A Better Consumer

Informed Consumers are Better Consumers!

There is an urgency to create change concerning human health and environmental issues regarding antibacterial products, air fresheners, and cleaning products.

Young Living is the most viable solution and experts are recommending their products to create an environmentally healthy home!

Remember…

Diffusing Young Living Essential Oils is a safe alternative to harmful and toxic air fresheners.

Essential Oils make the room smell clean and fresh, and more importantly, they are health enhancing when you breathe in the aromas.

Here is what Barbara has to say about her experience with Air Fresheners:

“For years now, I have woken up in the middle of the night unable to breathe through my nose. This disrupted a good night’s sleep, as I would have to get up and sit for 20 to 30 minutes waiting for my sinuses to drain.

I blamed it on lack of humidity since it never happened while I was vacationing at the beach twice a year.I recently read that home air fresheners contain formaldehyde and petroleum distillates, aerosol propellants and p-dichlorobenzene (PDB) that can irritate nasal passages. I immediately eliminated and unplugged all my air fresheners and after one day I was amazed with the results.

I have now slept straight through the night for about two solid weeks. Who would imagine that air fresheners could cause such sinus misery?”

Consider these facts when thinking about what to use to “improve” your air quality:

· Air fresheners contain a variety of chemicals that may irritate the respiratory tract. PDB, found in mothballs as well as air fresheners, could result in reduced pulmonary function (Environmental Health Perspectives, Aug. 2006).

· Other compounds found in air fresheners include phthalates. These are often used to carry fragrance in consumer products. Phthalates are also used to make plastic products pliable. These chemicals are controversial because they are hormone disruptors and potential carcinogens. A recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) evaluated 14 air fresheners. Twelve of them contained variable amounts of phthalates.

· According to a report by Project S.e.n.s.o.r. (Michigan State University College of Medicine) exposure to bleach can cause RADS or Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome.

· In a study reported by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, “children were 2.5 times more likely to have attention problems …if their mothers were among those highest exposed to phthalates.

· Of the over 17,000 chemicals used in these products only 3 in 10 are ever tested for human safety.

· The main toxin in room fresheners and most cleaning products is 1,4 dichlorobenzene (1,4 DCB). A recent National Institute of Environmental Health (NIEHS) study published in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that among 953 adults 1,4 DCB was linked to a reduction in lung function.

· Labels often omit inactive or inert ingredients that make up 90% of that products volume.

· In a major longitudinal study, frequent use of air fresheners during pregnancy and early childhood was associated with higher levels of diarrhea, earache in infants, and headaches, depression in mothers.

· In New Scientist a 1999 study revealed that in homes where aerosol sprays and air fresheners were used, mothers experienced 25% more headaches and were 19% more likely to experience depression.

· Doris Rapp, M.D. pediatrician in her book Our Toxic World; A Wake Up Callsays that personal care chemicals “affect emotions, attitude, learning and behavior….” They are also linked to depression, suicide, memory problems, panic or rage disorders, and drastic mood changes.

Becoming an informed consumer could save you $$ in healthcare tomorrow because you made wise buying decisions today!

Anti bacterial soaps

In the United States, 76% of liquid soaps and 26% of bar soaps contain antibacterial agents. (2001 Study conducted by American Journal of Infection Control).

Studies in bullfrogs found the agents disrupt the endocrine system blocking the metamorphosis of tadpoles to adult frogs. It has also been found to alter thyroid hormones in rats; another piece of evidence tags them as an endocrine disrupters also.

Of particular alarm are that 76% of our liquid soaps contain antibacterial agents. Many of these agents end up on our skin and are absorbed into our systems or they’re rinsed down the sink, into our waste water treatment plants and out into our surface waters. Studies in bullfrogs exposed to these antibacterial agents have shown arrested development and a failure to mature from tadpoles into adult frogs.

Even the ocean, which we consider so vast as to be able to dilute these contaminants to ineffectual levels are affected. Fully 1/3 of bottlenose dolphins in the waters off South Carolina tested positive for antibacterial agents. These compounds bio-accumulate as they pass through the food chain, with fatty tissues providing a reservoir.

Antibacterial agents form toxic by-products in tap water and in waterways. (Fiss, E.M., K.L. Rule, and P.J. Vikesland, Formation of chloroform and other chlorinated byproducts by chlorination of triclosan-containing antibacterial products. Environ Sci Technol, 2007. 41(7): p. 2387-94.)

The American Medical Association recommends avoiding “antibacterial” products at home, as they may promote bacterial resistance to antibiotics (Tan, L., et al. Use of antimicrobial agents in consumer products. Arch Dermatol, 2002. 138(8): p. 1082-6.)

These antibacterials even interact with the chlorine in our tap water. Chlorine is a powerful oxidant producing the hydroxyl and chlorine free radicals that effectively kills pathogenic bacteria in our drinking water, making it safe for consumption.

These free radicals can also oxidize many organic substances, break them down, and add chlorine atoms to the by-products of this breakdown. One of the by-products of most concern is the human carcinogen Chloroform, one of a class of compounds called trihalomethanes. The interaction of chlorinated tap-water with the common antibacterial product Triclosan is known to produce these carcinogenic compounds.

The AMA also recommends against using antibacterials because they may cause bacteria to evolve resistance to these compounds in the future. We’ve already seen this with the methicillin resistant bacteria known as MRSA, so prevalent in contaminated hospitals due to the overuse of antibiotics.

Anyone living on a lake who is familiar with septic tanks will want to know that using antibacterial soaps kills the good bacteria that is suppose to break down waste in the septic systems. Antibacterial products are so harmful to lake ecosystems.

Does the use of products with antibacterial properties promote resistant pathogens?
There is an issue: Antibacterial agents are found in body soaps, household cleaners, sponges, mattresses, even lip glosses.
(http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-antibacterial-products-may-do-more-harm-than-good)

Antibiotics are killing agents and they are very effective as long as the organisms they are killing have no resistance to them. All organisms have the ability to mutate or change. Besides the ability to mutate resistance to a killing agent, microorganisms exhibit other characteristics in their favor to out-compete and survive such agents.

Pathogens have a very quick reproductive strategy and means that they have the ability to produce a vast population in a very short time period. To illustrate, I can be exposed to one strep bacterium today and have a population of roughly 17 million in a 24 hour period, giving me a full blown strep infection.

The over-use of antibiotics or antibacterial agents promotes and even accelerates the success of any organism resistant to it. The killing agent does kill the non-resistants. However those resistant to the agent live to reproduce, and to reproduce, and to reproduce.

Triclosan is linked to endocrine disruption, cancer and antibiotic resistance. It is so ubiquitous in the environment that it is found in the urine of 75% of the American population according to the CDC.

“The proliferation of triclosan in everyday consumer products is so enormous, it is literally in almost every type of product – most soaps, toothpastes, cosmetics, clothes and toys. It’s in our drinking water, it’s in our rivers and as a result, it’s in our bodies…”
~ Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts

Other countries, including the members of the European Union, have banned or restricted its use.

Brian Sansoni of the Soap and Detergent Association (Lobby), which represents the $30 billion U.S. cleaning products industry, said concerns about triclosan are unfounded.

(Layton, Lyndsey “FDA says studies on triclosan, used in sanitizers and soaps,
raise concerns.” Washington Post. April 8th, 2010.
www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040704621pf.html)

Triclosan is one of the most common antibacterials in use today. It is present in antibacterial soaps, cosmetics, clothes and toys, even in many antibacterial toothpastes. When I first looked at the chemical structure of this compound, I was immediately struck by its similarities to key attributes of some PCB’s known to be estrogen mimics, which indeed it is.

Countries in the European Union have restricted its use, yet your own detergent lobbies representing the 30 billion dollar cleaning products industry say these claims are unfounded!