On the healthy lifestyle beat, you can't ignore politics. Well, you can, but it would be wrong. Congress is finally having a go at redoing the shoddy and shameful Toxic Substances Control Act. It was passed 40 years ago, in 1976, to the delight of the chemical industry, and it should have been called the Toxic Substances Out of Control Act. It is now considered a public health calamity, but help may be coming — in a bipartisan way. It's that bad!

The decades of research that are leading to 2016 congressional reform are above reproach and downright frightening: Synthetic (manmade) chemicals in our cosmetics, food, furniture, household cleaners, plastic bottles, toys, water — pretty much, our Everything — are irrefutably linked to a hideously wide variety of cancers, heart disease, obesity, male infertility and ADHD, and that should be enough to catch your attention.

"Of the more than 80,000 chemicals currently used in the United States," says the National Resources Defense Council, "most have not been adequately tested for their effect on human health."

And how about this read-it-slowly summary by the Environmental Defense Fund: "1 of 3 formulated products sold by major retailers contains chemicals known to pose health risks."

Yikes. The EPA hasn't been testing, and the chemical industry hasn't been resting, and it's all gotten so dangerous, so threatening to our health and safety, even Congress is paying attention.

This pending legislation, named the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, would shift the burden of proof onto the chemical companies, so they have to honestly prove a chemical is safe before it can be sold to and used by humans. They don't have to do that now. It's stunning, isn't it?

The new law (you can keep track of it at www.govtrack.us) would be an imperfect first step toward protecting our population.

More important are the steps you take, dear reader, without waiting for vested interests in Washington to have their sway.

Here is some well-researched advice from NRDC's reporter Alexandra Zissu about how to avoid endocrine-disrupting chemicals. I admit that some of her suggestions sound a bit extreme. But so does a diagnosis of breast cancer. TURN UP YOUR NOSE AT FRAGRANCES. Pretty smells can have ugly consequences, according to the research on a class of chemicals called phthalates, found in fragrances and countless consumer products. Even if you can't pronounce their name, phthalates are impacting your health as endocrine disrupters. A few innocent sniffs and they're inside your body, mimicking hormones and creating havoc with your endocrine system, a network of hormones and glands that regulate everything you do. Everything you do. So check labels and buy fragrance-free.

THINK TWICE ABOUT PLASTICS. Many plastics are carriers of hormone-disrupting chemicals that harm your health, even at very low doses. BPA is one of the bad-boy plastics to avoid ... but how? Clean up your act a step at a time: Replace plastic food containers with glass ones; never use plastic in the microwave; replace plastic baggies with reusable lunch bags and replace plastic cling wrap with beeswax-coated cloth. (I spark joy every time I use my reusable beeswax covers.)

SAY, "NO CAN DO." Zissu and the NRDC don't like cans of any sort, even those labeled "BPA free". Don't use them, she writes. Choose fresh, frozen or dried foods instead.

RETHINK KID COSMETICS. Zissu reports that kids are using personal care products more than ever, and just like the adult kind, the kid-marketed cosmetics and lotions are packed with substances that get directly into the skin — the largest organ of the body — where they can do damage. Precocious puberty, for example.

Holy baby sunscreen! "Kids don't need cosmetics," Zissu reminds us. But the chemical industry always needs more customers, so that explains that.

CLEAN SMARTER. Don't get me started on household commercial cleaners, the kind Alexandra Zissu suggests you dispose of immediately! Responsibly, of course.

For more than 40 years, we innocent zillions have been buying these big-bottle commercial cleaners and all their tainted cousins — oven cleaners, flame retardants — thinking they were harmless.

Oops.

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 depended on the chemical industry to decide what's safe for consumers, aka "guinea pigs."

Let us agree they have not been doing a good job.

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY?

"EDCs — Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals — have contaminated the world via the natural flow of air and water." — Linda S. Birnbaum, director of National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences

Marilynn Preston — healthy lifestyle expert, well being coach and Emmy-winning producer — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, marilynnpreston.com, and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. She also produces EnExTV, a digital reincarnation of her award-winning TV series about sports, fitness and adventure, for kids of all ages, at youtube.com/EnExTV and facebook.com/EnExTV. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Keoni Cabral