Tips for choosing better health care products

Choose better body care products

Better products meet their claims and are free of ingredients that could harm our health or the environment. Labels might claim that a product is “gentle” or “natural,” but with no required safety testing, companies that make personal care products can use almost any chemical they want, regardless of risks. So, always read product labels – especially the ingredient list – before you buy.

How to read a label
Every personal care product on the market must list the ingredients on the label. Label reading can be confusing – here are some tips to help you wade through the chemical names. You can approach ingredient lists in 3 parts:

1. Start at the end where preservatives are listed. Try to avoid:
    
   • Words ending in “paraben”
   • DMDM hydantoin
   • Imidsazolidinyl urea
   • Methylchloroisothiazolinone
   • Methylisothiazolinone
   • Triclosan
   • Triclocarban
   • Triethanolamine (or “TEA”)
      
2. Next, check the beginning of the ingredients list. Here you’ll find the soap, surfactant, or lubricant that has been added to make the product work. Try to avoid ingredients that start with “PEG” or have an “-eth” in the middle (e.g., sodium laureth sulfate).
    
3. Finally, read the middle ingredients. Here you’ll look for some common – but not essential – additives that may bring excess hazard: fragrance and dyes. On the label look for “FRAGRANCE,” “FD&C,” or “D&C.”

    

For the grown-ups in the house
While many parents pay more attention to their kids’ environmental health than their own, your body can be affected by toxic chemicals, too, especially if you’re breastfeeding, pregnant, or planning to be pregnant.EWG’s Safer Shopping List has 9 common-sense tips to reduce your own exposures, like buying fragrance-free, skipping the nail polish and using fewer products. You can also download our handy wallet guide, which lists some products and ingredients to avoid.

Use EWG’s Cosmetics Database to choose safer products. In addition to generating a hazard score for your product (on a 1 to 10 scale), it allows you to search by brand and for products without certain ingredients or health effects. You can enter products that aren’t included, and create personal shopping lists – among other tricks.

Just for kids
Extra caution is in order for kids because they receive greater exposures by weight than adults to contaminants in air, water, food, and everyday products. In addition, their immature metabolism and organ systems are typically less capable of fending off chemical assaults. Subtle damage to developing bodies that does not trigger immediate health effects may lead to disease later in life.

Follow EWG’s top 6 tips for kids:

1. Use fewer products and use them less often.
2. Don’t trust the claims. Check ingredients.
3. Buy fragrance-free products.
4. Avoid the use of baby powder on newborns and infants.
5. Do your homework at EWG’s Cosmetics Database
6. Always avoid EWG’s top 7 chemicals of concern for kids: 
    
   • 2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3 Diol
   • BHA
   • Boric acid and sodium borate
   • Dibutyl phthalate & toluene
   • DMDM Hydantoin
   • Oxybenzone
   • Triclosan

Parabens and their effects

Parabens and their effects

You find parabens in cosmetics, creams and even food. Ever wondered what it is?
Parabens are something that most people aren’t aware of – although many of us use them on a regular basis. Parabens are a chemical compound of para-hydroxybenzoic acid, and common types of parabens include butyl, propyl and ethyl parabens. Less common types include benzylparaben and isobutylparaben.

Parabens occur naturally in such things as blueberries, prunes and cinnamon although all parabens used commercially are made synthetically.  A common use for parabens is as a food additive, usually to add colour or flavour, and they are also known for their ability to reduce the effects of bacteria and spoilage. They are also commonly found in oil and glue products.

Parabens are found in a variety of everyday products – cosmetics, deodorant, face cream, shampoo and toothpaste. Check the list of ingredients on one of these products in your home and you will almost certainly see that parabens are included – an estimated 90% of cosmetic products include parabens.

For many years, parabens have been considered safe,  as they are virtually non-toxic. An allergic reaction or sensitivity to parabens is extremely rare – especially considering how widely used they are. However, several studies in recent years have suggested that parabens might be more harmful than we think. Especially because of our exposure to many different ones all the time. Studies have shown birth defects on rats exposed were more severe when exposed to a little of many rather than a lot of one chemical.

Studies have found that the biggest risk from parabens seems to be from the use of products that require a prolonged exposure to skin, such as skin creams and facial lotions. The longer that the parabens are on the skin, the more opportunity there is for parabens to be absorbed. When used in skin care products, parabens are absorbed directly into the blood stream rather than through the gastrointestinal tract. Not to forget when you eat food with parabens added too.

One type of paraben – methylparaben – has also been linked to the premature aging of skin. A study undertaken in Japan indicated that certain cosmetic products may cause skin to age excessively when exposed to ultra-violet rays. Ironically, this compound can be commonly found in products designed to fight the effects of aging. 

Some tests have indicated that parabens have caused an increase in oestrogen which can possibly affect the male and female reproductive organs. Some studies in men have shown that a low sperm count and a decrease in testosterone are directly related to the intake of parabens.

One of the biggest areas of concern is the effect of parabens on breast cancer. Several studies have found traces of parabens in women with breast cancer. There seems little doubt that parabens can affect breast tissue – but whether they actually increase the possibility of breast cancer is still uncertain.

It’s difficult not to come into contact with parabens – they are used in so many products that we use daily. Use of parabens is still legal and it’s an area that will continue to be watched carefully. If you are concerned, an increasing number of products are now being manufactured without parabens. Print out this list or go for brands that says No Parabens

Parabens:

• Methyl (commonly used in food but also cosmetics)
• Propyl  (commonly used in food but also cosmetics)
• Butyl
• Ethyl
• Benzyl (less common)
• Isobutyl (less common)

Avoid oxybenzone when buying sunscreen

Its bad for you, your kids and the ocean!

A recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that 97% of the U.S. population is contaminated with oxybenzone, a penetration enhancer that helps other chemicals sink into your skin. A Mount Sinai School of Medicine companion study published just a day earlier also reported that the chemical is linked to low birth weight in baby girls whose mothers are exposed during pregnancy.

Numerous other studies have linked oxybenzone to health concerns including endocrine disruption, cell damage, and cancer. Furthermore it ruins the sealife – certain fish have been known to change gender due to the contermination of oxybenzone.

Of additional concern is that surface area of a child’s skin relative to body weight is greater than that of adults, meaning they stand to absorb more of the chemical.

When buying sunscreen, buy smart. Read the label and avoid sunscreens that contain oxybenzone (also known as benzophenone-3).

It was deemed safe in the 1970s, but new evidence has cast doubt on that. It has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption and cell damage, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). It’s linked to low birth weight in baby girls whose mothers have been exposed during pregnancy. And it’s a “penetration enhancer.” It helps other chemicals penetrate the skin.

The EWG recommends using sunscreens without oxybenzone (benzophenone-3). Choose those with zinc or titanium oxide as the active ingredients.

To speed your search, look for:

* Blue Lizard (anything without oxybenzone)

* California Baby

* Kiss My Face (paraben-free series)

* Neutrogena Sensitive Skin Sunblock

* Lavera

Since the safety of oxybenzone is an issue so fraught with uncertainty, it seems prudent to us to find one that’s just as effective without it.

Synthetic fibers – not good for you, baby or environment

Facts and environment concern (Fight Climate Change from Your Closet)

Polyester is a long plastic fiber, more precisely a polyethylene teraphthalate, or PET fiber. The same plastic used to make disposable drink bottles. But again we ask, how does this constitute an environmental hazard? Well the ethylene in PET comes from crude oil, like the kind they dig up in the Alberta oil sands, releasing over 23 million tons of CO2 annually in the process. The other base component, naphthalene is made from coal tar.

The other synthetic fibres aren’t much better. Nylon is made directly from coal, and spandex, like polyester has its heritage in crude oil. Then there are the “manufactured fibres” like rayon (aka viscose). These are not considered synthetic by the US Federal Trade Commission, since the starting ingredient is cellulose. In a nutshell, that means wood pulp. In processing the pulp it’s exposed to caustic soda, sulphuric acid, and carbon disulfide (which has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers).

So far, I’m not inspired to put any of these things on my body let alone near my baby, how about you?

So in protest we turn to natural fibres, the most obvious being cotton, which is certainly better. Well, it’s true that cotton is natural; all that happens to manufacture it is to grow the crop, harvest the pods and clean and spin the fibres. Fairly easy on the planet, by the sounds of it. But there is a problem: the chemicals and resources required to grow cotton conventionally. According to the USGS, cotton fields require up to 12 kg of pesticides per hectare, which accounts for one third of the world’s total pesticide use. What’s more, according to waterfootprint.org the production of cotton worldwide takes 107 Billion cubic metres of groundwater per year. That works out to about 1 cubic metre per pound of cotton product, and another half of a cubic metre of water gets polluted in the process.

The Answer?
So what is the answer? Well, organic cotton, to start. Organic farming uses no pesticides, and no synthetic fertilizers, and while irrigation is still practiced, crops are rotated to maintain soil fertility, consequently, the soil retains more water. Even better, choose clothing made with other fibres. Hemp, bamboo and soy are all much less intensive to produce, while still making fabulous EcoFashions!

Bamboo a problem too?

Although there is new evidence that bamboo is not so good either, this is the view of Lotus Organics, who in their usual full and frank style haveinvestigated the industry and presented their finding on their informative Organic Clothing Blog. It is always a great read for anyone with an interest in the greening of the rag trade. None more so than their current peek at bamboo. Michael Lackman of Lotus concludes, “The growing of bamboo is environmentally friendly but the manufacturing of bamboo into fabric raises environmental and health concerns because of the strong chemical solvents used to cook the bamboo plant into a viscose solution that is then reconstructed into cellulose fiber for weaving into yarn for fabric.”

Oko Tex and ISO 140001

ISO 140001 and Oeko-Tex standards, while useful in their spheres of influence (management and human health respectively) do not, on their own, indicate sustainable textile practices , but they are certainly a very helpful tool. When buying nursing bras its worth noting that the Anita bra is Oeko-Tex (but it at www.figleaves.com). For baby clothes you can by it at Marshalls, TJ Maxx and kohls you just have to search a little. Often you can recognise it by the cute little hangers it comes with, cotton or hemp hangers. They have sale on the stuff at Kohls, if there is anything left that is (I have been there so…).

Cheap and completely chemical free bodycare?

Actually it was in frustration over all the chemicals and parabenes even in organic bodylotion, scrubs ect that I have now developed my own. And I tell you its really a whole lot cheaper and it really works! Ohh your body get so soft after this scrub and bodyspray. Here is how you can make your own.

Bodyscrub (will last for a long time):

• Organic brown sugar
• Oliveoil (or splash out and add jojoba-oil)
• Reuse a glass (once you have eaten the salsa) or when you have finished your old products

Moisturizing Bodyspray:

• Glass spray bottle (or plant duster). I reused a finished John Masters bottle
• Jojoba or almond oil
• Water

Just put ½ water and ½ oil and shake it good befor you spray. Use right after your shower when your body is still damp. When using a spray bottle you can even moisturize your back with no trouble. Make sure to stand on your bathmat though, as the floor could get slippery.