|
|
| There are many ways in which toxic chemicals can enter the body. People may inhale them in the air, ingest them from food, or even absorb them through the skin and mucus membranes. Many of these chemicals are fat-soluble, which means they are stored in the bodies adipose tissue (fat) for a prolonged period of time (and sometimes in the blood, muscle, semen, brain tissue, and other organs). Body burden is a term used to refer to the accumulations of these toxins in the body. Some well-known toxins that accumulate in the body through a lifespan are lead and mercury. Because these toxins are fat soluble, and therefore accumulate in the body more and more over time, they can accumulate in the food chain. Take mercury in tuna fish for example. There are trace amounts of mercury in the smaller fish that tuna consume; the levels of which are harmless to humans. A tuna will eat many of these fish over a lifespan. Because the mercury accumulates in the tuna, the older it is and the increased number of smaller fish it eats, the higher the mercury levels will be. When a human eats one of these older, larger tuna fish, he/she is basically eating all of the mercury from every one of those smaller fish. |