On this blog - I will share my discoveries with you and my progress in this whole area of getting chemical free. I will share recipes I find in books or online for healthy alternatives to cleaning products and personal care products. I would be encouraged greatly to hear from any others out there who have taken this journey before me and what you have found also.
I have heard about chemicals in stuff before... for years I have been on again off again regarding parabens in my lotions for example. Usually choosing to ignore it, because it's easier to, and use them because I like the products with parabens in and it's hard to give them up.
One of my goals this year was to change to chemical free cleaning supplies - using vinegar and baking soda as my staple cleaning aids and I have been working towards that as other products run out. Recently I was recommended the book 'The Complete Idiot's Guide To Green Cleaning 2nd Edition' and finally got a chance to get it out of the library yesterday and all hell has broken loose now!
The fact that my husband and I are looking to start a family and already miscarried our first child last month, we are wanting to ensure the best environment for a child and future children to be healthy. With this added motivation, I just cannot turn away any longer from the truths about chemicals in our environment and life.
Researching online I discovered shocking facts such as children these days are born already exposed to over 200 chemicals/pesticides! What happens apparently is that anything the mother comes into contact with on her skin - the toxins go straight to the baby! That's horrifying. Flame retardants in furniture, vinyl or pvc emitting phthalates - the list is endless and scary almost making me want to take drastic action and sell everything and live an Amish life perhaps away from all these chemicals. And then there are the Electro Magnetic Fields from all the cell phones etc also which is still debatable but there's a lot of research and evidence to show they are harmful too especially to a developing child.
The very chair I am sitting on right now is vinyl, my skin is touching it, so therefore without knowing it there are fire retardant toxins collecting in my body as I type, there are toxins from the polyester and from the vinyl. (I looked at the info under the chair to confirm this) I sit here every day for hours on end at times - it makes me wonder if something like this could have caused the miscarriage even and I was so unaware! Yet how to find furniture and products that have no flame retardants in them? I have yet to research that one!
The other vital piece of information that I'm struggling to know what to do with is this: If something is white, it is bleached. Dioxins come from bleach and soak into your skin and build up in your body. Dioxin mimics a steroidlike hormone. It suppresses immunity, causes damage to major organs such as liver, reproductive and developmental impairment, infertility, birth defects and cancer.
So this would mean tshirts, sheets, towels, toilet paper, tissues, paper, any kind of clothing, anything that white is now taboo?
I have now gone through our cupboards and collected the chemicals and personal care products that have nasties in. According to the book (but I've also found it in other books and places to back this up also), Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Laurel Sulphate are both chemicals considered toxic by scientists. So if it says that on the back, it's bad! Anything I wasn't sure of I checked on www.ewg.org where cosmetics ingredients are reviewed for toxicity. Basically everything has to go. Gutted.
It's going to take me a while as things will need to be used till I can replace them - such as makeup but I was alarmed to hear that mascara has a form of mercury in it and being on the eyelashes near the eyes it has a direct line to the brain. I really need to find a non toxic mascara ASAP.
Right now my mind is spinning and I need time to process all this new information more. Till next time!
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