9.2: Six Chemical Classes

Highly Fluorinated:This webinar was really interesting to me. I was shocked to find out that these chemicals, which provide stain and water repellency, are found in almost every single person in the world. This is extremely scary because I had no idea this is one chemical that I most likely have in my body. This chemical has been shown to lead to various forms of cancer, so reducing our exposure to this would be a good idea.
Solvents:These chemicals are extremely toxic and hazardous to people in various ways. They affect respiratory systems and the skin. These chemicals are used to dissolve chemicals for example, nail polish removers. These are extremely hazardous due to their strong smell. Often times, they also irritate the skin if it gets on their while taking off nail polish.

Antimicrobials:The topic of Antimicrobials is extremely interesting to me. As a nurse, are constantly using these types of chemicals in order to prevent the spread of illness among our patient population. By being exposed to these types of chemical, we lower our immune system and become susceptible to various diseases in the future because we tend to build resistance. 

Bisphenols + Phthalates:After watching the webinar, I was pretty intrigued by these chemicals and decided to take a further look into them. I found that BPA was commonly found in plastics bottles and cans. These chemicals are hormone disrupting chemicals and put people at risk for various other issues. Phthalates, on the other hand, are used to increase the flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity of plastics.

Flame-Retardants:As we learned in the module, flame retardants are found in various consumer products and building with the purpose of slowing down or stopping a fire. However, this is not always the case because as we saw in one of our videos, a flame-retardant couch still caught fire. The only difference between the flame-retardant couch and not flame-retardant couch was that the flame retardant one took 3 second longer to catch fire. 

Metals: Exposure to some types of metals in the womb are extremely toxic for a fetus. For example, mercury exposure may lead to developmental problems. Though metals are dangerous, they are also useful for conduction.