It's about time! Time to "come clean"!

It seems consumers are getting smarter and groups are coming together to help control what I call "false advertising". The Organic Consumers Association started a "Coming Clean Campaign" in an effort to bring back the integrity of the body care products that claim to be "organic". Unsuspecting consumers see a product with the words "organic" on it and they think they're getting a natural and pure product, when in reality they are not. Oh, I'm not claiming to be innocent on that front; sadly, I've been duped, before. I would venture to say we've all been duped on some level, until we do our research. Remember, knowledge is power!

When the average person thinks of organic, they think of organic fruits and vegetables, but organic fruits and vegetables are presented in their natural state. Now, if you took an organic strawberry and used an abrasive chemical to extract the flavor of that strawberry to add it to lip gloss, would you still consider it an organic lip gloss? I wouldn't! Now, if you didn't use a chemical to extract that strawberry flavor, but you mashed up the strawberry and put it with other non-organic occurring substances/chemicals, say petrolatum, to make it into a lip gloss, would you still consider that an organic product? I wouldn't!

Three cheers for the Organic Consumers Association for taking on some of the makers of these "faux" organics! It has even given pause to Whole Foods as they will be taking a stand against some of these products.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm

And here are some well known products that have been called out on this:

• Avalon “Organics”
• Desert Essence “Organics”
• Earth’s Best “Organic”
• Eminence “Organic” (Except a few with the USDA Seal)
• Giovanni “Organic”
• Goodstuff “Organics”
• Head “Organics”
• Jason “Pure, Natural & Organic”
• Kiss My Face “Obsessively Organic”

Don't get duped, again!

To your health!

Joyce

Resources, resources, resources!

You have finished your beauty routine and now you realize you have just burdened your body with hundreds of chemicals in the process. Where do you turn? What can you do to educate yourself about all of that "stuff" you have been putting on your body for years?

One of the best websites I can recommend to you is The Cosmetic Database (http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com). The Cosmetic Database is part of the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The EWG is a non-profit organization that states, "At EWG, our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the environment, and to find solutions. Our research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know."

The Cosmetic Database can give you an unbiased opinion about your cosmetics since they are not sponsored by any of the cosmetic giants and are an independent organization. The EWG website contains other useful information which will be addressed in a later blog.

You can go to The Cosmetic Database, type in the name brand of the product(s) you use, and see what score each product is given. Products range from 0 to 10 with 0 being your best (safest) choice. Anything rated 0 to 2 is considered a low hazard, 3 to 6 is considered a moderate hazard, and 7 to 10 is considered a high hazard. Right now, at your fingertips, you have the ability to have a non-biased opinion about cosmetics and beauty supplies, backed by scientific data. Come on, visit the website and get the ratings of your current cosmetics. I dare you! The website will tell you if any of the ingredients are linked to:

• Cancer
• Developmental/reproductive toxicity
• Violations, restrictions & warnings
• Allergies/immunotoxicity
• Other concerns for ingredients used in this product

Don't like what you see? Well then do something about it! You can sort the products by their scores and go from there. Even if you change only one product at a time, consider the chemical burden you are removing from your body by replacing that one product. It can be very liberating, and healthy, too!

To your health!

Joyce

How much can chemicals hurt us?

I am often asked how chemicals in our everyday products can hurt us and affect our health. To answer this, you have to consider a few things.

• All chemicals require a material safety data sheet (MSDS) for transportation purposes. The MSDS determine how much of the product is required to cause a reaction to anyone that comes into contact with that chemical. The product can cause the effects via inhalation, coming into contact with skin or eyes, by entering a water source, and many other ways. Often times, a breathing apparatus is suggested, or chemical resistant gloves/suit, or goggles to protect the person handling the product from any contact with the chemical.

• All products are absorbed by our skin and inhaled during breathing, which is why a person that is highly allergic to peanuts can go into anaphylactic shock by merely breathing in the dust from one or a handful of peanuts and why people allergic to latex must use latex free gloves.

So now we move onto the next question I get, which is "but I don't use that many chemicals in any given day". Really? Let's look at some of the products a person uses in any given day. On average, a person gets up, takes a shower/bath, washes their hair, brushes their teeth, washes their face, applies a moisturizer, uses some kind of hair care product to keep their style in place, uses deodorant (or worse, an antiperspirant) and may apply make-up, and cologne or perfume. That means you use a soap or bath gel, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, facial wash and possibly astringent, moisturizer, hairspray/hair gel/wax, deodorant/antiperspirant, make-up (base, powder, blush, eye liner, eye shadow, mascara, and lipstick or lip gloss), and your perfume or cologne. You haven't even made it out of the bathroom, yet!

Read the label on each of those products. Can you pronounce even half of the names of the chemicals you are using in those products? Do you feel like you're having to go back to your science class days just to try to figure out how to pronounce them? Chances are, unless you just finished a science class, you won't even recognize some of those names, because we are constantly adding chemicals to our world every day.

Now, going back to your science class days, what is the other thing you learned about in science class, regarding safety? Yes, that's right, you have to be careful as to which chemicals you mix together, because you never know what kind of reaction you are going to get by mixing chemicals at random.

Think about it; you are putting hundreds upon hundreds of chemicals on your body each day, and you don't know if any of them can have a chemical reaction with one another.

So are you willing to make your daily cleansing routine a science project with potential hazardous chemical reactions? Why take the risk!

Read the labels, quit buying chemicals, and put your mind at ease!

To your health!

Joyce