During the Democratic convention the Reverend Al Sharpton quoted a shocking statistic: One third of the children in Harlem suffer from asthma. This should not be completely surprising since asthma cases have been consistently increasing over time, particularly in the cities, escalating recently during the rollback of some key environmental laws, but it’s a trend we must return.
Detergent
It all comes down to detergent, and not just any detergent. It is the detergent that they use to wash their children’s clothes and sheets. The biggest selling detergents in the United States contain large amounts of irritating phosphates, which aren’t only a significant irritant to the skin and respiratory system, but a source of serious pollution, and a component in global warming. If you’re wondering if your laundry detergent contains phosphates just read the label, it’s listed there.
In most industrialized countries phosphate detergents are outlawed for good reason, but in the USA the chemical industry has a strong lobby and cheap phosphates help manufacturers keep their costs low, so their use continues. Next time you walk though the laundry detergent section of your supermarket, take a deep breath and notice how much the smell irritates your nose and lungs.
Take note
What kinds of detergent contain low, or no phosphates? Baby detergent! No mother would dream of washing their newborn’s clothes and sheets in the household’s powdered detergent! That would give their baby’s delicate skin rashes, as well as an increase in crying and crankiness. There are many readily available natural detergents that are phosphate-free and it is well worth the time to see them.
We have noticed tremendous improvements for both children and adults when their clothes and sheets are consistently washed in a phosphate-free detergent. It may be helpful to explain why this simple change is so effective. Testing in Europe shows that, while sleeping, people are between two thousand and ten thousand times more sensitive to chemical and electromagnetic pollution than while they’re awake.
Final note
When a child’s pajamas are washed with a chemical irritant and they sleep on bedclothes containing those same toxins, their immune system is challenged nightly, during a period when they’re most vulnerable. Their body’s nutritional reserves are consumed in that battle and they’re less able to defend themselves from the pollutants they encounter during their day. Asthma and allergies aren’t produced by a single irritant, but by an accumulation of minor irritants that eventually overwhelm the body’s capacity to adapt. It’s not a massive leap to imagine that removing a respiratory irritant from the sleeping environment, where a person spends one third of the time, will produce an improvement in a child’s ability to breathe.
