This shocking picture below shows all of the potential "poison" I not only have in my home, but also use at least once a week.😱 I am a household of 1 (plus my adorable doggie, Alpine - who's prescription shampoo for unknown allergies is on the table), so there is no judgement coming from this side of the keyboard. We're all in this together, one non-biodegradable plastic bottle at a time, and my only hope for this blog is that we'll all be a little bit more informed (me included) when it comes to making grocery store choices that are what's best for us and our families.
Growing up, we were all aware what was "bad" for our body: drugs and cigarettes (D.A.R.E., There's no hope with dope, This is your brain on drugs - I could go on and on), lead paint (Thanks, China!), not wearing a seatbelt (the incredible crash-test dummies) ... But no one ever talked about Red Dye #27 or Oxygenzone because; 1.) As a society, we weren't aware of the danger and 2.) it would just be plain weird. Picture - 90s gangsta entering a house party - bro, where can I get some parabens, I don't want no babies! Pretty hard to PSA that one.
But now, thanks to Al Gore and the www, Al Gore and Climate Change, and Bill Clinton for making Al Gore famous (I did not have sexual relations with that woman💔), there is a plethora of information for us quinoa and hummus eating Generation X'ers, who just simply cannot stop googling! 📲
At my hippie Young Living convention, I started hearing another set of words describing what's now "bad" for our body and the environment - big/scary/somewhat familiar/sciencey words! So, I went straight to the Google and found a nowhere near complete, but sufficient to start, list of chemicals that will most definitely result in "The War on Poison" - coming soon to a 2020 campaign slogan sign near you.🇺🇸
That's me posing proud with my Wildlife Club at MP - don't worry, it was a spirit day - but I did feel like my whole self in this outfit!✌
I scoured the internet for a video to simply explain Parabens - my top toxin concern right now - and to my unbelievable surprise, Pop Sugar has the one! Normally I go to Pop Sugar for fashion/celebs/fitness advice, but whaaaaat - they do science too! It's a great intro to Parabens - if you want something more deep, I can send some "riveting" Ted talks. Check it out!📺
During this flower child journey, you'll hear a lot of the sciencey words below, and even see some of them on your own home products (gasp!). Over the next few weeks, I'll go through common beauty/household/cleaning products and hopefully identify which ones are safe and which ones are behind enemy lines. To be clear and completely up front, we're all on the same level here - please reference my chemical stock pile above.😶
Because I'm a Science Teacher and I think in charts, graphs and diagrams, I created this handy dandy table. It is by no means a complete list, but a good start of some toxins I found on multiple websites (see sources at the end of each post).
*Google Drive pdf link here - Poison Table
If you discover any additional chemicals we should all be aware of, please send them to me! Think of this as poisonpedia (our version of wikipedia) - info for the people, by the people ... verified by testimonial citizen science. 👩🏻🏫👩🏻🔬
Up next, a closer look at summer essentials - Deodorant and Sunscreen! And a few of my favorite apps to quickly identify healthy and unhealthy products in your home.
Sources:
*https://draxe.com/dangerous-kids-makeup/
*https://helloglow.co/ingredients-to-avoid-in-makeup-and-skincare-products/
*https://experiencelife.com/article/8-hidden-toxins-whats-lurking-in-your-cleaning-products/
*https://www.huffingtonpost.com/vanessa-cunningham/dangerous-beauty-products_b_4168587.html
*http://www.safecosmetics.org/
