Narrative: Average Jane – Toxins Running Through Her Vein
Prepared by Alexander Mayorkis
This is the story of a group of women from Europe. They live normal lives and have average routines; however, their story is in Mark Shapiro’s Exposed. Their situation is deeply unsettling and has driven them to pause everything and gather before the European Parliament. They fear the effects of the dozens upon dozens of toxins that are in their systems. The scary part is how the toxins ended up in the cells and tissues that compose every aspect of their being. These women do not work in hazardous professions or live near the waste or factory production. The chemicals in their blood are the direct result of all of the everyday products they use and encounter on a daily basis, the expensive make-up, the classy deodorant, the new car, the frying pan, the shaving gel, the plastic water bottle, the sock, the average toothbrush. The women who took their situation to the European Parliament might be the topic of this story, but ultimately this is a story about everyone who will read it.
“…a troupe of women on a visit to the European Parliament. They were a motley gathering of three generations – grandmothers, mothers, and daughters…” (Shapiro, 124). These women from all over Europe were tested for toxins in their blood. The result was around 50 toxins and carcinogens in their systems. This was such a shock to them that they went to the government in order to get some sort of change. These women are suffering from the modernized world and all of the companies making products with hazardous materials. This doe not mean that the companies necessarily lace their latest product with some sort of carcinogen, but the lack of research and attention to what goes in is to blame. Their purpose is to lobby government and cause the creation of agencies and laws to monitor and regulate what all consumers come into contact with.
These are normal healthy women who live lives similar to those of their American counterparts. “There was no hint that Bruno’s heart was pumping toxins through her body along with the normal bounty of life-giving nutrients. Yet there were there, as if she had just drunk them in a soda.” (Shapiro, 127). None of them conducted lives that should warrant such high numbers of toxins in their blood. These were not women who worked with harmful substances or handled poisonous materials at their jobs or for their hobbies. All they did would be considered normal in any city in the world. They showered, got dressed up, cooked, ate, and drank. The personal hygiene products they used are available in any supermarket along side the utensils they used to make their food. All of their seemingly safe and common practices led to the test results that they face. The social norms or the constant pressure for better and newer products can put strain on manufacturers to not inspect the effects that a layer of non-stick might cause on the family which will eat from their frying pan.
The subjects of this story are European women, but they are not the only ones who suffer. “The CDC itself had released findings in 2005 from a comprehensive survey of Americans dispersed across the population who were registering the presence of at least 148 chemical in their blood, a similar chemical mix to that which had been found in the blood of Europeans.” (Shapiro, 130). The situation of the women is not an anomaly. They are not different from any other person who lives a modernized life. Anybody who reads this is in the same situation as the group from Europe.
With improving technology, many are learning what they are really being exposed to. Scientists and groups around the world are working toward greater knowledge of the issue around the world. Individuals and foundations, some of which have had success, are encouraging governments and corporations to monitor what composes products and what toxic, carcinogenic, or mutagenic effect it can have on everyone exposed to it.
