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Is That Shampoo Really Organic?-NEW!
Poisons in Everyday Household Products? You've Got To Be Kidding
The Nontoxic Kitchen
Top Ten Nontoxic, Earth Friendly Living Suggestions
Genetically Engineered Food: Responsible Science or X Files Episode?
Food Irradiation: Treating The Symptoms, Ignoring The Causes
Healthy Children

Is That Shampoo Really Organic?

By Amy Todisco

I was snooping around the third floor bathroom of my sister's beautiful home last week looking for her shampoo and bath soap bottles. Not because I was going to use the products (I brought my own stuff from home). No, I was doing research. And there they were, peeking out from behind the mold and mildew-free vinyl shower curtain in her immaculately cleaned bathtub/shower enclosure. Nice looking light brown colored bottle with attractive earthy looking lettering. The front of the healthy looking bottle said, "pure organic shampoo", "with pure botanical essentials", "aromatherapy" and "not tested on animals". Wow, sounded good, even to this skeptical, purist, green living enthusiast. That was until I turned the bottle around and starting reading the ingredients.

Water was the first ingredient listed. Do they mean tap water? Purified water? Where'd the water come from, and why is it the first ingredient? Shouldn't it be soap? Okay, not that big a deal.

Then there was Sodium laureth sulfate. In over-the- counter personal care products the ingredients are listed in descending order of amounts used. In other words the synthetic chemical, sodium laureth sulfate, was the second largest ingredient used. Definitely not impressive. Sodium laureth sulfate, a synthetic detergent used in many products, may induce eye and skin irritation, and damage the hair follicle, and this is a shampoo were talking about. And the longer the ingredients stay in contact with the skin, the greater the irritation. Sodium laureth sulfate is thought to be more dangerous in concentrations above 2%, and most consumer products contain more than 20% (which is most likely the case with my sister's shampoo since it's listed as the second ingredient.) What's worse this chemical is often contaminated with a carcinogenic chemical, 1,4 dioxane. Yikes! But that's not where it ends.

The next ingredient is hormone-disrupting cocamide DEA (yup, I did say "hormone disrupting") that may form carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds called nitrosamines on the skin or in the body after absorption.

And the list of synthetic chemicals continues…Nonoxynol 10 (extremely toxic to aquatic organisms, what about us?) synthetic fragrance, known to be an allergen (can be made up of hundreds of chemicals, including phthalates. Scientists have shown that phthalates can damage the female reproductive system, but it is the male reproductive system that appears to be more sensitive.), DMDM hydantoin (may contain formaldehyde-the embalming fluid for corpses), cocamidoproyl betaine (another chemical that may be contaminated with impurities linked to cancer and other health problems), and more.

But interestingly enough there wasn't one organic ingredient despite the fact that the label says, "Pure organic shampoo". How is this possible? Before I answer that question, let me compare my organic shampoo to this one.

The shampoo my family and I use is made up of 100% natural ingredients, 80% of them certified organic, no Sodium Lauryl (or laureth) Sulfate or other petrochemicals. Instead it has: pure organic aloe vera, organic orange pith juice, coconut-corn oil soap w/Quillaya bark, organic hydrolyzed soy protein, carrageenan, organic shea butter, and other organic oils and a vitamin and citrus seed extract preservative. It doesn't suds as much as conventional shampoos because it doesn't have synthetic foaming agents, but this doesn't detract from its cleaning ability. Also, the scent is very mild and natural, not strong and perfumey like most shampoos, which I find a pleasant relief.

Stop. Please note that if you don't have the time or the stomach to finish reading this article and want to know right now what you can do, you can visit my organic & natural product store, www.greenlivingnow.com and easily and conveniently purchase the same products that my family and I use. I've done all of the research so that you don't have to.
If you're curious to know the rest of the story, please keep reading.

As I was saying, how is it possible to label a shampoo as pure and organic without any organic ingredients?

The Product Label Scam

If you're like me, you probably thought that "Eco-labels" like "allergy tested", "eco-safe", or "environmentally preferable" really tell us which products are safer to use. According to the Consumers Union, these are general claims that are not meaningful. Here's why:

(1) The manufacturer or marketer of the product created the label and they can say whatever they want; there isn't any independent organization verifying that the label claim is accurate (in other words, my sister's shampoo can say "pure organic shampoo" even though it's anything but pure, and there aren't any organic ingredients in the product. How misleading, eh?),

(2) The label can have different meanings for different products (therefore, "organic" on one label isn't necessarily the same as "organic" on another product label which may actually contains organic ingredients),

(3) The label standards aren't publicly available (so we, the unsuspecting consumers, have no way of knowing what standards each company is using when they come up with their label claims).

(4) The information about the organization who created the label isn't available, nor is the organization free from "conflict of interest", and

(5) The label was not developed with broad public and industry input.

So how do we determine the safety of a product?

First, a little more bad news for context (don't worry I'm going to give you the good news too)…No independent (or government) entity is testing products for their potential health effects before they are sold. And toxic chemicals are used in many consumer products, like my sister's shampoo. Manufacturers will tell you that it is in such small amounts that you don't have to worry.

You should be aware that household products are not regularly safety tested by some independent entity before they go onto store shelves. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the government agency that regulates household cleaning products, tells us on their website that they don't have the legal authority to test or certify products for safety before they can be sold to consumers. If they don't have the authority, who does? The answer is no one. They add that, "responsible companies test their products before putting them on the market" . The ones that do test don't share the results with consumers.

Similarly, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the federal agency that monitors cosmetic products to be sure that they are safe and properly labeled, does not review or approve these products or their ingredients (except color ingredients that have to be authorized for use ) before they are sold to the public, and the "FDA cannot require safety testing ". Come on guys, who's looking out for the consumer?

I'm sorry, but letting manufacturers test their own products is much like the proverbial fox guarding the hen house; the results lack objectivity, especially when the manufacturers have everything to gain or lose from those results. And to make matters worse, there is no government oversight. Where's the incentive to do the "right thing"? Our federal government's approach to chemicals has been that they are safe unless they are proven harmful. Studies financed by the chemical industry tend to find chemicals innocent, whereas non-industry financed studies often find them dangerous to human health.

Okay, okay, so what do we do?

First, you read the ingredients on the label. The biggest question on my mind is: are there any toxic ingredients in this product? In the case of personal care products, the ingredients should all be listed on the product, except for the fragrance and fragrance carriers (hormone disrupting phthalates). My general rule is that if you have trouble pronouncing the ingredient, you probably don't want it in your product. I know this sounds a bit purist, but before the dawn of synthetic chemicals people did effectively clean themselves, their homes, etc. with natural ingredients. Synthetic ingredients are cheaper, but they come with a "price" (our health and the health of our environment). I've been doing the natural living thing for years, quite successfully and you can too.

Okay, let's continue on how to choose safer products …You might want to pick up a copy of Ruth Winter's book, The Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients, and look each chemical up. Or you can go to the Environmental Working Group's site (www.ewg.org) and look up the products that you currently use and let them tell you which chemicals are most dangerous, and which products to avoid. (Note: don't be put off by the fact that EWG lists some excellent products as containing "unstudied ingredients", such as organic herbs and essential oils. This does not mean that the product is no good. If you have a question, feel free to email me: amy@greenlivingnow.com)

Second, if the label doesn't say something like, "X Company discloses all ingredients" then you might want to call Company X and ask them what else is in the product that's not disclosed on the label. If they tell you that they can't due to trade secrets, you might want to choose another product from a different company. Some years ago, I called a supposedly "natural" company to ask if they could tell me all of the ingredients in the particular product that I was interested in. They said that they couldn't due to trade secret laws. I told them that I wouldn't buy their product if they couldn't tell me what was in it. They still resisted, and I still don't buy that company's products.

You can also request that the company send you their Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which will give you some more information about the product's "active" ingredients and their health effects. Unfortunately, the MSDS's aren't required to list all of the "inert" ingredients below a certain percentage. You should know that "inert" doesn't mean safe, and these inerts can make up to 99% of the product. There is a popular green colored multi-purpose spray cleaner in the supermarket that you'd think was totally natural and safe by looking at the label. But, when I read the book, The Safe Shopper's Bible by Steinman and Epstein, I found out that that "nontoxic" product contained a chemical called butyl cellosolve in it, which was not listed on the label. Butyl cellosolve is toxic to the kidney and liver and inhibits the body's ability to make blood. Apparently this is a common ingredient in many all-purpose cleaning products. I called the company and asked how much butyl cellosolve was in the product. They said, "It's only 6%".

"Wow, that seems like a lot of toxic chemical in a product marketed as 'nontoxic'", I said.

Naturally I was assured that it was "perfectly safe" at that level.

"What about the fact that we might use this product every day, and that other products in our home may also contain that toxic ingredient? I queried.

"Hello, hello, are you still there?" No answer. Not only that, but I asked what made the product green. Was it carcinogenic coal tar dye? The product specialist didn't know. Not a good sign. I know that there are other "natural" products that don't contain those chemicals in it, so why use the questionable one?

Okay, so you've read the ingredients on the label, looked them up, determined whether or not the company has disclosed all of the ingredients (I don't like general categories of ingredients such as "surfactants", I want specifics), and obtained the MSDS's. Now what?

Are there any warning labels? Are the words "poison/danger" or "warning" anywhere on the bottle? If so, I'd be less likely to use it. Having said that though, I don't put much stock in these "signal words" of warning. Why? The New York Poison Control Center says that 85% of them are inaccurate. Plus, they are only talking about the immediate acute effects, not the long-term use of this product effects (real life doses).

Anything else? Yes. Does the manufacturer have their own factory to make the products? If yes, that's good. This means that they have more control. No toxic products are being made in that same machinery, and no toxic chemicals are used to clean the machinery between batches. Also, the raw materials are right there (no confusion with other products ingredients) and the people running the machines know the natural formulations. What kind of packaging is used? Recyclable #1 & 2 plastic is the better choice. Glass is the healthiest (albeit cost ineffective from a shipping standpoint).

What's the company's reputation on social and environmental responsibility? Check out Coop America's Green Pages (in print in natural food stores) and online at www.coopamerica.org. (My company, Green Living Now, LLC, will be listed there soon). Coop America screens the companies for you. Phew, one less thing to worry about.

If all of this seems like too much work for you feel free to drop by my organic & natural products store, www.greenlivingnow.com and get the tools you need to start making your home the greener safer haven that it should be.

To a safer greener life!

Amy Todisco is the President and Owner of greenlivingnow.com organic and natural product webstore. She was the founder and executive director of the nonprofit, the Consumer's Healthy Home Center (CHHC). CHHC was created to hire independent toxicologists to test a variety of household products for their potential inhalation health effects, and then recommend the safest products to consumers. Amy closed down CHHC to create the greenlivingnow.com webstore. She felt that she could inspire and positively impact more people through the webstore. Contact her at: amy@greenlivingnow.com

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