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CLEANING AND INFERTILITY PRODUCTS - THE NOT SO HIDDEN TRUTH

Things are getting personal. I'm Mahira, founder of Spruce. I'm often asked what the motivation behind the release of Spruce was, what the "bulb moment" was. Well, there wasn't a single moment. In fact, it was a series of experiences over the last decade that led me to release Spruce.

I suffered from the unexplained infertility that defined the last ten years of my life. For anyone who has been on this journey, or knows someone who has, you know how exhausting it can be. Your life revolves around treatment cycles to make what you most want to happen. You would do anything to make the treatments work. I've tried everything from acupuncture, meditation, Chinese medicine to dietary and lifestyle changes. I won't go into detail about the trauma caused by miscarriages, another subject I can talk about forever.

Over the past ten years, I've realized that we're surrounded by chemicals lurking in most products, from our food to cookware, personal care, and cleaning products. I changed everyday products and where I didn't find alternatives, I made mine.

I carried out a massive cleaning of the house. We switched to organic products to avoid pesticides that are normally sprayed on food. I immediately cut off all plastic food storage containers, even those marked BPA Free, as chemicals in plastic containers can contaminate the food. These chemicals such as phthalates, BPA and PVC are known endocrine disruptors (hormones) and studies have linked them to reproductive toxicity. While my motivation at the time was primarily to address our health issues, in recent years I have become more aware of how plastic, especially disposable packaging, is for the health of the planet. As early as 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the public that endocrine disruptors can cause cancer and infertility and concluded that these substances are a global threat to public health.

After more than a year of poking and prodding, looking for treatments from coast to coast (I was living in the US at the time), I finally got pregnant. During my pregnancy, the amount of education about the chemicals we consume was really revealing. At the same time, more research has been conducted that confirm the health risks of ingesting plastics in the form of microscopic particles. There is no way to hide the fact that we consume tiny plastic particles in our food, water and air. Nanoplastics are even found in the soil in which our food is grown. Not surprisingly, the effects are similar to the health hazards caused by chemicals in cleaning products.

Plastics can enter the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier as well as cross the placenta.

A study investigating the effects of plastic consumption on infants found microplastics in four of the six placentas examined. Microplastics were found in all parts of the placenta that ended up there due to the mother consuming, absorbing or inhaling the particles. This can cause irreversible damage to the fetus, and after the babies are born, the same study found that they can ingest 1.6 billion microplastics from the bottle.

My doctor specifically told me never to drink water from a disposable plastic bottle as it contains 400 times more microplastics that are harmful to the fetus compared to tap water. Microplastics are used in the contents of skin care products and beauty products such as fillers, including lipsticks, lotions and skin care products. I'm not even talking about microspheres, which are fortunately banned in most countries. Microplastics are also present in the cleaning sprays we inhale on a daily basis.

I vividly remember, after my son was born, trying desperately to breastfeed when my wet nurse made comments that breastfeeding might be impossible for some women. His exact words: "It's possible that your mother inhaled certain toxic chemicals in cleaning products that could have altered your physiology forever, making it potentially impossible for you to get pregnant or breastfeed." Those words stayed with me and still haunt me.

When I conducted further research on her comments, I found that regulations on what can be packaged and sold as cleaning products have not changed in decades. It means we are inhaling the same toxic chemicals and harsh ingredients, which release poisonous gases when mixed, endocrine-disrupting fragrances, that our mothers did many decades ago.

Having gone through the infertility journey, I now realize how many people in my immediate friends and family circle are suffering. It turns out that it's a subject that no one wants to talk about, many people suffer in silence. It's my mission to spread the word about how our convenience-oriented lifestyles and especially air pollution from harmful chemicals and plastics affect our fertility and overall well-being.

Recent research shows that human fertility is at great risk and currently 20-30% of men worldwide can be considered infertile due to low sperm count. This sad truth has been a reality in many other animal species, especially those most exposed to our chemical and plastic residues in the oceans. And now it has reached the human race.

The first time the headlines made the news that the future of the human race is threatened by falling sperm counts, I couldn't help but imagine the Servant's Tale. The discovery that sperm counts have declined by 50 percent over the past 40 years was made in 2017. Dr. Swan, who has examined nearly 50,000 men, has come to the conclusion that by 2050 we will need technological assistance to procreate. She attributed these statistics to our unhealthy lifestyles and constant exposure to chemicals. Chemicals that enter our lives because of plastics and indoor air pollution (yes, most cleaning products).

Phthalates, commonly used in synthetic fragrances and to make plastic soft and pliable, are incredibly 'good' at interrupting our hormones and making our bodies think they're producing enough for optimal health. These chemicals reduce testosterone levels and decrease libido, increase the risk of ovarian failure, and cause precocious puberty in adolescent girls. Phthalates that act as endocrine disruptors are in a variety of household products - food packaging, plastic Tupperware, shampoo bottles, household cleaning products, lipstick, etc.

We are so surrounded by these dangerous chemicals that scientists are now seeing the emergence of a disease called "Phthalate Syndrome", which manifests itself in lower sperm counts and underdeveloped genitalia in male babies.

What is more worrying is that the increase in phthalate syndrome is related to the increase in the oil industry and the widespread production and use of plastics. The link is obvious. That's why we swear never to use synthetic fragrances in our products.

Since I started medical treatment and changed my lifestyle, I have been blessed with beautiful children. I understand my privilege as these treatments are not always successful for everyone. The lifestyle changes I have made over the years have not only improved my family's health, but have also helped me to raise conscious children who care about the health of the planet. No convenience or ease can make me go back to using plastics every day in my life and starting Spruce is a way to share my experience and leave plastics forever.