Tag Archives: petrochemicals

Your Favorite Personal Care and Cleaning Products Went to the Lab, and They Came Back With This

Take a deep breath (or maybe not)

“This study found 156 different VOCs emitted from the 37 products, with an average of 15 VOCs per product. Of these 156 VOCs, 42 VOCs are classified as toxic or hazardous under US federal laws, and each product emitted at least one of these chemicals. Emissions of carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from green fragranced products were not significantly different from regular fragranced products.”

Most homes are full of these products!!!

Indeed, most indoor environments (and everything in them) are now polluted with these VOCs due to the pervasive nature of these products and chemical compounds.

156 VOCs

From the research article:

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What If an Industry was Allowed to Disable Us and Keep Us Housebound?

Something Is Really Wrong With This Picture

Imagine this 1

There’s a global proliferation of artificial fragrance and methods of dispersing it. Fragrance concoctions are added to almost everything imaginable (with more ridiculous ideas emerging all the time). They are sold and used everywhere at the same time as more people are developing adverse health effects from them, effects like serious allergies, disabling “sensitivities”, migraines, asthma, neurological disorders, lowered IQ, birth defects, etc. (the list keeps growing).

These health problems are due to unregulated and secret ingredients, ingredients which pollute our bodies, our air, and the waterways they get washed into from our sinks, tubs, and showers, ingredients that are impossible to avoid now, even when we don’t want them in our lives.

If you or your child had celiac disease or a severe peanut allergy, it would be the same as the peanut and gluten industries adding peanuts and gluten or peanut and gluten mist along with doses of mood altering drugs to every product imaginable, including building materials. That would be in addition to having peanut and gluten essences worn by everyone (in their hair, armpits, clothing …), pumped out of air ducts, automated devices in public washrooms, transportation, stores, apartments, offices, hotels, even medical offices, and your neighbours burning peanuts and gluten in their fireplaces, washing with laundry with them, and then pumping the residues out of their dryer vents 24/7.

You could imagine cat allergies too, but they are usually more inconvenient than life threatening and disabling.

The fragrance industry is very aware of the adverse effects its products have on people and the environment, yet they continue to look for more ways to pollute us and every product and environment conceivably possible. They knowingly create concoctions that harm and act like drugs! Yet they consider these risks reasonable and acceptable, and choose to dismiss or ridicule those who have problems, using similar tactics the tobacco industry used to deny there are problems and to continue to profit from them.

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A Fine Fragrance for a Special Valentine

This is special, so special that you might be inspired in ways that surprise you!

MYSTERY 2MYSTERY… Should we trust the fragrance industry with our loved ones health?

We could buy products that are made by a self regulated industry that believes it’s ok to include many harmful chemicals (derived from petroleum and other fossil fuels) in their products (according to their member’s voluntary disclosure of over 3000 ingredients, which is as close to disclosure as they come) or we can show our love for each other by doing things that nurture long term health and well-being for each other and the planet we all depend on for life.

The choice is ours once we know it exists.

Here are a few more nourishing ideas for gifts of love:

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Your Fragrance Is Less Regulated Than Fragrance For Pesticides!

No joke!

The world is an exceedingly strange place when products that are designed to kill unwanted and uncared for “pests” have fragrance chemicals added to change the way they smell, and those fragrance chemicals are better regulated than the ones in products we living (wanted and cared for?) humans are sold, for intimate use, on a daily basis.

-cide
1.indicating a person or thing that kills: insecticide
2.indicating a killing; murder: homicide

fragrance regulations

How is it that the fragrances added to pesticides are more regulated than the fragrances we are exposed to 24/7 now, from laundry, personal care, cleaning products,  scented candles and air “fresheners” (among others, as everything is fragranced these days)?

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UnStopped and Able Until…

I have heard that new ads are out and insinuating people will somehow feel richer  merely by inhaling mysterious blends of chemicals.  Please don’t be fooled. Seriously.

“Unstopables …  will add an indulgent level of luxurious scent to every load of your laundry. Add as much as you wish for up to 12 weeks* of scent enhancement so you can smell like the lifestyle you—and your wardrobe—deserve.”

They fail to mention that your neighbors who get migraines may think that the “scent enhancement” emanating from your dryer vent (which was designed to emit moisture, not chemicals) is not such a good thing for them, their asthmatic children, or for their aging parents who have lung disease and whose window is yards from your vent.

Apparently we also don’t deserve to know what we’d be inhaling if we use these things! P&G will only refer us to the self-regulated fragrance industry’s voluntarily disclosed list of over 3000 ingredients, most of which are petroleum derived. (Scroll down for a PDF of the list, which took quite a bit of sleuthing around their other website to find).

I’ve designed a few new ads for them, simplifying some of their marketing messages into plain English for you :

UnStopped and Able Until

There’s more, much more…

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Sometimes They Listen, Sometimes They Don’t

(This post is for us, not so much for those who’ve made it clear they can’t hear us)

There have been a lot of online arguments lately, where people just aren’t listening to each other. I know this phenomenon isn’t limited to what’s happening online either, especially when it comes to people choosing petroleum based fragrances (or other petrochemical products and materials) over family and friends, or worse, over the health of their children! (yes, it happens, and it’s happening far too often these days)

naninanipoopoo

(naninanipoopoo is something my kids used to say when they wanted me to know they weren’t going to listen to me)

Then, just like the fragrance industry is doing, by creating fragrances for absolutely everything, I too  was inspired to come up with a fragrance for that: Continue reading

Laundry Woes Six Years Later

6 years

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Fragrance Free Environments and No Fragrance Spaces

Someone shared a very good PDF handout with me the other day, one that I had never seen before. It gently explains to people why there is a problem with fragrance, why people may need to avoid fragrances, that it is not the smell, it’s not personal, and a few other bits of helpful information  The resource links are old and could be updated (somehow), but it’s otherwise a great tool to share with people who don’t understand.

I can’t find a link to share it from elsewhere, so I am posting it here to make it easily available.

Fragrance-Free Environments and No-Fragrance Spaces (PDF)

Fragrance Free Environments and No Fragrance Spaces

The text image is copied below.

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MCS: A Life Altering Condition (Video)

 

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A Life Altering Condition

Produced and Directed by Alison Johnson
1:09:28 minutes

Note from Alison Johnson:

“Since 1998, I have made three long documentaries and three short ones. During this fifteen-year period, I have gained a much deeper understanding of multiple chemical sensitivity and its great impact upon so many lives. This new composite film contains the best and most effective sections of my six earlier films. I have chosen carefully which experts and patients to use from my earlier films so that this new film will be an effective way of helping people to understand multiple chemical sensitivity. The film contains footage of interviews with four members of Congress as well as with many important physicians.”

More info and a list of physicians appearing in the film:
http://www.alisonjohnsonmcs.com/multiple-chemical-sensitivity-a-life-altering-condition-dvd.html

Transcript:
http://chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/multiple-chemical-sensitivities-life-altering-condition-transcript.html

mcs-a-life-altering-condition

Much gratitude to Alison Johnson for all of her work over the years.

Fragrance Emitting Devices

What happens when you walk through a place that has fragrance chemicals in the air?

fragrance chemicals in the airThe chemicals attach to hair, skin, and clothing just like smoke does!

2nd hand smoke and fragrance

Some people can pass out after being forced to breathe fragrance chemicals.

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