As the world celebrates Earth Day, environmental problems will be widely discussed. What many people are just beginning to realize is that some of these issues, like the increasing amounts of heavy metals such as mercury and lead in our environment, can have a direct and negative impact on human health.
“We are poisoning our air, food, and water with toxins that are impacting our health,” says Dr. Gary Kaplan, founder of The Kaplan Center for Integrative Medicine (www.kaplanclinic.com). “Increasingly we see patients who are suffering serious health issues as a consequence of toxins we have released into our environment. It is essential to educate yourself about these dangers, so you can more readily identify and avoid risks and address problems when they do occur.”
Here are a few of the environmental toxins that people need to be aware of, because of the risk they pose to human health:
