleboard and certain types of insulation, as well as in some disinfectants, antibacterial soaps and even beauty products. Regular exposure to formaldehyde can cause brain damage to fetuses, and asthma/other respiratory damage to children
• CDC’s New Report:
  http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport Centers for Disease Control’s Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals
• Physicians for Social Responsibility’s Bearing the Burden:
  Health Implications of Environmental Pollutants in Our Bodies: http://www.envirohealthaction.org/bearingtheburden  The known and potential health effects of human exposure to the chemicals studied in the CDC report

Over the past 30 years, we Boomers have happily accepted “better living though chemicals” – and now so do our children.  Who knew that as ever more products have been introduced containing increasing levels of toxic ingredients (from Acetyl methoxycinnamate to Zinc pyrithione found in personal and home cleaning products), designed to be ever more powerful, we have been breathing, eating (on dishes from the dishwasher; chemical additives in our foods), and topically ingesting (through our bath/body products) dangerous chemicals day after day, year after year.

These chemicals stay and build in our homes & bodies as we use ever more of them to clean, bathe, freshen, eat; they enter our water systems as run-off (from both our household and outdoor pesticide use), and when we spray them they immediately enter our respiratory system.

If we were to eliminate many or most of the chemicals in our lives, we would see a parallel and significant decline in the disorders we seek to prevent by avoiding vaccines.

Do your own research.  But do the research.  Because by avoiding what isn’t causing these devastating health disorders, we are only allowing what is causing them to perpetuate.  And that is not the legacy we/our children, want to leave for their children.