Stink Movie

Chemical Poisoning: Watch the movie Stink

I know there are a lot of chemicals in the average American household.  Formaldehyde is in new clothes and new furniture. Petroleum is in baby oil and body lotions, Dry cleaning is a toxic gas that can get on all clothes in the closet, not just the ones you get dry cleaned. Perfumes are chemicals as well but did you know that it could be the same chemicals that are in your toilet bowl cleaner?  The movie Stink (on Netflix or for purchase on iTunes) was really eye-opening that way.  I knew we were living in a toxic world but I didn't know how toxic until I saw this documentary done by Jon Whelan. Jon could smell the toxins coming from his kids pjs so he called up the company and after being told it was classified information and he couldn't know what they were putting in the pjs he knew he had a story to uncover.

I am aware of how many chemicals can be carcinogenic but I assumed the science just hasn't caught up with the manufacturing companies so when I watched the movie I was surprised that the companies were also aware that they are putting carcinogenics into their products.  They know they are killing people and they don't change it. Many times these cancer causing chemicals are labeled under the word 'fragrance'.  I assumed that if companies had the awareness that things would change but that won't work.  The only thing left is to raise the consumers awareness of it so the consumers buy something else and this movie does a great job of making us aware.
If you think you have been using toxic products in your house and want to detox heavy chemicals let me know at your next visit and even bring in a few products if you want to test the products directly with your body to see what harm they may be doing.   

Have You Heard of Greenwashing?

Yes it’s a real thing. Greenwashing is the use of marketing to portray an organization's products, activities or policies as environmentally friendly when they are not.

To spot greenwashing, it can be helpful to compare how much money a company or organization spends on being green versus how much it spends on publicizing that its products, services or policies are actually green.

Greenwashing can take the form of changing a product's name or packaging to evoke a more natural esthetic even if it still contains dangerous chemicals or ingredients that are environmentally unfriendly to produce.

Yes it happens and yes it is allowed. I fell for these traps for years. “If it says it’s natural it must be.” Nope! Reading ingredients, not the label, is what’s important. One example is Mrs. Meyers. Mrs. Meyers is made without chlorine, ammonia, petroleum distillates, parabens, phosphates or phthalates. They also say they are made with essential oils and fragrance.

Anytime I see fragrance on a product and it is not noted what is making up that fragrance I won't buy it. On their website Mrs. Meyers shows fragrance in their ingredients as “mixture of natural, high-quality essential oils and safe synthetic fragrance ingredients.” Nope. My nose is so trained now because I don’t use any chemicals that I can smell them right away. It’s strong and doesn’t smell natural. 

I also contact many of the companies to ask where their essential oils are sourced and what grade they are. If they can’t tell me then I won't use it. 

There are different grades of essential oils. Most essential oils are distilled quickly so they can produce more and use them to fragrance perfumes and other products. When you distilled them quickly, you lose all the healing properties and are left with only the smell. So when you see a product that says scented with essential oils or made with essential oils, unless you know the company and where they source the oils from, they are usually perfume grade.

Also there is no regulation on fragrance. Fragrances are linked to allergies, hormone disruption, asthma, neurotoxins and cancer. There are something like 3000 chemicals that companies are allowed to use to make their fragrances and they don’t have to label them all. They can use hundreds of them to make one scent and not say what they used. It’s amazing what they approve to be in products in the store and our food. We have to read labels if we care what goes on and in our bodies. Instead of figuring out what the labeled 'fragrance' is sometimes it's just easier to find fragrance-free products.  One company I love for fragrance-free products is Ecover Zero for dish soap, laundry detergent, etc.  

Here are some links to info about fragrance:

https://www.prevention.com/beauty/skin-care/a20454834/the-truth-about-fragrance-free-products/
https://www.forceofnatureclean.com/truth-about-toxic-fragrances/

If you are wondering if the products you are using are safe this is a great website. You can plug in your product and it will tell you how toxic it is. 

https://www.ewg.org