This is a YouTube video titled "The Impact of Pesticides on Fertility & Toxins in the U.S. | David Steinman x Dave Asprey" featuring a discussion between David Steinman and Dave Asprey recorded in June 2024. The conversation focuses on the harmful effects of chemical compounds in hair products and pesticides on fertility and health, particularly among hairdressers and people of color, and discusses practical steps to reduce exposure to toxins through organic foods and water filtration. The dialogue highlights environmental and health concerns related to toxic chemicals in the U.S.
Chapters
In research in my new book, I talked to a lot of hairdressers. And during the pandemic there was a baby boom among these hairdressers. They lived in New York City. And why was there a baby boom? Well, prior to the pandemic they were using a lot of hair styling products that contain chemicals called quaternion compounds. And quaternion compounds cut fertility really badly. I show why. Well, once they stopped working with all these compounds with their clients because of the pandemic and because salons were shutting down and they stopped their exposures, all of these hairdressers started having babies again. I write about it and it was a simple exposure to the products that they, that, that we use every day in our cosmetics and personal care. Particularly of concern are those for people with kinky hair, persons of color, because hair straighteners tend to contain a lot of these compounds. And so I show you what, what's safe in raising healthy kids. We're bringing up so many issues. People can start to say, well, okay, it's really bad, I'm just going to go in my cave and forget about it. But actually it's all of this is all manageable. You can do a quick read of my book and you're equipped for life. It's really, really managed well, we need it because our society's future is at stake. It's not small stuff.
It's one of those things where people think it's alarmist. When you say society is at stake, I don't think it's alarmist at all. And I see a lot in the news about people worrying about carbon in the atmosphere. And that's a 60 or 100 year problem. And we'll run out of topsoil before we really face all of the carbon problems. But who cares about the environmental effects of carbon if you're not going to stop the pesticides that are destroying life? It's not just humans, it's all the animals and bugs and stuff too. If you don't stop that now, do not talk to me about carbon. Carbon's an issue. It's just a distraction from these incredibly toxic compounds that are found more in the US than in most of the rest of the world. Why are there so many of these things in the US versus Europe?
You know, one of the things about the climate movement, which I totally support by the way, is it's kind of working from a scientific top down basis. And what I'm doing in the anti toxic movement is empowering people to make those decisions. In their shopping that will have the impact of getting rid of these pesticides, for example. And, David, we've made huge progress. So my second big tip. You were asking about how to avoid pesticides. Filtering your water is the first one. Second one is bio organic foods. And I want to fill people with hope here. You know, when I wrote Diet for a Poison Planet, there was no organic market. There was no federal organic certification. There were no organic foods available at supermarkets. So I had to look at every food and show you which were the least toxic and the most toxic. But the beautiful thing that has happened in the last 30 years, thanks to shoppers who have made the choice to demand safer foods, and now that we have an organic certification program, both on the federal and state level, is that organic food prices have gone way down.
