Triple Threat, Triple Advantage

Many people choose natural products and organic foods because it limits their direct exposure to toxins. There is actually an impact far greater than this, as the benefits can be felt in triplicate: at the point of production, consumption, and disposal.

Take teflon pans, for instance. They contains toxins linked to cancer and other nasty bits. You can minimize your exposure to these toxins by cooking on low heat (never use high heat with teflon!) and by using only a soft spatula, careful not to scrape off any of the coating. When a pan starts to lose its coating, you can discard it and get another.

However, toxins will still be released into the environment where the pan was manufactured (people living near a teflon factory in Parkersburg, WV, have had high instances of liver cancer). There will also be toxins released as you send your pan to the landfill. It may be contained for a while, but eventually that pan will break down into the environment. It may be generations later, but it will happen.

Virtually everyone is downstream or downwind from a factory or agricultural site. Other effects of pollution such as climate change, acid rain and ozone depletion are global, so there isn't anybody who can claim to be outside of their sphere of influence.

If fewer people buy teflon pans, then the teflon factory will create and release fewer toxins. The workers will take jobs at the safer cast iron factory, instead. Buying organic foods will mean that chemical farms will decrease while organic farms increase. The health of everyone as well as the surrounding ecosystems will improve as there are more and more organic farms to replace the chemical ones. People living downstream will benefit. Rivers, lakes and oceans will be safer to swim in. Your city drinking water will be cleaner, too.

Every time you buy a natural or organic product, you are not just saving yourself from exposure to toxins directly . You are also saving people and animals you will never see, some who haven't even been born, yet. You are making the earth a cleaner place to be, a blessing which will come back to you at some point because whether you know it or not, you are also downstream from these farms, factories and landfills, as well!