Guest Post: What's your homes hazard score?

By Alisha Carlo



Most people don't think twice about the different products on our supermarket shelves.  Heck, if they are being sold, they have to besafe right?  Or, if there is something to worry about, surely the label will carry a warning.  Well, sometimes those warning labels aren't as obvious as we'd think.  There may not be a gigantic symbol flashing at us.  Perhaps the warning is only the ingredients list. And if this is the case... who knows what half that stuff is anyway? Not me!

Over the last couple of years, I have learned that most of the products that are offered in the United States are not necessarily as healthy or safe as what is being offered in neighboring Countriessuch as Canada.  The United States is a bit more loosy goosy on it'srestrictions.  Whether it be household cleaning products, hygieneproducts, food, or even cosmetics, they may contain more than webargain for.

Canada's “Health Canada” commission publishes a product ingredient “hot list” annually or as new data becomes available. The list contains ingredients considered dangerous, and should not belegally used in products being sold in Canada.  Here is the mostrecent Canadian Cosmetic Hot List.

While the United States Consumer Protection Agency also requires labeling, it is much more limited to only include those products thatare an immediate danger. “Toxic, corrosive, an irritant, a strong sensitizer,flammable or combustible, or generates pressure throughdecomposition, heat or other means, AND  may cause substantial personal injury or substantial illness during or as a proximate result ofany customary or reasonably foreseeable handling or use, includingingestion by children.” Products with possible long term carcinogenic or nervedamaging affects are overlooked and often ignored. 

A great resource to see just how “toxic” your favorite products are, can be located at: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep  This website allows you to scan virtually any product on the market (that comes in to contact with skin).  As an example I ran a search of baby soaps. The products with the highest amount of toxins include: Baby Magic, Johnson and Johnson, and Huggies, all rating a 6or 7 on the hazardous ingredients scale. (7-9 considered HighHazard). 

The website details each products ingredients list, and potentiality for health concerns.  The Baby Magic scorecard shows the overall hazard as moderate, but when listing out individual concernsit is noted that the developmental and reproductive toxicity hazard is high. The detailed scorecard can be found here.

Great, one more thing to worry about right?  Many of us will say “well, I always used it, and my kid is fine.” OR “My Mom used it on me, and I'm fine.”  This may be true for now, however it is the long term affects that should be considered. Perhaps illnesses like Fibromyalgia and other recently commondegenerative nerve, and immune system disorders may be the result ofyears and years of toxic chemicals leaching into our systems. This of course is only my opinion and will probably be up for debate by many.  But it is something to consider.

We quite obviously cannot eliminate all hazards andtoxins from our environment, it's virtually impossible.  By merely breathing, we are taking in foreign particles every second.  So, am Is aying we should sit in our homes, plastic wrap everything, filter our air and water, remove all chemicals, eat only food grown inorganic atmospheres, and meat that is range fed and never given ahormone- oh yeah and don't immunize your kids either...
No.

But the truth is, everything is outgassing (or off-gassing as some call it). Our carpet, our car interior, the chemicals under our sink- you name it, if it was built, produced, or grown it likely contains somethingtoxic.  So, how about just starting somewhere.  Eliminate something.

Here's a great start, and it's easy!  Take all of your harsh cleaning products from under your kitchen sink and put them in a sealed rubber maid tub, and back under the sink. That's it.  Each of these chemicals, as they sit under there, are outgassing. They are putting gaseous fumes from their ingredients into our homeenvironment.  Guess where these gases sit?  Low. The gas particles are heavier than the air, therefore they hang low in our environment. So who is taking the brunt of these fumes? Yep, our babies and our pets. 

This post is not intended to be your “Debbie the Downer for the Day”.  I just hope to enlighten a few people, and give them tools to make better, healthier purchasing decisions. What about you?  Can you suggest a healthy alternative that you use andrecommend?  I'd love to hear them!

~Alisha
http://sprkme.blogspot.com (don't mind the mess, we're still under construction!)