No.1 Toxicologist: These Products Were Making Me Infertile And Are Harming Our Kids!
Dr Yvonne Burkart (guest), Steven Bartlett (host)
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Dr Yvonne Burkart and Steven Bartlett, No.1 Toxicologist: These Products Were Making Me Infertile And Are Harming Our Kids! explores everyday Toxins: How Hidden Chemicals Quietly Rewire Hormones And Fertility Toxicologist Dr. Yvonne Burkart explains how unregulated chemicals in everyday products—cosmetics, cookware, plastics, fragrances and water—act as endocrine disruptors that alter hormones, fertility, metabolism and child development at very low doses.
Everyday Toxins: How Hidden Chemicals Quietly Rewire Hormones And Fertility
Toxicologist Dr. Yvonne Burkart explains how unregulated chemicals in everyday products—cosmetics, cookware, plastics, fragrances and water—act as endocrine disruptors that alter hormones, fertility, metabolism and child development at very low doses.
She describes how industry-friendly regulations, especially in the US, allow thousands of under-tested chemicals into consumer goods, effectively turning the public into unwitting test subjects in a multi-generational experiment.
Drawing on her own infertility journey, she details how removing key exposures (beauty products, mercury fillings, plastics, fragrances) restored her menstrual cycle and allowed her to conceive naturally, underscoring the potential reversibility of some toxin-related health effects.
The conversation ends with pragmatic guidance: prioritize filtered water, eliminate synthetic fragrance, avoid heated plastics and non-stick cookware, clean indoor air, and choose simpler, safer formulations—focusing on practical risk reduction rather than perfection or fear.
Key Takeaways
Read ingredients, not marketing claims—‘fragrance’ is a major red flag.
Burkart stresses that front-of-pack claims (“clean,” “sustainable,” “natural”) are often meaningless without ingredient scrutiny. ...
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Endocrine disruptors work at very low doses and can impact multiple generations.
Contrary to the traditional toxicology maxim ‘the dose makes the poison,’ endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) often show non‑monotonic dose responses—meaning very low exposures can be more disruptive than higher ones. ...
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Everyday items—deodorants, cosmetics, cookware, plastics and candles—are key exposure sources.
She systematically identifies high-impact items: aerosol deodorants (propellants contaminated with benzene, inhalation risk), antiperspirants (aluminum salts linked to breast cancer risk), fragranced cosmetics and hair products (phthalates, formaldehyde releasers, harsh detergents), non-stick pans and plastic utensils (PFAS shedding and microplastics), plastic food containers and coffee cups (microplastics and heavy metals when heated), scented candles and incense (ultrafine particles, VOCs, undisclosed fragrance). ...
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Microplastics and PFAS are pervasive, persistent, and biologically active in the body.
Burkart notes that micro- and nanoplastics have been detected in lungs, blood, liver, kidneys, placenta, newborn meconium, heart, brain and even penile tissue; one 2024 study found human brains averaging ~0. ...
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Indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air—ventilation and source control are critical.
Indoor air pollution—largely from cooking, candles, incense, fragranced products and combustion—can reach levels five times worse than outside air. ...
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Simple, low-cost changes can substantially reduce toxic load without obsessing over perfection.
Her hierarchy of action starts with: (1) filter drinking and cooking water (ideally beyond basic jug filters, aiming for systems that reduce fluoride, pesticides, hormones and heavy metals; boiling helps with microplastics but not dissolved chemicals), (2) eliminate fragranced products where possible (perfumes, scented candles, air fresheners, fragranced detergents and most mainstream cosmetics), (3) cook at home with minimally processed foods, (4) gradually replace non-stick cookware and heated plastics with stainless steel, cast iron, glass and wooden utensils, and (5) avoid heating food or drinks in plastic. ...
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Boosting the body’s detox capacity (especially glutathione) helps buffer unavoidable exposures.
Glutathione, produced mainly in the liver and kidneys and concentrated in ovaries and testes, is a key antioxidant and detoxifier. ...
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Notable Quotes
“We’re basically guinea pigs in a massive human experiment that no one signed up for, that we didn’t consent to.”
— Dr. Yvonne Burkart
“I had to relearn almost everything, because as a scientist I was trained to believe the dose makes the poison—and that’s not always true.”
— Dr. Yvonne Burkart
“A surface scratch on a nonstick piece of cookware can release 9,000 particles into your food… and those microplastics have been found in lungs, heart, brain, penis.”
— Dr. Yvonne Burkart
“If I can prevent what happened to me in my children, and help people prevent that in their children, then that’s the best outcome for everyone.”
— Dr. Yvonne Burkart
“If I could solve one problem in the world, it would be toxins. I imagine a world without them would be a utopia—people well, happy, thriving and radiant.”
— Dr. Yvonne Burkart
Questions Answered in This Episode
You described some EDCs as more potent at very low doses than at higher ones—could you walk through a concrete example of a specific chemical where this non-monotonic response has been demonstrated and how that changes risk assessment?
Toxicologist Dr. ...
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The breast tissue study you mentioned showed changes in gene expression after just 28 days of removing certain product ingredients; what were the exact chemicals removed and how confident are you that similar benefits would be seen in real-world, less controlled settings?
She describes how industry-friendly regulations, especially in the US, allow thousands of under-tested chemicals into consumer goods, effectively turning the public into unwitting test subjects in a multi-generational experiment.
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You emphasized the disproportionate toxic burden in products marketed to Black women—can you name specific product categories or brands that are doing it better today, and what would an ‘ideal’ regulatory fix for this environmental injustice look like?
Drawing on her own infertility journey, she details how removing key exposures (beauty products, mercury fillings, plastics, fragrances) restored her menstrual cycle and allowed her to conceive naturally, underscoring the potential reversibility of some toxin-related health effects.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
If someone can only afford to change three things in their daily routine right now, which specific swaps (including brands or product types) would you prioritize for a woman trying to conceive in the next 12–18 months?
The conversation ends with pragmatic guidance: prioritize filtered water, eliminate synthetic fragrance, avoid heated plastics and non-stick cookware, clean indoor air, and choose simpler, safer formulations—focusing on practical risk reduction rather than perfection or fear.
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Given how ubiquitous microplastics and PFAS already are—even in remote wildlife—what realistic policy or technological interventions do you think could meaningfully reduce population-level exposure, rather than just individual behavior change at the margins?
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Transcript Preview
Don't believe everything you see on a product that you're buying, because we're being exposed to really toxic chemicals that we know cause harm.
Okay, so I've got everyday products that we're all using. Is this good?
No.
What about this?
Absolutely not.
Is this a good one?
Yes.
This?
Throw that out.
Good, bad?
There are so many issues with that.
This?
Perfect.
What about this?
This is one of the worst products that you can use.
I've been using it every day.
Get rid of them.
Goodbye.
Dr. Yvonne Burkart is a toxicologist-
... whose groundbreaking research has unveiled the shocking truth about the hidden risks of toxins found in everyday products. And what we can do about it.
We don't know what we're exposing ourselves to, because by law, in Europe and in the US, manufacturers do not have to disclose certain ingredients. But we finally have proof that there are links to increased rates of cancer, infertility, obesity. We know that a surface scratch on a nonstick piece of cookware can release 9,000 particles into your food, and those microplastics have been found in lungs, heart, brain, penis.
There's microplastics in my penis?
Yes. And scientists have found that eventually, we will become more plastic than we are humans if we continue at this rate.
You seem really pissed off about this.
I'm really angry that people have to suffer. I mean, these chemicals are causing children to have cognitive delays. They start having behavioral issues, and I think it brings up a lot of emotions for me, because I've been personally impacted, but I think (clears throat) of how many millions of people around the world are struggling and don't know why.
So what are the most important things that we can do to have the biggest impact?
Number one...
This has always blown my mind a little bit. 53% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to this show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like this show, and you like what we do here, and you wanna support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is, if you do that, then I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback. We'll find the guests that you want me to speak to, and we'll continue to do what we do. Thank you so much. Dr. Yvonne Burkart. I've consumed a lot of your content. I've seen your videos. I've read t- a ton of your work. Just to start, if you had to sort of encapsulate the warning that you're communicating to people into a sentence, what would that warning be?
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