Pure Mavens

I hesitate to make what’s sure to be a wildly unpopular assertion, but I’ve had a heart-breaking revelation to share. There are few things many people enjoy in greater quantity than coffee drinks – Starbucks to be specific. I don’t have a problem with the actual coffee – it’s the lids that caught my attention.

In a past blog post we provided a memorable saying to help keep track of the plastics that are okay (those with a 1, 2, 4, or 5 in the little triangle), and those that have been linked to potentially harmful chemicals (those with another number in the little triangle): “1 way 2 go 4 a high-5 is to avoid everything else.” So what a bummer to find that telltale “6” staring right back at me as I sipped my Grande Bold (with room) through the plastic lid.

As the blog “Eco Village Green” explains, plastic with a number 6 “is polystyrene, or Styrofoam, from which disposable containers and packaging are made. You’ll also find it in disposable plates and cups. Evidence is increasingly suggesting that this type of plastic leaches potentially toxic chemicals, especially when heated. I suggest avoiding the use of #6 plastic as much as possible.”

Wouldn’t scalding hot coffee flowing through, um, heat the plastic?

So am I going to stop drinking Starbucks? Not on your life. But I do take the lid off whenever possible as a result of this discovery. Sip on – and feel confident you’re helping to repurify each morning with a little information on your side.

There have been a lot of people out there stressing about how to improve/maintain the look and quality of their skin through means of a special diet. Although I believe “you are what you eat”, I also realize that the skin “eats” too.

The skin, our largest organ, breaths, dies, protects us and absorbs every day.  On top of that, our skin has the main function of retaining fluids within our bodies. The funny thing is that most of us, including me, only immediately care about how the first few layers look. From experience, most of my skin problem occur through absorption through pores in my skin. The skin simply gets irritated. Choosing pure skincare products that don’t contain harmful chemicals and cleanse your pores can help this. Natural oils can help your skin glow while cleaning/protecting your pores. I challenge those same people to put the flipside in perspective, your skin IS what it eats.

Feed your skin Right

Some nerdy research about how skin absorbs.

Here’s a Healthiness Report Card for a female friend of mine. The report was complied using The Good Guide and Environmental Working Group’s (cosmeticdatabase.com). There are some good low toxicity skincare products in the group, such as Jason Moisturizer, as well as a bunch that contained Methylparaben. She received a average toxicity rating of 5.72 out of 10, notably worse than the guys personal care products.

Watch the EWG’s take on the harmful potential of fragrances in your everyday consumer products here:

EWG on Fragrances

The Pure Deodorant Search has led me to bigger things…..

I decided to conduct a investigation about the ‘healthlyness’ of personal care products I use. The purpose was to identify the products that contain harmful chemicals in order to replace them with more pure alternatives.  The most common toxin on the list is Fragrance followed by Methyl Paraben. List was complied using The Good Guide and Environmental Working Group’s (cosmeticdatabase.com)

In a quest to try and limit the amount of chemicals my body is exposed to, I started to analyze my personal care products. More specifically the deodorant I use.

The Beginning

The search for a natural deodorant started when I began using deodorant.  I developed rashes from many forms of deodorant. I tried numerous stick deodorants (gel and dry) without avail. Then I took to spray deodorants (which still caused irritation but much less sporadically) when I was 16 and have used them ever since. I knew there had to be a better product out there…and so my search began.

Research

I ran the product I use by a couple of rating sites and found:

Results of Findings: Not That Good

EW’s [cosmeticdatabase.com] Rating: 5 (scale is based on level of toxicity 0-10, 0 being the best)

The Good Guide Health Rating: 7.0 (scale is based on ‘goodness’ for you 1-10, 10 being the best)

Both ratings expose butane and fragrance as the main ingredients to worry about in that the ingredient ‘fragrance’ could contain a multitude of bad chemicals and that butane causes surface irritation and is currently banned in the EU(European Union) for use in personal care products. Which brings me to the question: Why am I paying to put these bad chemicals in my body??

Choices

I’ll tell you first off, I am not a health guru or a doctor, but I know that many chemicals can get absorbed through the skin and stay in your body. Since the under arms or arm pits contain many pores (see link: skin anatomy) it’s especially easy for the chemicals to enter your body there.

I made the obvious decision to stop using spray deodorant. I lead an active lifestyle so I needed a product that could be effective against body odor while containing no harmful substance and skin irritants.

My search led me to three choices:

1. Crystal Deodorant Stone

2. Arm & Hammer Essentials

3. A home remedy of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and water.

Any parent has heard that you have to be careful with plastics. There’s no question that it’s smart to use Pyrex, real glasses, ceramic dishes, uncoated aluminum water bottles, and real silverware as much as possible. But you just can’t eliminate plastic entirely, and it does appear that some plastic is tolerable (in baby bottles, for example), provided it’s BPA-free and you don’t heat it up (e.g. put it in the microwave) or cut food on it.

There’s a small triangle on the bottom of plastic products with a number inside – some numbers should be avoided, others seem okay. But for all the times I’ve heard what the acceptable plastics are, I can never remember when I’m actually buying things. So I made up a saying that has forever seared “the rules of plastic” into my mind:

“1 way 2 go 4 a high 5 is to avoid 3 and 7″

At this point, I just remember “1 way 2 go 4 a high 5″ – the latest research says that plastics with the number 1,2,4, or 5 on the bottom are best. Just repeat it a few times and you should be good to go!

As I endeavor to find ever-purer products for use on my person, home, family, and even pets, a major tension has become biting the bullet on the higher price the right products command. It feels better knowing I’m not being snowed, my confidence bolstered by EWG/SkinDeep and GoodGuide as non-denominational advisors.

As I recently trolled the baby section at Target, I found one of the most lauded “pure” brands the world has to offer. California Baby sunscreen. I literally exclaimed: “they have California Baby!” My wife said: “you’re acting like a nerd.” She was right, but the excitement in that Target aisle was palpable.

I lifted the tiny tube like a precious Fabergé egg. I caressed it – I’d never been this close before. It was like petting a unicorn. I prepared to gingerly place several tubes in the cart, certain that a red-vested assistant manager would appear at any moment and scorn “what’s that doing here?” and take it away. It then occurred to me to glance at the price. Roughly $20 for 3 ounces. I was sure it was a misprint. But my wife’s disapproving grimace – both at me and the price placard – confirmed my fears. I felt like I was ten years old and my mom had just issued the worst word in the English language in response to pleading and begging: “maybe.”

I’d pay to have a photo of the look on my face. In fact, it may be worth scouring the Target security footage to score an instant YouTube classic.

Here I had found a near-fabled pure product – in an actual store, no less – and it was so expensive you’d need a credit check to buy it. And I’m no coupon cutter. I live the “you get what you pay for,” “at least I’ll get miles,” “work hard, play hard” compensatory mantra of consumer spending.

But this was a new frontier. I looked at my wife with, I’m sure, a pathetic expression of panic. “Should I get it?” I muttered. She shrugged: “If it’s that important to you.”

Mind you, she has been a willing passenger on my march to purity, but more tolerated it than wholly endorsed it. As much as I believe that you do get what you pay for, this moment caused a micro-epiphany, right there in Target.

I won’t even ponder “the meaning of life” in a blog. Please. But there’s no question that one cause worth investing in is the health of one’s family. The nuance can be debated, but what’s that they say about your health?…

My mind reeling, I made my decision – a purchase decision so involved it rivaled that of my first house – I did not buy the blasted sunscreen. $20 for 3 ounces?

But my brush with the most expensive semi-liquid known to man has caused me to loosen up and keep in perspective the fact that, when it comes to what’s best for my kids, it’s simply worth spending more.

Oh yeah… we’re currently enjoying a tube of Neutrogena Pure & Free – a bargain at about $11 for 3 ounces (purchased at Toys R Us).

As my ever-increasing scrutiny over the products we use continues, I turned my attention to an ever-present product in our home – hand lotion. This is not the first time I’ve noticed the revolving door of lotion bottles that is our bathroom vanity, but I’m no longer only irritated by the fact that you can’t get the top off  and end up throwing away about three handfuls along with the plastic container.

No, I went a step further and engaged in my now ritualistic – and love / hate practice – of checking our lotion brand in the EWG SkinDeep database. We use Vasoline Intensive Care Advanced Healing lotion. I recently mandated the switch to “fragrance free,” pleased with my step to get one more trace chemical out of our home.

Pleased, that is, until I reviewed the Skin Deep report on our beloved salve. I hit enter and watched the cold, unflinching SkinDeep database report its cruel facts as to the litany of chemicals my “high hazard” (an 8 out of 10) lotion contained, and the ghastly health problems to which those ingredients are linked. I might as well have enjoyed the fragrance, as its absence has no bearing on the purity (or lack thereof) of this lotion. As helpful as I find the database, it doesn’t exactly sugar coat the news:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product.php?prod_id=61047

And with a few deft calculations, I estimated that my wife and I each rub approximately 143 ounces into our skin in a given year. That’s well over a gallon.

At least there’s good news, I thought: we use J&J Baby Lotion on our kids. Surely Johnson & Johnson, “The #1 Choice of Hospitals,” would deliver the goods. Whoops… another “high hazard” 8 out of 10.

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product.php?prod_id=47660

I also found some disconcerting back-and-forth on the iconic Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. A lone, ironic tear ran down my cheek…

http://safecosmetics.org//article.php?id=521

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product.php?prod_id=147083&refurl=%2Fbrowse.php%3Fcategory%3Dbaby+shampoo%26

I didn’t bother torturing myself with the annual tonnage the kids get. I’m taking action.

The first product we tried was a pump container of Avalon Organics hand lotion – a solid, “low hazard” 2 according to the unbiased SkinDeep. I put it by the sink in the kitchen, a high traffic torture test of Madge’s proverbial dishpan hands. Not only is it a great product, the family has made sport of dispensing the absolute tiniest mini-droplet possible with each fraction of a pump. A little goes a long way.

It’s more expensive than “regular” lotion, but we use so much less I bet we’ll come out ahead (and that’s not even considering the peace of mind of not pumping chemicals onto our skin). Plus the bottle is cool looking and actually looks good next to the sink.

Our gross tonnage of lotion just got less so.