Scary article: A poisonous influence

Man-made chemicals are saturating the planet and doing untold damage to life on earth.

While climate change has grabbed the media and policy limelight, another problem has a far larger impact on humans, our planet and all life on it.

Humanity produces more than 83,000 different chemicals, a third of which are known to cause or suspected of causing cancer, mutations and birth defects and most of which are toxic. The global output of chemicals is about 30 million tonnes a year, and the United Nations Environment Programme says the industry will be worth $6 trillion by 2020, and triple in size by 2050.

This makes the world output of toxic or carcinogenic chemicals about 1.4 kilograms a person a year globally, and 5.6 kilograms in the US. Australia is probably somewhere between the two. To put this in perspective, it contrasts with 2.5 kilograms a head a year to which Vietnamese rural people were exposed during the Agent Orange phase of the Vietnam war (and which is documented as having killed or maimed 400,000 people and deformed 500,000 babies).

What is new about this, apart from the scale of chemical output, is the discovery that man-made substances are pervasive throughout earth's system and are moving relentlessly around the planet in water, air, soil, animals, fish, food and trade.
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That's why I avoid cleaning products, pesticides, artificial fertilisers, cosmetics, paints, smoking, etc.
I can't believe my eyes when people are spraying pesticides on a weed what is so easy to pull out or poor boiling water over it to kill. Or those 'apparantly safe pesticides' to kill all bugs in your home... There is so much rubbish what you eat, put on your face or breath in. Every one you can avoid makes you a little bit healthier person.

Update: The greatest human impact of all
Humanity currently produces more than 83,000 different chemicals, a third of which are known or suspected of causing cancer, mutations and birth defects and most of which are toxic. Current global output of chemicals is around 30 million tonnes a year, in an industry which the UN Environment Program says will be worth $6.4 trillion by 2020, and will triple in size by 2050.