M3.1 Biomonitoring

My first thoughts of doing any kind of testing for chemical exposures was that I was afraid. I was not afraid because I did not want to participate...but I was afraid of the results. I have worked in the hospital for about 5 years now, going in and out of MRI / CT rooms, labs and more. I am very well aware that when your environment is high in specific amounts of radiation and chemicals, you are very likely to have some contact. This is a general statement I had to explain to my mom who is from the 1970's where they were all about chemical exposures and spraying random pesticides and chemicals for every day things like gardening, cleaning the house, etc.

After watching this video, I am hesitant to take this test because I would not feel good about knowing what is in my body. However, I am also on the side of wanting to know if there if I have a unreasonable amount of some sort of chemical that might inhibit my future plans of child bearing or anything else. I believe it is important to choose your surroundings carefully and think about the potential exposures you might be making in the future; however, with the expansion of technology it is really difficult to avoid. We use our cell phones and computers so naturally and routinely now, I would not be surprised if an extremely high amount of chemical / radiation exposure comes from that.

We have made some changes within our household preparing to reduce the exposure of any type of chemicals or radiation such as not having a microwave, limiting the amount of sprays / aerosol chemicals (hair spray / scents etc.)

My husband and I want to travel to Asia next year, but after hearing that the commenter in the CNN video had high amounts of DDT from Africa (as an example) I am going to look up if there are any potential chemical hazards/ toxins you can catch when going to other countries.
this opens up another mindful notion of understanding your environmental exposure.