All Videos for Persistent Organic Pollutants

Preventing Asthma with Fruits and Vegetables

A study involving more than a million kids suggests the striking worldwide variation in childhood rates of allergies, asthma, and eczema is related to diet.



How Many Cancers Have Been Caused by Arsenic-Laced Chicken?

Arsenic-containing drugs intentionally added to poultry feed to reduce the parasite burden and pinken the meat are apparently converted by cooking into carcinogenic inorganic arsenic compounds.



California Children Are Contaminated

The levels of arsenic, banned pesticides, and dioxins exceeded cancer benchmarks in each of the 364 children tested. Which foods were the primary sources of toxic pollutants for preschoolers and their parents?



Dietary Sources of Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors

Foods of animal origin (especially fish) appear to be the most important source of human exposure to industrial pollutants such as alkylphenol xenoestrogens.



How Long to Detox from Fish Before Pregnancy?

How many months does it take to clear 99% of the mercury and other industrial toxins from one’s body, and what role might our fat stores play in holding on to fat-soluble pollutants?



Mercury vs. Omega-3s for Brain Development

Risk/benefit analysis of 33 fish species contrasts the brain-boosting effects of DHA with the brain-damaging effects of mercury, to determine the net effect on intelligence (IQ).



Fish Intake Associated with Brain Shrinkage

Exposure to mercury during pregnancy appears to influence fetal brain development, as detected by decreased size of a newborn’s brain.



Counteracting the Effects of Dioxins Through Diet

Phytonutrients in certain plant foods may block the toxic effects of industrial pollutants, like dioxins, through the Ah receptor system.



Male Fertility & Diet

Dioxins, endocrine disrupting pollutants, heavy metals, saturated fat, and steroids in the meat supply may be affecting sperm counts, semen quality, and the ability of men to conceive.



Preventing Parkinson’s Disease with Diet

Low levels of neurotoxic chemicals in cheese may explain the connection between dairy product consumption and Parkinson’s disease.



Protein, Puberty, and Pollutants

The early onset of puberty in girls associated with animal protein consumption may be due to endocrine-disrupting chemical pollutants in the meat supply.



Lowering Dietary Antibiotic Intake

What a few days eating vegetarian can do to the levels of antibiotics and phthalates flowing through one’s body.



The Wrong Way to Detox

The reason birth order is a predictor of pollutant levels in the bodies of children is that women can pass along as much as half of their PCB burden to their fetus during pregnancy.



Plants vs. Pesticides

Phytonutrients found in certain foods may protect against the toxic effects of industrial pollutants such as dioxin and DDT, suggesting a dual role for plant-based diets to reduce both exposure and subsequent damage.



Food Sources of Perfluorochemicals

Where do DDT, hexachlorobenzene, PCBs, and perfluorochemicals (linked to thyroid disease) concentrate in the food supply?



How Fast Can Children Detoxify from PCBs?

Based on the half-life of industrial pollutants children may be exposed to in the womb or at the breast, how many years does it take for them to detoxify their bodies (assuming they’re brought up on a healthy diet)?



DDT in Umbilical Cord Blood

Are pregnant women who eat fish, other meat, and dairy still passing along the pesticide DDT—even decades after it was banned?



Food Sources of Flame-Retardant Chemicals

Other than pet food and fish (which may be most contaminated), how do fire-retardant chemicals (PBDEs) and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) concentrate in the American food supply?



Pollutants in Californian Breast Tissue

Levels of flame-retardant chemical pollutants (PBDEs) in the tissues of women from around the world are compared.



Pesticides in Chinese Bamboo Shoots

Cans of bamboo shoots imported from China may have concerning levels of pesticide contamination.



President’s Cancer Panel Report on Environmental Risk

The official National Cancer Institute report on the “unacceptable” burden of cancer stemming from industrial chemical pollutants is strongly worded, but lacks sufficient dietary guidance.



CDC Report on Environmental Chemical Exposure

The latest national survey on the levels of chemical pollutants (such as heavy metals, toxic solvents, endocrine-disrupters, flame-retardant chemicals, PCBs), and pesticides (such as DDT) in the bodies of pregnant and non-pregnant Americans.



Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death

Death in America is largely a foodborne illness. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse many of the top 15 killers in the United States.



Creatine Brain Fuel Supplementation

Vegetarians appear to get more of a cognitive boost than meat-eaters from creatine supplementation.



Chicken Dioxins, Viruses, or Antibiotics?

The association between poultry and cancer may be explained by the presence in chickens’ and turkeys’ flesh of industrial carcinogens such as dioxins, oncogenic (cancer-causing) viruses, and/or the drugs that were fed to the birds.



Some Ayurvedic Medicine Worse than Lead Paint Exposure

Triphala, a combination of three fruits—amla, bibhitaki, and haritaki—is the most commonly used herbal formulation in Ayurvedic medicine, and may have powerful anticancer properties. Unfortunately, one in five Ayurvedic herbal dietary supplements were found contaminated with lead, mercury, and/or arsenic.



Fish Oil in Troubled Waters

Major fish oil manufacturers and drug stores are being sued for failing to disclose the PCB pollutants in fish oil supplements.



Food Sources of PCB Chemical Pollutants

The top three sources of industrial toxins in the diet are fish oil, fish, and eggs.