Stacy Malkan
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 Busy with three kids, David Steinman's wife didn't have time to worry about toxic products. So he worried for them all. "Maybe it's because I know too many secrets," he said. For instance, the leading baby product line is Johnson & Johnson's, whose website says its products are clinically tested to ensure they are "mild and gentle enough for newborns." As David explained in his book, this is why the company replaced the harsh cleanser sodium lauryl sulfate with the much gentler sodium laureth sulfate.7 Lauryl is converted to laureth by adding the petrochemical ethylene oxide. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 If it wasn't for the fact that so many women are being killed by toxic products, it would all be quite hilarious. But the sad fact is that product marketers are exploiting both the pocketbooks and bodies of women in a quest to generate more profits at any cost... including the cost in human lives.
Fighting to prevent cancer prevention
It is interesting to note that with all the toxic chemicals found in personal care products these days, the American Cancer Society has actually fought laws and initiatives that would have helped prevent cancer. As Samuel Epstein explains on www. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 The press, of course, reports nothing about these other toxic products. And why? Because they're made in America.
American products poisoning American children
American products, you see, are often given blanket immunity by the U.S. press. While the media is happy to jump on toxic lead found in Chinese products, they completely ignore (for example) the toxic mercury that dentists continue to place into the mouths of young children all across the country. Why is it considered highly dangerous for a child to merely touch a toy with . |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Recycling consumer delusions
I have also visited friends or been in other people's houses where their pantries and refrigerators were full of the most toxic products you can imagine. Their house smelled of fragrance, laundry detergent, dryer sheets, perfumes, colognes and shampoos. I could just sense the toxicity of their environment, and yet they were avid recyclers.
They dutifully sorted the containers of all their toxic products into different recycling bins without even a hint of awareness about their level of self-delusion. |
Mark Sircus
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 Ischemia leads to excessive activation of excitatory amino acid receptors, accumulation of intracellular calcium, and release of other toxic products that cause cellular injury.
Dr. James Howenstine writes, "The use of aspirin has become widely accepted in the United States as an important measure to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Estimates suggest that 20,000,000 persons are taking aspirin daily for prevention of vascular accidents. The evidence upon which this decision to recommend aspirin was made is not very solid. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Greenwashing is big business, and so is pushing more toxic products to consumers that they will spray on their lawns, shove down their throats, put in their cars or pee away into the sewer system. Most consumer products are highly toxic for people, animals and nature, and before long, nearly all of them will likely carry some kind of greenwashing claim that declares how good they are for the environment. |
Stacy Malkan
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| Looking around the living room — the office, kitchen or kids' playroom — one can see no shortage of toxic products that could be redesigned or replaced with safer green chemistry alternatives. According to John Warner, "Of all the chemical products and processes out there in the universe, about 10% are benign and nontoxic; 90% of things we're doing today in 2006 have hazardous consequences." Of those toxic materials, Warner estimates that 25% could be replaced relatively easily with existing safer alternatives. "But the other 65%? Today we do not have solutions to provide to industry. |
| They created a "picks and pans" list of toxic products and safer choices and made a giant wooden face to display the products. They got on TV with their face, wrote articles for local papers and put together a Safe Cosmetics Bill of Rights, which they presented to the Marin County Board of Supervisors.
"Each girl had her own strength and worked on what she felt the most strongly about," according to Judi Shils. The girls worked with an ad agency and design firm to create marketing materials and did their own research and media outreach. |
| The problem right in front of our faces, the toxic products on the bathroom sink, is a place to start. First cosmetics then on to the next cleanup project: the plastic industry, the petrochemical industry, the oil and war industries too — until there are no more toxic chemicals in babies, rocket fuel in breast milk, or communities burdened by toxic pollution; until we create new economic systems that are compatible with life and healthy for people and the planet. Each better choice is a step on the road to getting there. Here are some ideas for giving the cosmetics industry a makeover. |
| Cindy's group has organized 50 spa parties in the New England area in the past couple years, bringing together some 500 people from labor unions, teachers' groups, religious
_ communities and even state legislators to learn about toxic products and safer alterna-
Just for the health of it: tives «jt>s a way to bring women together
• BeSafeNet.com an(j creat;e a group bonding, and also to relate
• HealthyChildHealthyWorld.org the cosmetjcs issue back to the larger political - fight," Cindy explained. |
| Glossed Over
Formaldehyde, toluene, phthalates, acetone, methylacrylates — nail treatments are among the most toxic products in the Skin Deep database. But despite the toxic nature of the products — and the large population of nail salon workers who use them on a daily basis — very little epidemiological or occupational health research has been conducted on this population of women, according to a 2007 analysis of studies by Women's Voices for the Earth, Glossed Over.20
The few studies that have been conducted indicate cause for concern. |
Devra Davis
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 Today, Health Care Without Harm is a global coalition of 443 organizations in 52 countries—all focused on getting toxic products out of hospitals and shrinking the hospitals' ecological footprint.
For reasons too obvious and complex to require mention, women are often the ones to figure out that one person's trash can be another's treasure. Global Links was started by three women who were appalled at all the usable medical supplies that were being tossed out after surgery. Sterile sutures, scissors and swabs were routinely put in the garbage. |
Ron Garner
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 Each of the metals that compose mercury amalgams is poisonous, but they also react in combination to form more toxic products. Dr. Huggins states that the new high-copper amalgams (about 30% copper) release mercury 50 times faster than the older conventional amalgams.
If you have mercury amalgams in your teeth and at present feel that you are healthy, do you need to have your amalgams removed? The best, and shortest way of answering this question, is to give you the same reply that Dr. Huggins gave to Dr. Levy when he asked the same question: "Only if you want to stay healthy. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 It is particularly reactive, capable of producing many toxic products,89 and is often a major component of the first stage of the reaction.90 In one study, for example, up to half of the corn's lysine was incorporated in a Maillard reaction that can occur spontaneously with stored corn.91 In this process, known as stackburn, the corn turns brown due to the build up of heat and can become significantly less nutritious. Stackburn takes place with non-GM corn "at temperatures much milder than those that maybe used during processing and cooking for human foods. |
Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith
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 The nail industry is not regulated, but the EPA is encouraging salons to convert their toxic products to eco- and people-friendly ones as increasing studies about the effects of long-term exposure to VOCs in nail care products emerge. California is the first state to pass a law that requires cosmetics companies to list all ingredients that can cause cancer and reproductive harm (even if they are deemed "inert"). Hopefully other states will follow.
Most people assume that you need to have been exposed to a large dose of toxins in order for any health implications to occur. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 It is perfectly possible, by the way, to live a life free of these toxic products. All you have to do is stop buying the toxic products, throw them out, and start buying products that actually protect your health. You could start with your laundry detergent. Go to the health food store, or natural grocer, and get yourself some laundry detergent that isn't made with all these fragrance chemicals (a good brand is Seventh Generation).
Switch out all your soap: get rid of all that antimicrobial soap and switch to a product like Dr. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| I was once a consumer of numerous toxic products, but I recognized the error, adjusted my consumption patterns, and now I practice genuine environmental responsibility (and I still recycle, too). I urge you to do the same. Ask yourself what you're still buying that's harmful to the environment, then switch to safer, more eco-friendly products from companies like Seventh Generation, which offers laundry and home care products that are far safer for the environment than more conventional products.
Saving the planet isn't really about recycling. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| All you have to do is stop buying the toxic products, throw them out, and start buying products that actually protect your health. You could start with your laundry detergent. Go to the health food store, or natural grocer, and get yourself some laundry detergent that isn't made with all these fragrance chemicals (a good brand is Seventh Generation).
Switch out all your soap: get rid of all that antimicrobial soap and switch to a product like Dr. Bronner's soap, which is only scented with natural oils like peppermint and almond oil. It's a wonderful soap, and I strongly recommend it. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 We changed our foods, our diet, our levels of stress, our use of toxic products like personal care products, deodorants, shampoos, laundry products and soaps with triclosan and antibacterial chemicals. We started popping prescription drugs like a bunch of crack addicts in this country. Forty percent of the nation now is on prescription drugs. Then when people get sick, we poison them with chemotherapy and radiation, and we call it medicine.
So you want to be healthy? Get back to your nature. Recognize that you have a natural blueprint for being perfectly healthy. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 You have the flu because you poison your body with all these other toxic products, metabolic disrupters in the food supply and poor nutrition. These poisons create a weak body and weakened immune system, allowing opportunistic bacteria to replicate that wouldn't stand a chance if you had a healthy immune defense in the first place.
Even worse, the use of antimicrobial soaps promotes the spread of superbugs around your house. If you want to be a healthy individual, you have to have a little immune distress. If you don't, your immune system doesn't learn how to defend itself. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| They dutifully sorted the containers of all their toxic products into different recycling bins without even a hint of awareness about their level of self-delusion. As I saw this, I thought to myself, "You people are insane; you're not saving the planet. You're only saving yourself from guilt." What they were really recycling, it turns out, is the same delusion shared by most consumers: that it's okay to dump anything you want into the environment as long as you recycle the box it came in.
But recycling is not some game where the more you recycle, the more you are saving the planet. |
| That's how you save the environment: Through purchasing decisions, not by recycling the discarded boxes of toxic products.
There is great hypocrisy in the recycling system. If it is about saving the planet, you shouldn't be buying those products in the first place. If it is about saving the planet, stop putting those pesticides on your lawn. If it is about saving the planet, stop poisoning your body with prescription drugs. There are detectable levels of prescription drugs (like antidepressants) in municipal water supplies today.
You might wonder if I am against recycling. No, not at all. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 If you have small children, avoid keeping highly toxic products, such as drain cleaners, in the home, the garage, the shed, or any other place that children can access.
• Buy medicines and household products in child-resistant packaging, and be sure that caps are always on tight. Do not remove child-safety caps. Avoid keeping medicines, vitamins, or household products in anything but their original packaging.
• Store all of your medicines and household products in a locked closet or cabinet—including products and medicines with child-resistant containers. |
The Life Extension Editorial Staff
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 Take measures to limit access to toxic products. Whenever possible, replace toxic products with less dangerous alternatives. Properly dispose of those that are no longer needed. Learn to recognize the symptoms of ingested toxic substances. Learn first aid procedures. Display emergency contact numbers by the telephone.
Strive to achieve proper, balanced nutrition by choosing fresh (organic when possible) fruits, vegetables, grains, lean meat, and cold-water fish. |
Michael Friedman, ND
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 Especially vulnerable to these toxic products are the unborn, those in the womb, and those yet to come. Below is a list of things to do. Don't be overwhelmed by it. Take it one step at a time.
Don't smoke or drink alcohol.
Especially when pregnant! It can cause permanent damage to you and the unborn child.
Don't use lawn chemicals or any pesticides.
Especially when pregnant! Don't even think of being near them. Lawns are healthier without them.
Don't use makeup, hair sprays & coloring products or nail polish.
Especially when pregnant! |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| They are putting toxic products in their cars, on their hair and into their mouths and bodies. Recycling is then presented as a solution to make these people feel good even as they are destroying the environment with every single product they consume.
Purchasing choices are far more important than recycling
You know what's really important in protecting the environment? Buying eco-friendly products in the first place.
When you live a healthy lifestyle, a lifestyle that truly prioritizes respect for the planet, you don't end up with a lot of excess packaging to recycle in the first place. |
Walter Last
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 For years before the onset of illness, there will be fierce fighting between our lymphatic cells and the proliferating intestinal microbes, as well as toxic products of their decomposition, resulting in chronic inflammation of parts of the intestinal wall.
This may cause intestinal discomfort and various digestive disorders, and in children it can often result in appendicitis. This chronic inflammation weakens the intestinal wall and allows proteins that are only partly broken down, as well as bacterial toxins, to be absorbed and cause allergies. |
Gary Null
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| Department of Agriculture defend the use of these very toxic products. Why? Well, they're supposed to stop insect pests, fungi, and weeds. And they did at one time. But their effectiveness has diminished as pests and weeds have developed resistance to these chemicals. Before their advent, farmers were actually better off because pests could be controlled by the natural method of crop rotation. So one year, for instance, wheat was planted, the next, soybeans, and the next, cotton. That way a certain bug that liked one plant was at a disadvantage the next year. |
Walter Last
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| These toxic products result from a reaction of carbohydrates with proteins. They are produced at a slow rate at low temperatures, but in high amounts when food is highly heated, as in frying and baking. Acrylamides are known to be cancer-causing in animals and to cause DNA damage with gene mutations.
Another scientific finding is that acrylamides are pro-inflammatory and the more these chemicals are in the diet, the more inflammation they cause. Almost all diseases are associated with inflammation, including arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. |
Dianne Onstad
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 Oil of mustard is a rubefacient, irritating the skin and dilating the small blood vessels underneath; this increases the flow of blood to the skin, turning it ted and making it feel warm, and the increased blood flow carries away any toxic products. The pungent taste and tear-producing properties of mustard seeds are a result of nitrogen-and sulfur-containing compounds called isothiocyanates. |
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