Hindus have urged yoga mat firms not to use PFRs (chemicals commonly used in yoga mats) as Harvard and other researchers recently found that exposure to PFRs may affect fertility.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged US Consumer Product Safety Commission and its Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle to look into this study and the ingredients used in various yoga mats.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged various yoga mats labels like Manduka, Lululemon, Jade, Hugger Mugger, prAna, Gaiam, etc.; to have a deeper look at the ingredients used by them if they were serious about the welfare of their consumers.
Moreover, one did not really need a fancy yoga mat to practice yoga, a liberation powerhouse referred as “a living fossil”, which was a mental and physical discipline whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Rajan Zed pointed out.
A study by Harvard, Duke & Michigan researchers published in August issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) states that evidence from animal studies suggests that exposure to organophosphate flame retardants (PFRs) can disrupt endocrine function and impair embryo development.
It concluded that concentrations of some urinary PFR metabolites were negatively associated with proportions of successful fertilization, implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live birth.
One in six couples worldwide is reportedly affected by infertility. EHP is a publication of the U.S. Federal Government.
Source: World Hindu News (WHN)