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!

Chemical Overload

I've been very busy lately trying to detox our household. First we started a few years ago with buying mostly organic, then almost all organic, then targeting avoiding chemicals, preservatives, soy, GMO food, food dye... It has really expanded recently and my latest quest is to find safer cleaning and personal care products.

Just like the food industry, I am finding time and time again these chemicals are KNOWN to cause cancer, and they are banned in several other countries. WHY are Americans still subjected to these things, despite our ever growing cancer rates? WHY is no one doing anything about it? I urge you to get involved, spread the word and contact your local legislators!

Please watch this video!



And then look up your own personal care products on http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.

BPA Found in Canned Food! Yikes!

Just another reason why we need stricter testing and labeling in the U.S!!

BPA has been found in canned food and baby formula!

Click on my title to read the full article.

Canned tomatoes are especially a problem and right now there are no canned tomatoes for sale in the US that are BPA free. Since tomatoes are so acidic it takes special packaging to put them in cans. Even the glass jars of tomatoes have lids that are lined with a substance that contains BPA.

BPA is a problem because it is a known hormone disruptor, similar to phthalates. They have been linked with causing low sperm count, infertility, and genital malformation. In studies, women with high amounts of phthalates had babies with high amounts... the baby boys were also more likely to have smaller penises and undescended testicles. (Study done in 2005 by University of Rochester).

Phthalates leach out of products and end up contaminating our food and environment. They are found in many products such as COSMETICS (anything that says "fragrance"), vinyl shower curtains, toys, and now we find out they are in canned food as well! The question is, with this many products containing the chemical, how much is inside our bodies?

The European Union has already banned some phthalates from toys & cosmetics. When the City of San Francisco banned several phthalates & BPA from children's toys (in 2006), they were then SUED by the chemical industry trade association!! It is easy to see why it is such a struggle in this country to protect ourselves and our kids. As consumers, we have very little rights compared to powerful industries. Instead of waiting and hoping that someone else does something, try contacting your local legislators and telling them that this issue is very important to you!