This Moment on Earth - the Kerry's

John and Teresa Kerry were featured on This Week with George Stephanopoulos (click HERE to view the video) promoting the environment and their book This Moment on Earth about REGULAR folks impacted by toxicity in our environment and what we as REGULAR folks can do to help fix it.

According to the Kerry's we have 10 years to make this right before we have a major catastrophe. John Kerry is saying that the US needs to take a stand and be the leader and research to do better by the environment. It's expensive, but it's only going to get more and more expensive as we wait. It makes me think about visits to the dentist where I'm told I need a crown... it's expensive, but not as expensive as waiting until I have an absess and need both a root canal and a crown... hmmm.

Watching some of the highlights from the book - namely the info about Rick Dove and his experience while he was fishing (watch the video) has solidified my decision to go Vegetarian. Yes, I've decided to go that way. :) I've already been eating that way for a bit and I even feel better. Now I have to decide whether or not to take my family (well, my kids I can't make my husband change the way he eats) with me.

I plan to check the book out when it hits my local library and will share more about it then.

GET CLEAN

Okay… so I’m 31 now.. (ouch) and you know we are always supposed to listen to our mom b/c ‘mommy knows best’, but we also know that deep down inside we want to disagree w/ mom… just because. Well, MY mom has been selling Shaklee products for some time now and I’ve always kind of let it all go in one ear and out the other… 1. Not a big fan of cleaning so any cleaning talk was useless to me (ha) and 2. I’m my own woman and didn’t need my mom telling me how to do things…. Ha ha

Fast forward: I’m a wife, mom, home owner and let’s face it I’ve got to start cleaning this house!!! I’ll summarize the story as to how I got to using Shaklee products. Post birth of my babies my skin was a wreck… even more of a wreck than it had been previously… now in addition to my lovely acne I had I now had a not so attractive RIDUCULOUSLY dry patch on my face. Mom and I traveled together and she went on and on about Shaklee and finally I said, “okay.. I’ll try your stuff while we’re on this trip.” (in my mind thinking this SO isn’t going to work) Well, IT DID! The dry spot cleared up in less than a week and I was sold. Mom had talked about the environmental aspects of Shaklee all along, but I hadn’t done the research on my own. Now that I was going to order my own Enfuselle (another post to be done in the future RE: skin care, but if you are looking for info now click here to be directed to the website.) I was going to do my own research. WOW Shaklee is one environmentally conscious operation. This led me to look into their cleaning products.. Mom had sung their praises as well, but I was leary about the shipping cost. After what I read about Shaklee and their environmentally conscious business practices I felt it might be worth it. Not only is it worth it… it’s cost effective because the products are so concentrated. I’m not paying for them to ship a bunch of water. I don’t’ have to have a bunch of different cleaners. Basic H works on almost everything.

They have named their cleaning product campaign Get Clean – meaning not only get your house clean, but get our planet clean.

The products are safe for you to use.. no harmful chemicals and therefore no horrible odors… no more having to turn on the fan in the bathroom just to do the job. No more rubber gloves or worrying about your kids being close by or following behind and touching before everything has dried and gassed off.

Quoted from the Shaklee website: “Go to your cupboard right now. Pick a cleaner, any cleaner. Does it contain chlorine, phenol, ammonia, or formaldehyde? These—and more—may be toxic. Toxic as in dangerous, as in hurtful, as in not very clean at all.”

Shaklee cleaning products have:

* No napthalene
* No kerosene
* No formaldehyde
* No phenol
* No cresol
* No lye
* No hydrochloric acid
* No sulfuric acid
* No petroleum distillates
* No benzene
* No ammonia
* No paradichlorobenzene
* No sodium hydroxide
* No butyl cellosolve
* No phosphoric acid

There products are also good for the planet.

Quoted from the Shalkee website: “Get Clean™ products use biodegradable cleaning agents, which means they break down easily instead of hanging out in the ground for hundreds of years. They also have no phosphates, borates, nitrates, or other stuff the planet doesn't appreciate. And by making them superconcentrated, we leave you to add water so we can subtract waste. This has tons of implications. Literally. Less weight to ship. Less product to use. Less packaging to throw away. So you can get that clean feeling about your house, knowing you're keeping the planet clean, too.”

Shaklee cleaning products have:

* Sustainably sourced natural ingredients
* Biodegradable
* No chlorine
* No phosphates
* No nitrates
* No borates
* No animal testing
* Recyclable packaging
* Recyclable wipes
* Recyclable dryer sheets

Some statistics from the website convinced me that purchasing the products on line and paying to have them shipped was worth the cost – and was actually a wash – because it helped me to achieve some of my personal goals for 2007: decreasing the amount of waste the I send to the landfill and decrease my environmental footprint. Here are the statistics that I found astonishing:

“108lbs of packaging waste stays out of landfills when you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit versus conventional ready-to-use cleaners.”

“248 pounds of greenhouse gas are eliminated when you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit versus conventional ready-to-use cleaners.”

I ordered the starter kit and I’ve gotta say I LOVE IT! Not only is it well packaged – hey come on .. I know it’s just cleaning stuff, but the fact that it looks good makes me feel good.. I don’t know why – it gets the job done and only drops of it are needed to perform hard tasks. Basic H rocks my cleaning world. You mix it in different degrees to clean different things… like windows vs. bathroom (all-purpose cleaners). I got my stuff in mid October and am no where near going through the Laundry detergent, Basic H, dish soap, hand soap, Nature Bright, fabric softener or scour off paste (love this stuff for hard to clean stuff... the sink, caked on cooked on stuff on pots and pans) . I did order more dish detergent, but for some reason we run the dishwasher a lot.. how does a family of 2 (+ 2 9 month olds) go through so many dishes?

I will stop going on and just direct you to the place to go for all info about Getting Clean and staying Green!!!! It even comes w/ a cute little caddy and cleaning rags… LOVE IT! Click HERE.

So here I am saying it for the world to see... Mom, you were RIGHT! AGAIN!

Another reason to choose natural and organic bath and body products!

A recent study finds the presence of 1,4-Dioxane in various children's bath products like Hello Kitty Bubble Bath, Huggies Baby Wash, Johnson’s Baby Wash, Scooby-Doo Bubble Bath and Sesame Street Bubble Bath. It has also been found in adult personal care products. Here is what the EPA says about 1,4 Dioxane:

1,4-Dioxane is a petroleum-derived contaminant considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a clear-cut
animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program...Because
it is a contaminant produced during manufacturing, the FDA does not require it to be listed as an ingredient on product labels.

Check out the full article HERE

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

I recently read The Hundred-Year Lie (book review coming soon) and it really opened my eyes to the levels of chemicals pervading our everyday lives. Synthetic chemicals are in everything - shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, cosmetics, household cleaners, medicine, food, etc. After running out of my favorite make-up, Bare Escentuals, I decided to do a little research before buying anymore. Bare Escentuals is supposed to be so pure that you can sleep in it, and "Made with pure, crushed minerals from the earth" (taken from the Bare Escentuals website). I checked the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics for the facts on the ingredients listed on my BE Mineral Veil powder foundation: Zea Mays (corn) Starch, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Magnesium Stearate, Zinc Stearate, Methylparaben, Proplyparaben, MAY CONTAIN: Iron Oxides (CI 77499). EWG Skin Deep database gives each ingredient a rating of Green (low concern) Yellow (moderate concern) or Red (higher concern). All of the ingredients EXCEPT Aluminum Starch Ocyenylsuccinate, Methylparaben and Proplyparaben received the green rating. The 3 afore mentioned ingredients received a yellow rating, and this is what I found out about Parabens from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics website:

Parabens are a group of compounds widely used as anti-microbial preservatives
in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products, including underarm
deodorants. Parabens are absorbed through intact skin and from the
gastrointestinal tract and blood. U.K. researchers found measurable
concentrations of six different parabens in 20 human breast tumors. The
study highlights the need for more research on the potential link between
products containing parabens and increased breast cancer risk.

Many companies, including Compact signers, have begun phasing out parabens
from their lines by marking their products as “paraben-free.” Parabens are
commonly listed on product ingredient labels as methylparaben,
propylparaben, ethylparaben and butylparaben.

In a nutshell, recent research links Parabens to cancer as they are a hormone disruptor and mimic estrogen. Personally, that is enough reason for me to seek out Paraben-free products, and unfortunately that means that my Bare Escentuals has to go! The Skin Deep database lists many companies who get a completely green rating, and I chose two cosmetics companies - Afterglow and The Alchemist's Apprentice. Both make a powder mineral foundation like BE, and both are paraben-free. I was able to order samples of both, so now am awaiting (eagerly, as I don't have any more BE to use even if I was desperate!) their arrival. I will give you all an update as soon as I can.

Thankfully, there are many brands of safe cosmetics out there. I encourage people to do the research and make informed decisions about product choices. This post is not meant to be alarmist, or meant to discourage. Personally I am choosing to take this information and make better decisions about the products that I bring into my home, products that I can feel good about, products that I can actually read and understand the labels. My next search is for a great body lotion/cream made without the use of any synthetic chemicals or compounds, and I will keep you updated on all my product testing!