If you’ve read my blog “What are you putting on your skin?” and were amazed at the amount of chemicals in your own bathroom, you’ll want to see The Story of Cosmetics. It’s a great, easy to understand visual. It highlights chemicals in products we as consumers purchase, will buy in the future and how the products, despite our own preference, are determined by industry and the government.

Be sure to pass this one on and spark a conversation about what’s going in the your cupboard, your community, you body.

For many years now, exposure to BPA has been associated with cancer, insulin resistance, and birth defects. But until recently, there has been a major reluctance to ridding the use of BPA in products, despite hundreds of studies showing the harmful effects on environment and health.

The Environmental Working Group has a full report on BPA, go to http://ewg.org/reports/bisphenola/execsumm.php. For a more in-depth list of how to avoid BPA, check out http://ewg.org/reports/bisphenola/consumertips.php. For a comprehensive report on bisphenol A by the WWF, see: http://assets.panda.org/downloads/bisphenol.pdf.

I wanted to post this video because it is interesting to me how something once considered “safe” is now just a short time later, being declared a health risk.

The steps, posted on the FDA Web site to ban EPA from baby bottles, include:

• Supporting the industry’s actions to stop producing BPA-containing baby bottles and infant feeding cups for the U.S. market;
• Facilitating the development of alternatives to BPA for the linings of infant formula cans; and
• Supporting efforts to replace BPA or minimize BPA levels in other food can linings.

Though it is encouraging to see that the FDA is now taking strides to create changes in BPA usage in baby products, it is still perplexing how the ban of such a toxic chemical is still not inclusive of all products when even minimal exposure is considered unsafe.

Food for thought.

That’s when I came upon this really cool site called: whatididnotbuy.org that let’s you plug in items you could have bought but didn’t (I like to think you were influenced by the thought of greener living) and see the positive impact your non-purchase could make in dollars. Check it out, it’s pretty neat and another reminder of how much stuff we don’t really need and how much others really do.

http://whatididnotbuy.org/

These are just a few of the products that were considered moderate to high in toxicity. As you can see, I numbered them according to rating.

The EWG launched an online safety guide for cosmetics and personal care products in 2004 called Skin Deep. Their aim was to fill in the gaps and give consumers information on the content of products that they purchase. They reveal information on over 52,470 products with 8,831 ingredients, integrating  a collection of personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases.

As a consumer I was really happy to find such a database of information because it breaks down some pretty complicated information into layman’s terms. We need information like this because under the FD&C Act, cosmetics, personal care products and their ingredients are not required to undergo approval before they are sold to the public. Simply put, just because a product is on the shelf in the store doesn’t determine that it has been adequately tested or that you should be using it on your body. Do you know what imidazolidinyl is and why it’s in a majority of moisturizers? Case in point.

To be perfectly honest with you, the more I researched the more irritated I became. I was a big fan of purchasing products that used words like “natural” “pure” and “gentle” thinking that this would be an indicator of the healthy benefits on my body. I was wrong. Our beauty industry is self-regulating and we as consumers pay the price.

The list of toxic chemicals available on ingredient lists is endless but a few commons ones are parabens, urea and tolulene.

1. Parabens (ethyl-, methyl-, propyl-) are a class of chemicals widely used as preservatives in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. These are found in most cosmetics products.
2. Urea also known as imidazolidinyl and DMDM hydantoin is a formaldehyde-releasing preservative used in many cosmetics, toiletries, lotions and pharmaceutical preparations and is often found in preparations labelled as ‘hypoallergenic’.
3. Toluene or BHT / benzoic and benzyl – sunscreens, lipstick, blush, and shampoos contain this ingredient. Toluene is a common solvent, able to dissolve paints, paint thinners, silicone sealants.

I used this list and the database to learn more about the products I was using. I decided that products with these in them shouldn’t be going on me. I came across several body lotions that had a rating of 10, the highest toxicity level available with links to breast cancer tumor studies. The lotion marketed as “natural” and “clean” contained ingredients linked to several scientific studies surrounding breast tumors. It’s enraging.

I used the same scale administered by the EWG and separated all of the products, recycling all that were higher than 6. For me, it’s just seem worth the risk to hold on to products that have been linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity and/or violations, restrictions & warnings by the FDA. The same products that I have been using for months if not years on my body.

I’ve also made a commitment to purchase only 0-2 grade products in the future. Admittedly, the cost of purchasing truly natural, organic ingredient products can be more expensive than those on drugstores shelves. The reality however, is that it is my body and I want to know what goes in it, to be able to make an informed choice. I am willing to use healthier products more sparingly (and homemade skincare recipes) in the knowledge that I will be healthier for it. I am no longer willing to put my faith in companies that operate with no restrictions and no requirement for safety testing. It’s simply not an option.

A large majority of people spend their time cooking in non-stick and Teflon coated cookware. It’s pretty cost effective and it is easily available in every housewares department. Naturally, with such massive use and high demand of a product, it’s assumed safety isn’t an issue. This is where it gets interesting….

Non stick pans don’t give off an odor when heated. Unfortunately, in the pre-heating of these same pans, a toxic fume is put into the air that over time can actually make you sick. The surface areas of non-stick and teflon pans break apart when heated at high temperatures and emit a toxic chemical known as PFOA.

PFOA stands for Perfluorooctanoic acid. You’re probably thinking: That’s great Ophelia, why should I care? Well my friend, PFOA is a toxicant and carcinogen which is something they don’t print on the product label.

At 680°F Teflon pans release at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, two global pollutants, and MFA, a chemical lethal to humans at low doses. If that’s not enough to scare you, the EPA recommends that bird owners avoid completely the use of non-stick and Teflon cookware to avoid avian death. Canary in the coal mine anyone?

So, what are the alternatives to Teflon and non-stick products? From what I can gather you have a few choices. Firstly, cast iron and stainless steel cookware are considered two of the best alternatives for cooking.

Some nutritionists suggest cooking with cast iron as cooking food in it allows iron to minimally leach into the food itself and be reabsorbed by the body. The amounts are low enough that they are actually beneficial and not considered a health risk.

Stainless steel is both hard wearing and easy to clean. It’s considered one of the best and safest choices in cookware and heats pretty evenly according to most reviews. It should be noted that stainless steel is a combination of steel, chromium and nickel, so people who have nickle allergies should probably stay away from this type of cookware.

I came across one brand in particular that is considered “eco-friendly” that I first saw on the home shopping channel called Green Pan. The company prides itself on having no PFOA or PTFE content in it’s products. Also, the non-stick surface is made with a sand derivative known as silica. Pure silicon dioxide produces no fumes and is insoluble in the body, which means it passes and leaves no trace. Sounds good to me.

Ceramic titanium and anodized aluminum are other viable options for cookware. Aluminum cookware It is lightweight, inexpensive and has an extremely long life span. That said, there has been a lot of controversy about aluminum and it’s possible link to Alzheimer’s disease, so I would suggest doing some of your own research if this is a product that you are interested in.

As for me, I didn’t end up purchasing a frying pan. Instead, I took down some names, added them to my list and decided I would do some more research in an effort to make the most eco-health friendly purchase. Until then, I guess I’ll be eating a lot more salads. Organic, of course.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

Spanish version: www.noalaincineracion.org/cosas

This year, Chris and I have been slowly phasing chemically based cleaning products out of our house. As products are depleted, we switch to homemade solutions that are easily made. Just this past weekend, our green alternative to toilet bowl cleaner was welcomed into our bathroom. It’s a simple concoction of just 3 ingredients that are probably already in your house.

Combine 2 tablespoons of baking soda with one tablespoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of your favorite scent (lemon juice a glass bottle works well). Throw this into your toilet and scrub away! It is a great green alternative to toxic chemicals that are normally sent into our water supply.

A girlfriend sent me a book as a gift called Green Baby by DK Publishing and asked me to read it. I did and what I read made me realize that what I knew about living a healthy lifestyle was but a thimble of information. In an effort to gain a more accurate picture of how my lifestyle choices have affected my health, my home and my environment, I started reading more and more literature on the topic. What I have learned and continue to learn is shocking.

I have reinvented my idea greener living and hope to share with readers what I have learned and continue to learn along the way.  For many, the idea of making drastic lifestyle changes is a daunting one and like many resolutions, fade well before any real results have been achieved.

I believe that by learning more about toxins in our food and environment, we can make better decisions. Decisions that can positively impact not only ourselves but our families and the global community. Hopefully, by sharing what I learn in these pages, not only will I improve my own life, but help you to Downsize Your Impact.