I love me some tea. I've been in love with tea and the many opportunities for ceremony and ritual surrounding it ever since my mother asked me if I wanted to have a peppermint tea party with her when I was a little girl. Heck yeah I wanted to have a tea party! She brewed us a couples of cups of tea and we sat in my room enjoying it. Tea is simply magical.
There are secret dangers everywhere these days and unless you actually go looking for them you have a great chance on missing out on what could prove to be useful information. Looking for trouble sounds crazy and exhausting. I look at it this way - if you're reading this blog then it's likely you're interested in these hidden dangers and I'm happy to share whatever I've learned with you.
The subject of toxins in tea was just one of those thoughts I had in passing and chose to revisit. Honestly, it came to me while I sat watching The Backyardigans with my daughter. I let my mind wander and suddenly found myself wondering - are there hidden toxins in tea? It wasn't a search that took much digging to find an answer to my question, and that answer was a resounding yes.
Many tea bags are produced using a nasty chemical used in the production of plastics and insecticides. When this chemical, epichlorohydrin, comes in contact with water, it hydrolyzes into a carcinogen. In a world where we are trying so hard to rid our homes and bodies of endocrine disruptors we sit down with a nice, hot, cup of cellular metabolic process disruptors.
But wait there's more! (I'm so so sorry . . . )
Tea bags are also usually bleached (that's how most of our household items [examples: toilet paper, baby wipes] get that lovely white color. The edges of these bleached bags are also sealed using MORE CHEMICALS!
After these tea bags have been made with epichlorohyrin, bleached, and heat sealed with chemicals; the bags are "wet strengthened" using additional chemicals making sure that the bag doesn't fall apart upon impact with your hot water.
How can you avoid these pitfalls? Check labels. Some teas are made with chemical free bags. Look for "chemical free" or "bleach free" and I should think any company side-stepping a clear answer about if their products are exposed to these things or not should be side-stepped when it comes to your next cup of tea.
Tea companies I found to be free of epichlorohydrin
Twinings (uses a thin layer of polypropylene plastic to seal the tea bags)
Tea companies best to avoid on this issue
Celestial Seasonings
Stash
Bigelow (contain polyamine-epichlorohydrin resins)
Yogi (contain polyamine-epichlorohydrin resins)
Numi (provided an inconclusive response when questioned)
Lipton
Ahmad (will not respond)
Salada (will not respond)
Tazo (will not respond)
Harney & Sons Fine Teas (will not respond)
Ginar (will not respond)
Red Rose
Tetley
Alternative options
Loose tea
Bag your own tea
Related reading
The Truth: About Tea Bags
Twinings FAQ
Bleach in teabags - health risks
Bleached tea bags
Yahoo! Answers
Green Tea May Fight Cancer But The Tea Bags Might Cause It
List of Epichlorohydrin Free Tea Products
How To Tell if Epichlorohydrin Is In Your Tea
Showing posts with label EDC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EDC. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Pinners Beware!
It's really easy to just somewhat mindlessly click and add pins and I have the sneaking suspicion that a lot of people who say "pin now and read later" may be more likely to pin now and forget later.
We're all at least occasionally guilty on mindless pinning; unless of course your my husbands grandmother. When I tried to teach her to use Pintrest she was reading each pin on the opening page with such care I think she only read four or five pins (this included visiting the source websites.)
I say all of that to say this - take at least one minute longer before pinning to your boards with titles like "natural living", "chemical free", or "green." Some pins will have the basic ingredients for a recipe listed right there without your needing to visit a website and even more have pictures of the ingredients you can expect to use. While looking for chemical-free recipes I found a disturbing amount that included Suave shampoo or conditioner, Herbal Essences shampoo or conditioner, Dawn dish soap, and even on occasion ammonia!
If you're not sure why all of these ingredients (sans the ammonia) don't count as chemical-free I've looked up the ingredients of these products so I can show you a few of the most commonly used toxic chemicals you will find in these products.
Suave
Fragrance (Parfum), propylene glycol, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, dmdm hydantoin
According to LIVESTRONG:
"All shampoos in the Suave lines include ammoninum lauryl sulfate, a surfactant that reduces surface tension in water so that it can lift dirt from your hair, and sound-alike ammonium laureth sulfate, another surfactant and a skin conditioner."
Herbal Essences
Fragrance (Parfum), PEGs,
Dawn
Fragrance, sodium laureth sulfate
Although the overall health rating for these may not be off the charts terrible, the fact that these items contain these chemicals is enough for me to feel that using them in your "home-made" products isn't the greenest choice possible and not very chemical-free.
Learning at least a few of the more hazardous chemicals will make checking labels simpler than you may think. I can tell you from my own personal experience that there you will learn where in the list of ingredients to find some of these offenders while others jump off the label and you spot them almost immediately.
Just remember that DIY isn't interchangeable with "green" or "eco-friendly."
We're all at least occasionally guilty on mindless pinning; unless of course your my husbands grandmother. When I tried to teach her to use Pintrest she was reading each pin on the opening page with such care I think she only read four or five pins (this included visiting the source websites.)
I say all of that to say this - take at least one minute longer before pinning to your boards with titles like "natural living", "chemical free", or "green." Some pins will have the basic ingredients for a recipe listed right there without your needing to visit a website and even more have pictures of the ingredients you can expect to use. While looking for chemical-free recipes I found a disturbing amount that included Suave shampoo or conditioner, Herbal Essences shampoo or conditioner, Dawn dish soap, and even on occasion ammonia!
If you're not sure why all of these ingredients (sans the ammonia) don't count as chemical-free I've looked up the ingredients of these products so I can show you a few of the most commonly used toxic chemicals you will find in these products.
Suave
Fragrance (Parfum), propylene glycol, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, dmdm hydantoin
According to LIVESTRONG:
"All shampoos in the Suave lines include ammoninum lauryl sulfate, a surfactant that reduces surface tension in water so that it can lift dirt from your hair, and sound-alike ammonium laureth sulfate, another surfactant and a skin conditioner."
Herbal Essences
Fragrance (Parfum), PEGs,
Dawn
Fragrance, sodium laureth sulfate
Although the overall health rating for these may not be off the charts terrible, the fact that these items contain these chemicals is enough for me to feel that using them in your "home-made" products isn't the greenest choice possible and not very chemical-free.
Learning at least a few of the more hazardous chemicals will make checking labels simpler than you may think. I can tell you from my own personal experience that there you will learn where in the list of ingredients to find some of these offenders while others jump off the label and you spot them almost immediately.
Just remember that DIY isn't interchangeable with "green" or "eco-friendly."
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Ridding My Home Of Toxic Chemicals
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (examples: DDT, polychlorinated biphynls, BPA, polybrominated diphenly ethers, alkylphenols, perflurooctanoic acid) are absolutely everywhere and going looking for them to rid your life of them only makes it disturbingly apparently how surrounded we are.
I'm thesemi-proud owner of a somewhat large train case full of makeup. I filled the train case about six years ago when I was trying to make a greater effort to look nice at all times. My husband doesn't care for the "powdered", "fake", or "made up" look that a full face of makeup leaves it's unwitting victims.
Victims? Don't get me wrong. I love makeup, but because I don't leave the house very often, don't receive visitors, and my husband doesn't care for it - I very rarely wear it any more. Despite the way far too many of us treat it, cosmetic items have shelf lives and we tend to keep them longer than it is best for us to be still using them. In addition to this fact, there are a lot of toxic chemicals that can be found within the things we slather onto and into our faces and our bodies.
Phthalates are one of the EDC's people are becoming increasingly more aware of but it seems parabens are a bit less well-known culprits. Meant to extend shelf-life and increase absorption of the products you're using they're doing more harm than good.
Feeling that enough moons had passed since I last used much of my makeup that I could easily go into my bathroom, go under the sink, get out my train case, and start chucking out makeup containing health damaging chemicals - I headed into the bathroom to do just that. Filled with resolve I sat down on the edge of the toilet and unzipped the train case, but as I looked over all of the goodies I'd spent so much money on I was met with a lot more internal opposition than I'd ever expected. It just seemed so wrong to throw away barely used Clinique, MAC, NARS, Smashbox, Erno Laszlo, or any of my other goodies. I began looking at the backs of my products searching for ingredients that I knew were harmful and more often than not was unable to find the list.
Determined to not leave my seat without accomplishing something non-toilet related I decided to remove opened makeup that was over a year old. Even that proved difficult. Only four items found their way out of the box among these was a MAC spray foundation - this seemed like an easy choice to remove since it came in an aerosol can and all the instructions on it made it sound like you should never spray it on your face.
The next day I made another pass at my makeup and was able to force myself to get rid of a little more.
A few days later I decided our lotions and body washes for synthetic fragrances, parabens, sulfates, and PEG compounds - what I found doing just a quick pass was disturbing.
Better yet I can't tell you just how many of these toxic laden items boast no animal testing and recyclable containers. Some of these even say "organic" or "herbal" while others touted the fact that they contained "shea" or "olive oil."
Related Articles
Pthalate-and Paraben-free Cosmetics List
Pthalates in Cosmetics: "Not Too Pretty"
Breast Cancer Action: Pthalate-Free Cosmetics
Big Green Purse: Shopping List
Cosmetics Calculator
When To Toss Makeup/Cosmetics
When Your Cosmetics Expire
Has Your Makeup Expired?
What Is The Shelf Life of Makeup?
I'm the
Victims? Don't get me wrong. I love makeup, but because I don't leave the house very often, don't receive visitors, and my husband doesn't care for it - I very rarely wear it any more. Despite the way far too many of us treat it, cosmetic items have shelf lives and we tend to keep them longer than it is best for us to be still using them. In addition to this fact, there are a lot of toxic chemicals that can be found within the things we slather onto and into our faces and our bodies.
Phthalates are one of the EDC's people are becoming increasingly more aware of but it seems parabens are a bit less well-known culprits. Meant to extend shelf-life and increase absorption of the products you're using they're doing more harm than good.
Feeling that enough moons had passed since I last used much of my makeup that I could easily go into my bathroom, go under the sink, get out my train case, and start chucking out makeup containing health damaging chemicals - I headed into the bathroom to do just that. Filled with resolve I sat down on the edge of the toilet and unzipped the train case, but as I looked over all of the goodies I'd spent so much money on I was met with a lot more internal opposition than I'd ever expected. It just seemed so wrong to throw away barely used Clinique, MAC, NARS, Smashbox, Erno Laszlo, or any of my other goodies. I began looking at the backs of my products searching for ingredients that I knew were harmful and more often than not was unable to find the list.
Determined to not leave my seat without accomplishing something non-toilet related I decided to remove opened makeup that was over a year old. Even that proved difficult. Only four items found their way out of the box among these was a MAC spray foundation - this seemed like an easy choice to remove since it came in an aerosol can and all the instructions on it made it sound like you should never spray it on your face.
The next day I made another pass at my makeup and was able to force myself to get rid of a little more.
A few days later I decided our lotions and body washes for synthetic fragrances, parabens, sulfates, and PEG compounds - what I found doing just a quick pass was disturbing.
Better yet I can't tell you just how many of these toxic laden items boast no animal testing and recyclable containers. Some of these even say "organic" or "herbal" while others touted the fact that they contained "shea" or "olive oil."
Related Articles
Pthalate-and Paraben-free Cosmetics List
Pthalates in Cosmetics: "Not Too Pretty"
Breast Cancer Action: Pthalate-Free Cosmetics
Big Green Purse: Shopping List
Cosmetics Calculator
When To Toss Makeup/Cosmetics
When Your Cosmetics Expire
Has Your Makeup Expired?
What Is The Shelf Life of Makeup?
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