A LITTLE POISON WON’T HURT… WILL IT?

The chemical industry likes to quote the sixteenth-century Swiss chemist Paracelsus:  “All things are poisons… It is only the dose which makes a thing a poison.”14 But Paracelsus didn’t get it exactly right.  Timing of exposure can make the poison too.  At certain times in our lives – when we’re in our mothers womb, when we’re infants and children, when we’re nursing, when we’re elderly or our immune systems are depressed – even very low doses of certain chemicals (particularly endocrine disruptors) can wreak havoc.  It also perilously ignores the differences in frequency and type of exposure – by air, through the skin or eyes.15

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