Health Topics A-Z

How Can I Prevent It?

Several of the chemicals found in common household products have been linked to both acute and chronic kidney disease. By reading product labels carefully and taking a few simple precautions, you can limit your exposure to these harmful toxins.

Cadmium. This rare, naturally occurring metal is used in the manufacture of pesticides, rubber tires, plastics, paints, and other products. Because of its industrial uses, it is now widely found in water and food supplies. Some precautions:

• Limit your intake of foods with high levels of cadmium, most notably liver and kidney products, flounder, mussels, scallops, oysters, and vegetables grown with sewage sludge fertilizers.
• Be sure any paints, dyes, or ceramic glazes you use for arts and crafts projects are cadmium-free.
• Do not use antique cookware or serving dishes; they may contain cadmium-based pigments.
• Avoid tobacco smoke.
• Dispose of any old cans or bottles of cleaning products in your home during your community's next hazardous waste roundup program.
• Use a carbon filter on faucets to remove the chemical from your drinking and cooking water.

Chloroform (trichloromethane; methenyl chloride; methane trichloride; methyl trichloride; formyl trichloride). This sweet-smelling and sweet-tasting chemical is found in drinking water as a by-product of chlorination and found in the air as the result of automobile and industrial pollution. Chloroform is also still used as an ingredient in some cough syrups, toothpaste, liniments, glues, pesticides and other consumer products. To avoid:

• Be sure your shower stall is well ventilated. Chloroform evaporates from chlorinated hot water, and levels can rise quickly inside an enclosed shower.
• To further reduce your exposure to chloroform while showering, put an activated charcoal filter on the cold-water pipe going into your hot-water heater.
• Read product labels carefully, and exercise extreme caution when using any product listing chloroform among its ingredients.

Ethylene glycol (1,2-dihydroxyethane; 1,2-ethanediol; ethylene alcohol; ethylene dihydrate). This clear, sweet-tasting chemical is found primarily in automobile antifreeze and brake fluid, and in cosmetics, particularly those with a creamy texture. To avoid:

• Read cosmetics labels carefully; avoid those products containing the chemical.
• Do not allow children, who are sometimes attracted to the sweet taste of products containing ethylene glycol, to play in garages or other areas where cars and their supplies are kept. Promptly clean up any fluids that leak from your car.

Oxalic acid (oxalic acid dihydrate; ethanedioic acid). Used in both powder and liquid form, oxalic acid is found in some heavy-duty household cleaning products. Several freckle-fading and skin-bleaching cosmetics contain this chemical. It is also found in the leaves of some plants. To avoid:

• Read the labels of heavy-duty household cleaners and polishes carefully; avoid those that contain oxalic acid.
• Do not use any bleaching agents on your skin that contain the chemical.
• Never eat rhubarb leaves, which contain high concentrations of oxalic acid.

Tetrachloroethylene (PCE; carbon dichloride; perchloroethylene; PERC; 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethylene). This colorless, heavy liquid is the most widely used dry-cleaning chemical in the U.S. Some precautions:

• Keep your car windows open when bringing clothes home from the dry cleaner.
• Air dry-cleaned clothes outside or on a well-ventilated porch for at least six hours before bringing them inside.
• Air dry-cleaned sleeping bags for several days before using them.
• Avoid spot removers, rug and upholstery cleaners, and paint strippers that contain tetrachloroethylene.

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