While the results of Duke's experiment are somewhat specific to her, or individuals who lead similar lives, her findings do resonate for the average person. She veers away from taking any stance that most people would consider "extreme." She does choose to make some of her own personal care items (like deodorant) when she can't find suitable alternatives, but for the most part she's an average woman who wants to be able to wear make-up and straighten her hair without getting cancer as a result. What was most interesting was that before embarking on this quest, Duke was already living a "clean" lifestyle by most standards. Her family was eating mostly organic foods and she chose "natural" products whenever she could. Despite this, her initial levels of parabens and phthalates were off the charts. While we trust governmental agencies are protecting us and keeping us "safe," this is clearly not the case. Even when products are labeled "natural" or even "organic," they are not necessarily safe. We still have to do the work of label-reading and researching.
In an attempt to lighten the perhaps doom-and-gloom feeling the reader might be left with, Duke closes by providing a very useful summary of personal actions that she felt were the most beneficial in creating a safer home environment and which cleanse techniques she felt were the most successful. These are things that we can all do and it leaves one with a feeling of agency in this quest. She recognizes, though, that personal action can only go so far and that the real battle is an overhaul of the outdated and overly-corporate-friendly Toxic Substances Control Act so that it is more in line with the rest of the developed world's use of the precautionary principle in regards to what is allowed in consumer products. Overall, the message is one of empowerment. Our individual actions, whether they be our consumer choices or our activism, are important and in the aggregate they can enact great social change.
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