Healthy Home Environment

It’s alarming but true – scientists and doctors have discovered that there is a connection between our health and the use of common everyday household chemicals. Since World War II, over 17,000 chemicals have been introduced into our household and personal care products. The typical home now contains over 63 hazardous products that together contain hundreds of different chemicals. Research indicates that it is more than a coincidence that the dramatic rise of various diseases has increased with the increased use of hazardous, man-made chemicals in the home. Source: World Resources Institute, the 1994 Information Please Environmental Almanac (Houghton-Mifflin)

Around the turn of the century the cancer incidence rate was about 1-in-50. Today, in the US, 1-in-3 women and 1-in-2 men will suffer with cancer sometime in their lives. Cancer is the number two killer of adults and the leading cause of death from disease in children. The incidence of central nervous system disorders like Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis increases annually. Birth defects are on the rise as well. Over 150,000 babies are born with birth defects for reasons unknown; 500,000 are miscarried early in pregnancy and another 24,000 miscarried or still-born late in pregnancy. Infertility is increasing and widespread with over 2 million couples who want children and are unable to conceive. Asthma, once a very rare disease, has tripled in the last 20 years, with over 30 million Americans currently afflicted. One study concluded that the majority of the 400,000 annual emergency room visits for severe asthma attacks are brought on by poor indoor air quality. In 1993, 2 million children took the drug Ritalin for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) so they could sit still long enough to learn. Just 2 years later in 1995 it doubled to about 4 million and in the year 2000, over 17 million prescriptions were written, according to NBC’s dateline. Source: American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2004, American Lung Association, Trends In Asthma Morbidity and Mortality.

You or someone you know has probably been touched in some way by one of these illnesses. Although other factors are involved, more and more scientists are linking these ailments to long term chemical exposure. And for most of us, our greatest exposure to chemicals is right in our own homes. After all, you spend 80-90% of your time indoors, most of that at home. We breathe chemical vapors from household products in the air; we absorb chemicals into our skin while using household and personal care products; and we swallow small amounts of chemicals when we gargle, or when we eat food from dishes that have been cleaned with chemicals and still contain a residue. The home is also where over 1.5 million young children are poisoned each year, and most of the time they are poisoned by a cleaning or personal care product. Source: The National Safe Kids Campaign, Poisoning 

When we pick up a product at the local grocery store, most of us like to think we are getting something that has been tested and proven to be safe. After all, we have laws to protect our health and safety, DON’T WE? Actually, the government has very limited power to regulate manufacturers, or require testing of their products. The closest thing we have to a regulatory agency for the personal care industry is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and their power is extremely limited. 

Here are some disturbing facts:

1. A product that kills 50% of lab animals through ingestion or inhalation can still receive a “non-toxic" designation.
2. Of the 17,000 chemicals that appear in common household products, only 30% have been adequately tested for their negative effects on our health; less than 10% have been tested for their effects on the nervous system; and nothing is known about the combined effects of those chemicals when mixed within our bodies.
3. No law requires manufacturers to list the exact ingredients on their package label.
4. The FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing on their personal care products before they are sold to the public.
5. The FDA cannot require recalls of harmful personal care products from the marketplace.
6. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed 2,983 chemicals used in personal care products.The results were as follows:

• 148 caused tumors
• 778 caused acute toxicity
• 314 caused biologic mutation
• 884 of the chemicals were toxic
• 376 caused eye and skin irritations
• 218 caused reproductive complications

Although it would take an entire book to cover all the ingredients commonly used in household and personal care products, let me tell you about just one as an example, FORMALDEHYDE.

Formaldehyde is used frequently in both cleaning and personal care products because it is a cheap preservative. The following information is taken from a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) which, by law, must be supplied to anyone who uses a chemical product in the workplace. The MSDS for formaldehyde warns: “Suspected carcinogen; May be fatal if inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through skin; causes burns; inhalation can cause spasms, edema (fluid buildup) of the larynx and bronchi, and chemical pneumonitis; extremely destructive to tissue of the mucous membrane.” 

All these symptoms and more are caused by formaldehyde. Yet manufacturers can put formaldehyde in shampoo and not list it as an ingredient! You will be shocked to learn that formaldehyde is a common ingredient in baby shampoo, bubble bath, deodorants, perfume, cologne, hair dye, mouthwash, toothpaste, hair spray and many other personal care items. The amount of formaldehyde in many of these products is slight but the risk is there. If all  cancers start from the abnormal growth on one cell, then why allow an amount into or onto your body? Source: MSDS – Formaldehyde; Debra Lynn Dadd, Home Safe Home | Source: “The Wellness Guide” by RM Barry Publications

The good news is that by switching 

to safer and more natural products 

you can make your home a healthy home.

It takes just one person to start making a difference! 

You can make a smart, simple shopping decision that will improve your health, the health of your family and the environment. You can switch to a line of safer, environmentally sensitive products that will help reduce harmful toxins in your home and minimize chemicals in our world. It will also reduce the load on your immune system, which is the key to good health. You can shop with an award winning company with incredible credentials who are committed to making better, safer products and being environmentally responsible. They manufacture over 400 household, personal care, nutritional supplement and more products. They are better safer, products, reasonably priced, more effective than store brands, backed by science and research, shipped right to your door with a 100% money back guarantee.