Cancer in our homes
It is a realisation that I wish to share with you all. It has been about three years now that I have been editing this magazine. So, by now I should be able to boast about being a super aware and conscious consumer. However, the fact is that with each issue I get to learn about something. There are facts backed with evidence which leave me amazed and wondering why they are not being talked about in the mainstream media. For instance, there are about a hundred things around us that can cause cancer and we have to be aware about them, but no public/mass medium talks much about them. (No, there isn’t a Facebook campaign on this, leave alone a page.)
Let me give you an example. Until a few issues ago, I had no idea about the deadly agents in paints and their potency to cause cancer. CV’s findings revealed that almost every paint brand barring a few big names were producing paints with chemicals that were carcinogenic. Now I have decided to double-check the list of paint brands before repainting my house. A thought that would have never occurred to me had I not been alerted by the findings.
A few issues earlier, while researching upon some products that were banned in the United States and the United Kingdom but were being sold in India, I learnt that plastic toys, especially Chinese discards, were of such a low quality that most of them were full of carcinogens capable of causing cancer in children. Ever since, I am conscious about buying plastic for my daughter. Thankfully, she has also understood the significance of discarding plastic (environmentally and otherwise) and is discarding her plastic toys gradually.
We even did a little story on radiations that were carcinogenic. No, not the radiations that are being emanated by some satellite above, but those that originate from your own mobile phone, the WiFi router, the Bluetooth device, the laptop, the television, the music system, and even the refrigerator and the washing machine. Again, there was nothing to do but feel amazed. Now, I avoid those long discussions on phone and switch of the WiFi router (wish I could do that to the laptop too) as many times as I can. Thankfully, we do not have a television (for reasons other than radiations).
In this issue we have listed 15 foods that are considered to be carcinogenic, which means they have cancer-causing substances. I did not know about dozens of them until a few years ago. To be sure, I am not cribbing, complaining, or questioning, but simply sharing a few cancerous facts around us and a thought on how by being more conscious consumers, we can avoid unexpected chaos in our lives. Editor