IT'S SO EASY TO BE FOOLED

I've been reading and researching again. Uh-oh, you know what that means: untangling the truth from the slippery great-sounding trash. Where to start?

Well, you remember the post back in December 2007? The one about exposé books? Most recently I've had my nose in Not Just a Pretty Face, the Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, collecting ammunition for an upcoming trip that will include short stays with friends who could use a little re-education. Hey, I understand that everyone has her own agenda, her own issues that are important. Toxic chemicals are my issue, my priority. And, like any good self-important egotist, I know that my issues are the most critical and everyone needs to be aware of them. Therefore, I need to know what I'm talking about when I suggest to them that they're killing me with their perfume, dryer sheets, hairspray, etc.

Chapter Ten in Not Just a Pretty Face starts with: "Cosmetics should be safe enough to eat," says Horst Rechelbacher, who founded Aveda ....

That's him in the picture. I've been reading everything I can find about him -- what a fascinating individual! If you look at the very first result of that Google search, you'll see it's Aveda's main site. BUT HIS NAME IS NOT MENTIONED ANYWHERE ON AVEDA'S SITE -- NOT EVEN IN THE HISTORY SECTION! So, long story short, he's a famous hairdresser from Austria, makes a boatload of money in Minneapolis, formulates a new hairspray, sells it and makes boatloads more money, talks to his mom who is an herbalist about making healthy/safe/botanical beauty products. He starts Aveda, which is Sanskrit for "all knowledge", in 1978. Aveda grows and grows and grows and everybody loves it because the philosophy behind everything they make and everything they do is "take care -- of the customers, the planet and each other." Horst is very Eastern and mystical that way. He eventually got burned out, I guess, because he sold Aveda to Estée Lauder for $300 million in 1997. He stayed on for a few years, partly to use the facilities and partly because he couldn't start a new company for a certain amount of time (couldn't be in competition with Lauder).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 11, 2008—New York, NY—Horst Rechelbacher announced the launch of his new certified organic health and beauty brand, Intelligent Nutrients, at a press event in New York City. The health and beauty lifestyle brand, Intelligent Nutrients, was unveiled to the press and beauty industry and includes more than twenty SKUs for launch. The launch collection includes certified organic aromatics, certified organic scalp and hair care, certified organic hair styling, certified organic total body cleanser, certified organic lip delivery nutrition™, and the heart of the line—Intellimune™—an internal/external certified organic super antioxidant seed oil blend and tablets. This is the first phase of an entire lifestyle brand with future products to include skin care, body care, maternal/baby care, love therapy, pet care and INvironmental products for the home.

This new company of his looks and sounds almost too good to be true, but his history and track record say he means it. He's one very smart and caring and alive human being. I hope this current venture is hugely successful.

NOW FOR THE POINT OF ALL THIS:
Before Estée Lauder purchased Aveda, a customer could feel safe using those products. A tiny bit of research, just a wee little look at SkinDeep, reveals that Aveda no longer enjoys it's previous reputation. No, they do not test on animals. That's a good thing. But NO, they have NOT signed the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics -- neither has Estée Lauder, but that doesn't come as a surprise. AVEDA'S PRODUCTS ARE NO LONGER SAFE TO USE (without checking the ingredients carefully). They are full of "fragrance" and we all know how dangerous that is: phthalates and other neuro-toxins abound.

Do your homework people! Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox, did you know that? And maybe Clorox hasn't dumped crap into the products (I'm not putting any money on that bet), but as far as I'm concerned, I will not give one red cent to the Clorox Company. They are part of the problem and they're busy back-pedaling and green-washing like crazy.

What say you?

THE POLLUTION IN NEWBORNS

From Environmental Working Group:

"The human race is now polluted with hundreds of industrial chemicals with little or no understanding of the consequences. Babies are born pre-polluted with as many as 300 industrial chemicals in their bodies when they enter the world. Testing by Environmental Working Group has identified 455 chemicals in people, and again, no one has any idea if these exposures are safe."

Join one of the most important environmental campaigns in history. Help the EWG win this battle in the war against toxic chemicals. The Kid Safe Chemicals Act would fix this problem by:

• Requiring companies to prove that their chemicals are safe for infants and children before products to on the market
• Making all health and safety data public
• Banning chemicals when manufacturers do not provide safety studies
• Promoting green, safer chemicals in consumer products

Do you get it? It seems to me that global warming isn't going to matter -- our species won't be able to reproduce in a few generations. Visit EWG and see what you think.

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID DRYER SHEETS AND FABRIC SOFTENERS

Although they may make your clothes seem soft and smell "sweet", fabric softener and dryer sheets are some of the most toxic products around. And chances are that the staggering 99.8 percent of Americans who use common commercial detergents, fabric softeners, bleaches, and stain removers would think twice if they knew they contained chemicals that could cause cancer and brain damage.

Here is a list of just some of the chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

• Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer

• Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant

• Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders

• Limonene: Known carcinogen

• A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage

• Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list

• Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders

• Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic

• Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders

• Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

So how could products with pretty names like Soft Ocean Mist, Summer Orchard and April Fresh be so dangerous?

The chemicals in fabric softeners are pungent and strong smelling -- so strong that they require the use of these heavy fragrances (think 50 times as much fragrance) just to cover up the smells. Furthermore, synthetic fabrics, which are the reason fabric softeners were created in the first place, do not smell good either when heated in a dryer or heated by our bodies ... hence the need for even more hefty fragrances.

Fabric softeners leave an oil coating on clothes, which doesn’t really leave them softer or fluffy. This oil builds up on the fibers and takes the absorbency out (oil repels water). In the dryer, fabric softener leaves a sticky residue on all the components like the moisture sensors and drum of the dryer. This residue is very flammable, which is why on the back of some fabric softeners it tells you not to use on towels, terrycloth or fleece. The number one cause of house fires is the dryer. Fabric softeners even take the fire retardant out of baby’s clothes.

There are alternatives:

Anti-Static Ball (slightly different than dryer balls)
Dryer Balls
Here are some home-made DIY ideas
The Static Eliminator Dryer Sheet System

Do yourself and your family and your neighbors a big favor and skip the dryer sheets and fabric softener. Thanks, in advance, for your consideration.

WHY USE IT? BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED!

I've just spent a whole lot of time on the road -- major relocation going on. So I found myself asking desk clerks across the country, "Does your hotel use air fresheners? Does your laundry service or housekeeping department use fabric softeners or dryer sheets?" And then the obligatory weird looks. You can see the wheels turning: "Is this some kind of nut? What's her problem?"

I found plenty of those automatic air freshener products. Sometimes the people who worked in the hotel didn't even know those products were being used. But in EVERY case, they were completely and totally unnecessary. There were no dogs lounging around the lobby, there was no kitty litter box under the table, I didn't see one unwashed bum in the area...nothing that would warrant the use of "air freshener". Nothing. No reason to use it. At. All. None. Not only was there nothing stinking up the place (except for the plug-ins), there was lovely fresh air pouring into the lobby every time a guest came in or went out.

The sad thing is that the advertising campaigns for these toxic little nasties are very very very good. Many people believe what they're told when they hear about the "freshness" or the "calming" or the "tropical" or the "citrus" -- the bullshit they're sold on.

I will never stop being angry about the use of these things. Especially in public places. These products are poisonous, dangerous, hazardous, toxic. How many ways can I say it?

So now I live in Portland, OR. I want to find like-minded people who want to make change happen. There are plenty of "clean air" laws. It's time for those laws to include air freshener products.

Join me. Let's do it.

Want your air freshened??? Think again.

But you knew that, right? You already knew that commercially produced air fresheners were hazardous to your health, didn't you? You knew because you've been reading labels, haven't you? You're so good.

And to help you with your battle, here is some more ammunition:

Our friends at Seventh Generation have recently written about the unsafe chemicals found in these products:

"Used in 75% of American households, air fresheners are big business, generating sales of about $1.72 billion a year. Found in everything from plug-in, fake candles to peel-and-stick evaporating disks, these products don’t actually eliminate odors but merely use one of several strategies to make you think they’ve vanished. Some products simply cover up bad smells with stronger chemicals. Others use a nerve-deadening agent to reduce your ability to smell in the first place; some even coat the inside of your nasal passages with a film that stops smells from getting through."

Read the rest of the article...

And then there's an article, aptly titled Air Freshener or Air Poisoner?, from a few months ago in Green Living Online:

"A study recently published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, found the regular use of sprays increased the risk of asthma by 30 to 50 percent. The study was done by the European Community Respiratory Health Survey, and followed 3,500 people in 10 European countries."

Here's the article.

I live between two families that both are huge fans of air fresheners. When their front doors open, we get a blast of that stench. It is so strong that I can't smell the cut grass as I'm going over it with my lawnmower. It is so strong that just a few moments in my neighbor's house coats me with that nasty smell. I've tried talking to both of these families. I've tried showing them research. They simply don't want to know. They have other, more important things to worry about. Actually, that's really true. But, in my not-so-humble opinion, they would improve their ability to handle these other problems if they weren't breathing poison. That's my two cents, what's yours?

The solution

Because I was a hippie in the 1960's (Google it if you don't know what "hippie" means), I understand about

IF YOU'RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

See, the deal is, if you don't do anything to get rid of toxic chemicals in your own environment, you are helping make the problem continue. If you keep using fragranced products, you put that toxic junk into the air and you harm yourself and others. That is the problem. So, every tiny step you take, every little bit of toxic chemical you eliminate from your life, every person you influence (even a wee bit), helps make this a cleaner world. It may not seem like much. But it is.

If individuals did not believe they could make any difference in this world, we'd certainly be doomed. Absofuckinglutely.

WHAT NOT TO BUY

As usual, Environmental Working Group is doing all the hard work and research. They have put a page on the Skin Deep site with this title (What not to buy). The article begins:

"Major gaps in public health laws allow cosmetics companies to use almost any ingredient they choose in everything from sunscreen and mascara to deodorant and baby shampoo, with no restrictions and no requirement for safety testing. To help you navigate your store's aisles, Environmental Working Group researchers have scoured thousands of ingredient labels to bring you our top recommendations for what not to buy — products with worrisome or downright dangerous ingredients that don't belong in your shopping cart or on your skin."

Why this matters:
Have you ever counted how many cosmetics or personal care products you use in a day? Chances are it's nearly 10.

And chances are good that they include shampoo, toothpaste, soap, deodorant, hair conditioner, lip balm, sunscreen, body lotion, shaving products if you're a man, and cosmetics if you are a woman. And what about your children? On any given day you might rub, spray, or pour some combination of sunscreen, diaper cream, shampoo, lotion, and maybe even insect repellent on their skin.

Most people use these products without a second thought, and believe that the government must certainly be policing the safety of the mixtures in these myriad containers. But they are wrong about this. The government does not require health studies or pre-market testing for these products before they are sold. And as people apply an average of 126 unique ingredients to their skin daily, these chemicals, whether they seep through the skin, rinse down the drain, or flush down the toilet in human excretions, are causing concerns for human health, and for the impacts they may have to wildlife, rivers and streams. Read more...