Manataka
American Indian Council
Tests of air freshener products
recently conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council found
that 12 out of 14 popular air freshener products contained a chemical known
to be harmful to the health of humans. Phthalates, known to cause
reproductive problems and hormone disruption in humans, were found in
virtually all air freshener brands, including several Walgreens-branded air
fresheners that the popular retailer has now pulled off its shelves.
Neither the FDA nor the EPA conducts any safety testing or spot checking of
toxic chemicals in air freshener products. Essentially, consumers could be
exposed to any number of toxic airborne chemicals from air freshener
products, with no warning whatsoever. The safety of chemicals used in these
products is utterly ignored by the FDA in much the same way that perfumes
and cosmetic products containing cancer-causing chemicals are routinely
ignored by the agency. The FDA makes virtually no effort to protect American
consumers from cancer-causing or hormone-disrupting chemicals in tens of
thousands of consumer products, and were it not for the efforts of consumer
advocacy groups and environmental protection groups like the NRDC, no one
would be protecting consumers at all. (U.S. government agencies usually have
to be sued by groups like the CSPI or Public Citizen before they will take
any pro-consumer action...)
Only two products tested by the NRDC -- Febreze Air Effects and Renuzit
Subtle Effects -- contained virtually no detectable levels of
phthalates, yet the twelve other products tested positive for the
chemical even though some were labeled "unscented" and none of them listed
phthalates as an ingredient. Some products were even labeled "All natural!"
(Which just goes to demonstrate, yet again, that the "All natural" claim is
meaningless.)
According to the NRDC, the air
freshener products with the highest levels of detectable phthalates were
Walgreens Air Freshener, Walgreens Scented Bouquet, and Ozium Glycolized Air
Sanitizer. Walgreens has since pulled its air freshener products from its
shelves, apparently out of this newly revealed health concern.
Four consumer advocacy groups (and environmental groups) are now filing a
petition with the EPA and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), calling
for the agency to start testing air freshener products for this toxic
chemical. The four groups include the Sierra Club, Alliance for Healthy
Homes and the National Center for Healthy Housing.
All this brings to mind an important question: Why hasn't some government
agency taken steps to test these toxic chemicals in air freshener products
before?
The sad truth is that you can walk
down the aisle of just about any popular retailer (Walgreens, Wal-Mart,
etc.) and find literally hundreds of different products that contain
dangerous chemicals, many of which are well known to promote cancer. These
chemicals are openly added to laundry detergents, skin creams, cosmetics,
pet products, household cleaners, car cleaners, dish soap, perfumes,
shampoos and many other products regularly used by consumers. Of course,
most consumers have no idea they're consuming cancer-causing ingredients,
and most retailers seem to have no interest whatsoever in testing their
products for dangerous chemical substances.
Why was Walgreens selling products if it didn't know what was in them? And
what about retailers like Wal-Mart, Costco and Sam's Clubs? Aren't they also
aware that many of their consumer products contain cancer-causing chemicals?
The sad truth is that most brand-name consumer products contain at least one
toxic chemical, and that's true for food as much as it is for home care
products. Unless you're shopping at a health food store and buying truly
natural, organic, unscented and environmentally responsible products, you
can bet there are toxic chemicals all over your home (and in your body)
right now.
The average American consumer uses close to 100 toxic chemicals before she
even leaves the house in the morning. Many of those chemicals are
encountered in the morning during showering, shaving, skin care, hair care
and application of
cosmetics. Other chemicals are encountered
in breakfast foods, including bacon, sausage, processed milk, breads and
other processed foods. By the time the average consumer leaves their home in
the morning, they've already poisoned their liver, pancreas, kidneys, heart,
lungs and brain. A typical American consumers has over 300 different
synthetic chemicals in their body right
now. Is it any wonder degenerative disease rates have skyrocketed in the
U.S. over the last several decades?
I think the U.S. population is
suddenly waking up to the fact that the vast majority of popular products
marketed to them and sold at retailers are, in one way or another, dangerous
to their health.
People have suddenly come to realize that brand-name dog food is so toxic
that it will kill your dog, that toys from China contain dangerous levels of
lead, that perfume products can contain as many as 21 different
cancer-causing chemicals and that even popular laundry detergent products
wash your clothes in a toxic brew of synthetic chemicals and artificial
fragrances. Sites like NewsTarget and the Organic Consumers Association
(www.OrganicConsumers.org) are, of course, trying to do something about this
by educating consumers. We've even gone out of our way to acquire thousands
of kilograms of natural laundry detergent to replace the toxic, brand-name
detergents sold in stores (watch for an announcement in the next two days.
Our aim is to eliminate chemicals in 500,000 loads of laundry in the next 90
days, protecting consumers from cancer and protecting the environment from
the downstream toxicity caused by the use of commercial laundry detergents
(which are dangerous to aquatic ecosystems).
The bottom line to all this is that corporations are selling consumers a
cocktail of toxic chemicals found in tens of thousands of different
products, none of which are effectively regulated by any government agency.
Across the industry, there seems to be no concern whatsoever for the safety
of consumers, and that's why everything from pet food to perfume is now
manufactured with chemicals that are well known to cause cancer,
infertility, neurological disorders and many other serious health problems.
Believe me: The discovery of phthalates in air freshener products is just
the tip of the iceberg. What other chemicals lurk in these same air
freshener products? And can you imagine all the toxic chemicals found in
high-fragrance shampoos, nail polish, makeup remover and dryer sheets? When
the truth comes out about those products someday, consumers are going to
shocked to discover just how toxic their homes (and bodies) have become
thanks to the relentless use of synthetic chemicals by commercial product
manufacturers.
Oh, and here's another huge "Wow"
realization that, I guarantee you, nobody else is talking about these days:
Many of these toxic fragrance chemicals escape from their product bottles,
circulate in the air at grocery stores, and get absorbed by other food
products sold in the same store.
I'm not kidding: That's why the peaches I once bought at Costco smell like
Tide laundry detergent. It's because the peaches have soaked up some
chemicals from the Tide! It's why fresh produce sold at grocery stores
sometimes tastes like soap, or why water sold in cheap plastic jugs easily
soaks up fragrance chemicals and tastes like Bounce dryer sheets. Any food
item you buy from a retailer that sells toxic cleaning products is, itself,
slightly toxic.
Right now, nobody is talking about this. This risk of chemical
cross-contamination hasn't even been admitted to by mainstream scientists,
the FDA, the EPA or any government agency. And yet it's a huge issue that
impacts virtually all consumers; even healthy consumers who think
they're reading labels and making smart shopping choices. If they're buying
food or beverages under the same roof as a store that sells garden
pesticides, toxic air fresheners,
chemical-soaked dryer sheets or other products containing dangerous
chemicals, then they're buying chemically contaminated food!
It's yet another reason to buy from local farmers' markets or co-op stores.
Support Community-Supported Agriculture organizations (CSAs) and grow what
you can yourself, in your own back yard, where the food goes from your
garden to your plate, without being subjected to toxic chemicals in the air.
And get some detox products to get rid of these chemicals. Some great
sources include Heavy Metal Detox from www.DetoxMetals.com and Metal Magic
from www.BaselineNutritionals.com (another interesting product is
Natural Cellular Defense which I recommend through a friend Jason
Groode at
http://www.mywaiora.com/195399)
Trust me on this issue: We've only heard the beginning of all this. Just
wait until scientists someday wake up and start realizing that virtually
everything sold at most retailers is contaminated with toxic chemicals --
even when those chemicals are not added to the products during
manufacturing! Just remember this:
Products sitting on the shelves at retailers exchange molecules. Fruits and
vegetables absorb molecules in the air, and solvent chemicals can go right
through plastic containers. When you buy something at a store, you're buying
a little bit of everything in the store! It's another reason to stop
shopping at retailers that sell pesticides, toxic soaps, laundry products,
solvents and cleaners. Get your food from a FOOD store, and make sure it's
real food (not that processed garbage).
By the way, you can read the original NRDC press release at:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2007/070919.asp
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health
researcher and author with a passion for teaching people how to improve
their health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of
articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of
millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health
benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with
strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or
company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED
lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He's also a veteran of the
software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email
software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams
volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer
Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and pursues hobbies such
as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known
by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements,
health statistics and health photos at
www.HealthRanger.org
Submitted by Sheri Awi Anida Waya Burnett