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New research shows that the cocktail of 350,000 chemicals that mankind now manufactures for use around the world has exceeded boundaries of what is safe for the stability of the Earth's ecosystem. The toxicity and damage caused by many of these chemicals is understood, but the long-term effects of thousands of them is still unknown.

And to make this personal, each one of us already has traces of hundreds of manufactured chemicals in our bloodstream. So can anything be done to reduce further damage from synthetic chemicals to our ecosystem?

One of the co-authors of the research, Bethany Carney Almroth, an eco-toxicologist from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden told Newsday we have passed a significant point.

"A lot of these chemicals are included in products that we are coming into contact with every day... through food but also through all the materials in our built environment - paints, electrical wiring and textiles."

"Chemicals should be tested for safety before they are released into the market. Unfortunately regulatory agencies and researchers aren't able to keep up."

(Pic: A handful of plastic particles collected from a beach on Costa Rica; Credit: Science Photo Library)

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