Tips for Safe Water

You can look up your tap water and see what pollutants are in it, and how it compares to the national average!

Here is the link for the City of Columbus water supply:

http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/OH/City-of-Columbus-Department-of-Public-Utilities/2504412/

What is so amazing to me is how many of the chemicals listed in a lot of our tap water are common ingredients in our products such as forms of pthalates from plastic or "fragrance", or pesticides from farming. We could all do a small part in helping this situation. Think about the chemicals you dump down your sink every day while you shower, wash your face, and wash your clothes & dishes. If we all used non-toxic products think of how much of a difference that would make!

EWG found 38 contaminants in 10 popular brands of bottled water. It is best to drink filtered tap water.

• Use stainless steel water bottles

• Check your city's water

• Make sure to use fluoride-free, filtered water for your baby bottles if you use formula

Letter to Snopes.com regarding Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

I read this on the snopes.com website and felt compelled to respond about SLS.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/shampoo.asp

Here is my comment:

Regarding your response for "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate", I URGE you to reconsider your response and check the following sources:

www.cosmeticsdatabase.com
This site lists this ingredient IS linked with cancer, and gives several sources. The website is run by the Environmental Working Group.
Also, another good source is the book "Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry", by Stacy Malkan. Or, the book "Toxic Beauty" by Samuel Epstein, MD.

There are numerous other sources on the subject.

The "Environmental Canada Domestic Substance List" needs to be mentioned in your response. Studies done in Canada have linked this ingredient with cancer.

If you research further you will also find that there are still contamination concerns for this ingredient.

Contamination concerns - ETHYLENE OXIDE, 1,4-DIOXANE

1,4-Dioxane is a KNOWN carcinogen

To simply site that the FDA and our government is protecting us from such substances is completely false.
In the US there are absolutely no independent studies being done on ingredients such as Sodium Laryl Sulfate before they hit the market. It is the cosmetic industry itself, not the FDA that makes determinations on ingredients. Cosmetics are a self-policing industry that the FDA does NOT oversee.

Your response gives full trust to our government and FDA, which seems irresponsible. Why does the European Union ban over 1,100 chemicals from their products, and the U.S. only NINE?! Please read the 1938 FDA mandate where industry lobbying succeeded in blocking the FDA from requiring testing of cosmetics.

I have used the snopes.com site for years as a trusted source, I would hate to now view it as being inaccurate. I urge you to look into further studies on the subjects of toxins in products.

Thank you,

Lyndsi

Johnson & Johnson.... These products are made for BABIES??

Are you kidding me??

How does this product sound?

Johnson's Baby Nourishing Milk Lotion

Sounds pretty safe, right?
WRONG!

This product is rated "7" on the Skin Deep website (10 being the worst score).

• 11 of the ingredients in this baby product are linked with causing Cancer
• 7 of the ingredients are linked with Developmental/Reproductive Toxicity
• Contains ingredients, such as parabens that are banned in Europe
• Contains many other ingredients under the word "fragrance" that they do not disclose on the label.
  

What is going ON? It makes me sad that innocent babies out there are being slathered in this product several times a week. Their parents might trust Johnson & Johnson. Or, they might think that the government tests and regulates these products, which is not true. Or, they might be busy working parents that just haven't had time to look into it. Well, I urge you to make the time to look up your own products, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have children.

Here are a few other companies and the ranges of products that they have -


Avalon Organics: 0-5

Avon: 1-10

Bareminerals: 2-5

Cetaphil: 3-7

Dove: 2-9

Johnson & Johnson: 0-10

FDA

Did you know that the European Union bans over 1,100 chemicals from cosmetics, and the US only NINE!!??

The FDA permits toxins in cosmetics! Most people assume their products are safe, when really there are many dangerous ingredients. Check out this article:

http://www.naturalnews.com/025531.html

And of course the FDA also allows many toxic and harmful chemicals to be in our food! Our family tries to avoid all food dye (Red 40, Yellow 5, etc.), among other things, and here is why-

"Pigments from animal, plant, and synthetic sources used to color foods, cosmetics, and other products. Cochineal is from insects. Widely used FD&C and D&C colors are coaltar (bituminous coal) derivatives that are continously tested on animals due to their carcinogenic properties. Alternatives: grapes, beets, turmeric, saffron, carrots, chlorophyll, annatto, alkanet." (from PETA's Caring Consumer).

My husband has told me several times to stay away from bituminous coal substances (used in construction) that we've encountered while taking walks. He kept telling me that it causes cancer. So WHY is it in our food??

If you would like to read up more on the FDA, let me know I have a list of great books!!

Letter to Mary Kay

Here it is!

I'll let you know how/if they respond.
Also, some very exciting news! I've found a cosmetics company that has all "0" products!! ZERO! Non-Toxic!! I am so excited!! More to come on that later...

_____________________________________________________________

Mary Kay Customer Service,

This letter is in regards to numerous Mary Kay products I have used over the years. I have recently discovered that many of the chemicals in your products are very dangerous.

The information below is from www.costmeticsdatabase.com. On this website products are given a score of 0-10. Ten being the most toxic and harmful, zero being perfectly safe.

Just to name a few specifically-

Mary Kay Waterproof Mascara (SCORE=6)

Mary Kay Eye Color (SCORE=8)

Mary Kay Signature Lip Gloss (SCORE=7)

These products all contain ingredients linked with:

1) Cancer

2) Developmental/reproductive toxicity

3) Violations, restrictions & warnings

4) Allergies/immunotoxicity and several other problems.

I would like to return my products immediately for full refund. It is my goal to rid my house of these very toxic products and start using all “0” or “1” rated products. I have 3 children and the oldest is starting to use more personal care products and cosmetics and I would like for our family to have safe choices.

Please send me the contact information for someone in your customer service department that I would be able to personally send a list to. Since I have purchased from 3 different Mary Kay Independent Sales consultants in the past few years I would like to deal directly with the company rather than harm their business. You are doing your consultants a disservice by using ingredients that are known to harm people and are banned in many other countries.

I URGE you to reconsider the ingredients your company uses. There are less toxic options available. Please sign the “Compact for Safe Cosmetics”.

I would also like to disclose to you that I am recording my letters and all responses on my personal blog and on Facebook.

Thank you,

Lyndsi

Mary Kay Customer and past consultant

____________________________________________

Small Changes

Check out the following numbers on these products.

Any guesses as to what they mean?

The number represents how TOXIC these products are!!

Shocked? So was I when I sat down to look them up. This is a scale of 0 (being perfectly safe and non-toxic) to 10 (being very toxic/hazardous). This is all from the website called Skin Deep www.cosmeticsdatabase.com.

I first used this website over the summer when I heard that you could look up sunscreen. I have always had a feeling that some skin cancer is maybe caused by the chemicals in sunscreen. We used the website to try to purchase a few less toxic sunscreens for our beach vacation. When you are slathering your children and babies in sunscreen all day you start to really wonder what is in these products!

The website tells you about the ingredients and if they have been linked to causing cancer, immune problems, if they disrupt hormones, cause allergies, etc.

The good news is that there ARE safer products in almost every category! If we all refused to buy these toxic products, eventually they would stop making them!

I challenge you to look up your most common products- deodorant, soap, baby wash, perfume... Then leave me a comment here and let me know what your NUMBERS are!

I must warn you that once you start, you will not like what you find. I am trying to not only buy safer products, but write letters to some of the companies I have been buying from over the years... More to come later and I will be blogging about my letters and all responses!