Pillow Talk

I suspect that there is a great misconception that the products we can purchase from a business must be safe for our use. How else could they be available to us? Somebody has done the testing to ensure a products safety right? Well, this isn't always the case, which puts the responsibility on the consumer to do their own research.

You think, hey I need a new pillow so I'll run out and get the cheapest one I can find. But have you asked yourself, what is that pillow made of and what possible chemical treatments have been applied to this pillow? We spend approximately 1/3 of our life in bed. So why not make it as safe and healthy as you can? This blog is the first in a series that will peel back the covers of your bed.

We spend our nights tucked into our beds with our noses buried in or next to our pillows. Because of this, your pillow is the most important part of having a healthy bed. Unless you have a pillow made of natural fibers, you are unsuspectingly breathing in fumes that the pillow is outgassing.

Consider a polyester fill/cotton shell pillow. Polyester is a synthetic material (plastic) that is made from polyethylene terephalate (PET), a derivative of petrochemicals (oil). It can give off fumes of plastic, like when you smell a new ziploc bag. The weave of a pillow case is too loose to block these plastic fumes. Also, Polyester/cotton-blend bedding is heavily treated with a formaldehyde-based resin which also outgasses. Low levels of exposure to formaldehyde can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, cause skin problems, serious breathing problems and can increase your risk of certain kinds of cancer. OSHA regulates formaldehyde as a cancer-causing substance.

It's very likely that your pillow has also been treated with a fire retardant. A significant source of human exposure to one type of flame retardant chemical comes from polybrominated dipheylethers (PBDEs). These chemicals are long-lasting in the environment, our bodies and are being linked to irreparable developmental and reproductive disorders.

Does any of this sound like something you want to be breathing at least 1/3 of your life while trying to enjoy restful and peaceful sleep?

Some Natural Fiber Alternatives:
Organic Cotton
Organic or "PureGrow" Wool
Buckwheat
Kapok
Down
Syriaca Down

I purchased my "PureGrow" Wool pillow several years ago at a local eco-friendly store. Wool is naturally flame resistant, inhospitable to dust mites and resistant to mold and mildew but does tend to lose some of its loft. To freshen my pillow, I simply hang it out on the clothes line in the sun. It has been a wonderful and welcome addition to my healthy sleep habits. More than likely, you will not find these natural fiber alternatives at a Walmart or Target and will have to seek out either a local eco-friendly store or online resources which there are now many. Please always make an attempt to find a store close to home.


Next time.........A look at fire retardants and the chemical applications used on children bedding products.

Skin, Your Largest Organ

When you go to the store and purchase shampoo, lotion, soap, fragrance, makeup, or sunscreen, do you consider whether or not that product is safe to put on your body? Do you assume that because it is there for sale, it must be safe for use?

Your Skin
Your skin is your largest organ. It acts as a waterproof, insulating shield, guarding the body against extremes of temperature, damaging sunlight, and harmful chemicals. Your skin also functions as a medium through which toxins are removed from your body. Despite the amazing features of your skin, ingredients from skincare products are absorbed in minutes through your skin and into your bloodstream. Many of the ingredients in skincare products are already known, or currently being found, to cause cancer. Why are these dangerous personal care products allowed to remain on the market? Because the FDA, which is responsible for regulating these products, spends almost no time, money or effort actually investigating the safety of such products. Instead, the FDA spends the vast majority of its time approving new prescription drugs.

Partial list of known harmful chemicals:

• Aluminum

• Artificial fragrances

• Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)

• Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate - OMC)

• Dibutyl phthalate

• Diethanolamine (DEA)

• Digalloyl trioleate

• Ethylhexyl p-Methoxycinnamate

• Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives such as DMDM hydantoin quaternium-15, and diazonlidnyl urea

• Isopropyl Palmitate

• Lanolin and Acetylated Lanolin

• Menthyl anthranilate

• Methylisothiazoline (MIT)

• Mineral oil

• Nitrites (caution: their presence does not have to be disclosed)

• Octocrylene

• Oxybenzone, benzophenone, benzophenone-3

• PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA)

• Padimate-O (Octyl dimethyl paba

• Para-aminobenzoic acid, PABA

• Parabens - (butyl-, ethyl-, methyl- and propyl-parabens)

• Petrolatum

• Phenol

• Phthalates

• Propylene Glycol

• Polyethylene Glycol (PEG's with any number)

• Salicylates (ethylhexyl-, homosalate and octyl-salicylate)

• Sodium Lauryl and Sodium Laureth Sulfates

• Talc

• Triethanolamine (TEA)

• Urea, Imidazolidinyl, Diazolidinyl Urea and/or DMDM Hydantoin

• Urocanic acid

List from http://www.best-mens-skin-care.com/ingredients.html

Pick One Product
It can be daunting to try to weed out products that are unsafe for your use. My challenge to you is to investigate one product that you currently use. Go to Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews and check that one product and its ingredients. If it receives a low hazard rating, continue to use it. If you don't like what you see, use the above list to help you pick out a new product. Do your skin one big favor this week!

Products I use:

Aubrey Organics shampoo/conditioner

Avalon Organics hand/body lotion

Laef's natural and organic deodorant

Deep Steep organic hand soap

CitraSolve dish soap/multi-purpose cleaner

Seventh Generation laundry soap

Ecover stain remover

Badger sunscreen/chapstick

Toxins Don't Discriminate

There's a fable about a village along a river. The residents who live here according to parable, began noticing increasing numbers of drowing people caught in the river's swift current and so went to work inventing ever more elaborate technologies to resuscitate them. So preoccupied were these heroic villagers with rescue and treatment that they never thought to look upstream to see who was pushing the victims in.
(Dr. Sandra Steingraber; Living Downstream)

My quest to see what is upstream (like Steingraber's in Living Downstream) began in 2006 after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I began to ask myself, what is in the environment around me? How does this environment influence the lives of every person on this planet? Are we safe? Or do we blissfully go through our days blind to environmental hazards that are in the soil, air and water?

These questions have led me to explore the food I eat, the hygiene products I use on my body, the methods I use to clean my home, medications, the production of paper products, furniture and carpet, the clothing I wear, etc.

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2006 Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) report, states that over four billion pounds of chemicals of varying toxicity were disposed of and or released in the United States. Roughly 75,000 chemicals are now in common commercial use and of these, only about 1.5 to 3 percent have been tested for carcinogenicity. According to the National Research Council, only 10 percent of pesticides in common use have been adequately assessed for hazards. Chemicals classified as known, probable, and possible human carcinogens are still allowed to be manufactured, sold, released, dumped, imported, and exported. It would be comfortable to assume such substances are automatically expelled from human society as soon as their cancer-causing potential is demonstrated, but this is not the case.

Given these statistics, it seems to me that the responsibility lies in the hands of the consumer to make educated choices about the products we use and consume. These series of blogs in the coming months will (I hope) provide a glimpse of what I have discovered. I am passionate about sharing what I have learned and how I have changed my life.