The Silent Stalker...

Don’t we just love the fragrance of a meadow full of flowers?  The smell of freshly ironed linen will always make us smile, and so will a sea breeze.  Lavender is good for the nerves.  Lemon makes us feel fresh.  Our sense of smell enables us to associate different fragrances with happy memories and feelings.  Whenever I smell almonds I’m reminded of a time in my life when I was much younger, far more carefree and very, very happy.  I fell in love with the smell of the shampoo I was using at the time.  It was no more complicated than that!  You can’t buy it anymore, and it’s probably just as well, because heaven knows what was actually in it, and waaaay back then, I didn't care all that much about what I was putting onto my skin or hair.  Nowadays I do, and the smell of something – no matter how lovely it might be - is no longer enough to make me want to use it.  I've learned that some of these “lovely” products are in fact silent stalkers waiting to wrap their vicious, take-no-prisoners tentacles around our health and well-being, and tear it away from us.

Melodramatic?  With respect, not really - because a day or two ago I saw something on the happy social spectrum that is facebook, that actually made me want to cry, and I feel compelled to write about it.  It was a picture of a beautiful, soft, gentle grey cat that had accidentally knocked over a container of reed diffuser, and suffered the most horrific burns to his little body.  His owners had washed him immediately, and felt that he wasn't in any particular distress, but a few days later he was in agony, because washing the oils from the diffuser liquid hadn’t been enough to stop them from leaching into his skin and burning his body.  It would have been a hundred times worse if they hadn't noticed straight away or tried to wash what they could from his body.  They were, of course, completely distraught at what had happened to their poor beautiful pet, and rightly so.  The diffuser went into the trash, where it rightly belongs, and they will never have something like that in their home again.  It’s a hard learned, horrible lesson, but at least now it’s something their pets and their children are no longer at risk from. 

Its worth noting that the air fresheners that are infiltrating your air with unseen chemicals are also coating your pets' fur or feathers, and they regularly clean themselves, so the implications are that they are ingesting the stuff, with no choice about the matter at all.

Another friend posted on facebook that some of the liquid from her car freshener had leaked onto the dashboard and caused the surface to blister.  Her question was: “what does it do to skin?”

What an excellent question!  And I’ll tell you the answer.  If this picture of the cat isn't graphic enough, here are a few more details about the silent menace that is definitely NOT your friend:

Air fresheners are an unregulated range of substances that appear on supermarket shelves and in cleaning company catalogues in various different forms: aerosols, timed sprays, plug-ins, reed diffusers, scented gels and candles, and solid blocks that gradually emit fragrance over time while they shrink in the process.  Some of them are even made up to look ornamental, fitting in with different home decor to look like they belong there.  People, they SO don’t!!!

In their different forms, air fresheners typically interfere with your ability to smell accurately, and they do this by releasing nerve-deadening agents or invisible oil films that coat your nasal passages.  Dichlorobenzene, for example, which is as horrible as it sounds, having chlorine as its base, which is scary enough for a totally separate blog, actually...  Methoxychlor; a pesticide that can accumulate in fat cells and depress the central nervous system, is a common agent in air fresheners, and in high doses (like if you have a scented plug-in in every room of the house) methoxychlor (and other associated 'thalates') can compromise fertility and cause tremors or convulsions in animals.  It is one of a large number of chemicals that can mimic the action of hormones and interfere with endocrine function.  Air fresheners can also contain formaldehyde, which is a highly toxic carcinogen used to preserve dead bodies and various organs for scientific research.  Other delightful ingredients like toluene, which is used to increase the life and flexibility of plastic, can compromise a healthy functioning nervous system. Naphthalene affects red blood cells that carry oxygen, potentially causing cardiovascular and developmental dysfunction, particularly in children.  And as for the question about what happens to skin that comes in contact with air freshener liquid?  Look at the cat, then think child, face, arms, hands, skin.  Air fresheners contain an incredibly nasty chemical called Phenol, which was probably responsible for that lovely animal’s burns, if it wasn't acetone.  Think phenol, think  burns, peeling, swelling and painful hives, circulatory collapse and even coma.  Yes, really.  I’m not kidding. Some air fresheners also contain limonene and/or ethanol, which are recognized carcinogens.  

I’m not here to scare you, I’m just telling it straight.  You have this stuff in your house, this is the risk you are taking with the family’s health.  Pure and simple.

(Click here to read the story about how a simple citrus air freshener scarred this little girl so horribly.)

Given that information, think about how, exactly, we can realistically expect chemically-scented fragrances and/or aerosols propelled by butane, propane or other toxins to create an indoor environment of “fresh air”.  How does that work? Well, that’s a question there ISN'T an answer for. . . unless it’s to say that it DOESN’T!  Not in any way, shape or form.  All these chemical "deodorizers" or chemical air "fresheners" do is overlay existing odours with unseen chemicals that very cleverly trick the olfactory system into believing they have been eliminated.  They do the absolute opposite of improving the quality of indoor air, unless you count nausea, headaches, racing pulse and watery, itchy eyes and the development or exacerbation of asthma, to name a few of the triggered ailments, as improvements.

Nope?  Thought not. 

I'm not going to say much more about it, because the reasons why we should be thinking "BARGEPOLE!!" about these olfactory wolves in sheep's clothing are all here, and they are yucky enough without me repeating anything or asking any more questions.  What I will do now is talk about alternatives to actively inviting the spectre of agony, and quick routes to an early death, into your house.

In my domestic cleaning business (Darlings Who Do Limited), we're 'chemical free'.  Prima facie, that's a bit of a misnomer, since everything - even water - is a chemical, but what we really mean in our description of what we do is that we bring into your house, along with our top quality microfiber cloths,  just two products - both natural - and that's all we need, to clean your house and make it smell fresh and lovely.  If you have us there to clean your oven, we use an oven cleaning paste that contains nothing but natural ingredients and essential oils.  Its lovely (and 100% safe) for our staff to use, its lovely for your oven since there's no carcinogenic residue to taint your food, and its lovely for you, to have a safe and pleasant natural fragrance in your kitchen.  Our all-purpose cleaning fluid also contains all natural ingredients and anti-bacterial essential oils, so that there's no question of your family being put at risk.

You can do the same for yourself, when it comes to having a nice smelling home.  Obviously the first thing is to actively eliminate any existing challenges to a fragrant home, such as mould, stale and uncleared food, unwiped spills, musty rooms, unwashed pets and their habitats within the home, and a lack of fresh air.  Keeping things clean is the best weapon against unwelcome odours - and we can certainly help you with that!  Allowing sunlight into a room is the quickest way to lifting lingering odours, and opening a window on a sunny day will double the positive effects.  Washing fabrics (i.e. curtains, cushions, sofas) and carpets regularly to keep them fresh will also help significantly, as will ensuring that your vacuum cleaner is clean, dry, and regularly emptied so you don't end up battling with that "stinky vacuum cleaner" syndrome that plagues a lot of people and permeates their houses!

Silk flowers benefit from having a few drops of essential oils put into them.  You can make or buy plain pot pourri to then infuse with your own chosen essential oils, and you can buy candles that are fragranced with natural oils, or buy plain ones and put the oils into them yourself.  Burners with tea lights work beautifully with essential oils, to fragrance a room (provided they are not left unattended and are placed in safe areas where little fingers and paws can't reach them), and fresh flowers with a nice fragrance are a winner every time. 

Get the kids to cut some nice shapes from thick cardboard and decorate them, then place a few drops of the essential oils you love the most onto them, thread some cotton through a hole in the top and put them in your car.  They'll work well in their bedrooms too.  I keep a little muslin bag of fresh lavender in my car.  A pretty dish of real, fresh lavender, revived with a few drops of the essential oil from time to time to keep it working, is nice in a living room.  In your kitchen, warm spices work well.  Cinnamon is great, if you like it, and so are herbs.  I keep a small pot of fresh basil on my kitchen windowsill.  In the loo, a simple box of matches works wonders!!  A small, quick flame from a lighted match is enough to immediately diffuse the unpleasant smell of hydrogen sulphide.

There are plenty of natural solutions to bad odours.  For example, did you know that putting a cut lemon in your fridge will eliminated any existing odours?  Its true.  As a quick fix, it will work for a good fortnight, until you can find enough time to clean the fridge out properly, or get someone to come and do it for you.

Whether we like it or not, we live in a quick-fix, instant gratification culture, where we want what we want, "RIGHT NOW".  My last question is, what price will we really pay, for that fast fragrance?  Forget the actual price tag, because that's really just the tip of a very deep iceberg.  Taking a little time, using a little creativity, and making the conscious decision to be more responsible about how safe our environments are is something we are all capable of doing to ensure we, our children, our animals and our friends don't end up paying the ultimate price of safety, health and well-being simply by sharing the environment we somewhat ironically attempt to create as an inviting and welcoming one.  I'm not going to ask the question "why aren't we doing it?"...

The one big question everyone else needs to ask themselves is whether or not the quick fix of a fast-acting synthetically produced fragrance is worth the associated risks, and only the individual can answer it.  It would be a harder question to answer if we didn't have so many lovely natural alternatives.  We do, though - and they are there for the taking.   

These days, I order essential oils and I stay away from the air fresheners aisle at the supermarket (click here if you'd like to order some for your home).  Like everyone else, I love my home to smell clean and nice, and I'm having a lot of fun with different combinations of natural products and ingredients to achieve that result.  Mother Nature gives use everything we need.  Its up to us to choose whether or not to use her gifts.  They are many and varied, and far less harmful to our health than lab-created, synthetic counterparts that have no place in a happy, healthy, loving, caring home.  Do be aware however, that some essential oils are not skin-kind in concentrated form.  They can sting a bit, and when applied to the skin they need to be added to what's called a "carrier" oil to be fully safe, so do keep them out of harms reach, and always use them correctly, in accordance with the manufacturers instructions.

Interestingly, I also researched breath fresheners,and was very alarmed to learn that according to the green watchdog "Good Guide" (click here for the link), one of the biggest and most popular providers of oral hygiene products currently offers a product that "contains problematic, banned or contaminated ingredients".  They gave it a ZERO, for health, on a 1-10 spectrum.  ZERO.  So as long as demand continues, or someone starts shouting in the public arena and drawing real attention to the issue, this product and others like it will continue to be available, putting people at risk. 

I'm interested to hear people's views about this, and also I'd really love to hear some great tips and suggestions for natural alternatives to lab-produced "odour eliminators", so please do share your knowledge that may of be of benefit or inspiration to others seeking to cut down on the dangers to their family's health.

Opting for Organic

I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and almost fell over with shock.  Does anyone else do that?  Look in the mirror (without really being clear about what to expect) and find that what’s staring back is barely recognizable as themselves, even though there were no actual expectations involved?

It’s bizarre.  I don’t square up to the looking glass with the unrealistic expectation that I look 28.  Good Lordy, I’m decades past that!  However I’m still sometimes completely unprepared for how I really do look, and whenever I’m in that zone, seeing myself, well ... it’s often a bit of a shock, especially post winter, when the whole body wants to emerge and reclaim its rightful glowing state, after a full season of unmitigated neglect and abuse.  I’m talking about the months of comfort food (aka stodge), too much wine and chocolate, too much exposure to fires and central heating and not enough moisturizer, fresh air, or glasses of the all-important water that keeps the organs functioning to process those toxins we've relentlessly foisted upon them all winter long! 

Most of us are a marginal mess, come spring, and we know it. Many of us feel inspired to do something about it, determinedly digging around for those brochures we picked up last autumn for discounted spring spa treatments that we squirreled away in “safe places” that posed a serious challenge to ever being found again.  We generally give in to the over-riding desire to overhaul our gnarly feet and fingernails, get some much needed salvation rubbed into our skin and shave or wax our way to smooth sophistication, to shine once again like the spring flowers we all long to be.

Ok, your Honour, me too.  I’m guilty as charged.  As I write this, I’m thinking about slinging a desperate, dehydrated fist full of cash at a beauty therapist to “overhaul me” and make me fit for spring and summer.  But this year, I’m going one step further.  I’m going to find one that’s “green”, because if the recent research I've done into the state of the planet, the threats to health posed by chemicals, and the evolving attitudes of responsibility for it all are any indications, that is the way beauty therapy needs to go if it is going to survive.  More and more customers are now feeling the need to take better care of their health, be more responsible for the state of their environment, and they are starting to prefer or even insist on organic products being used on their skin instead of the seething chemical-infested mass of what has traditionally been on offer for as long as beauty clinics have been in existence.  Parabens, in particular, have had a big role to play in the composition of so-called beauty products, but BE AFRAID.

Paraben is fast becoming a dirty word, and rightly so.  Parabens are preservatives - used to prevent the growth of microbes in cosmetics products.  They are absorbed through skin, blood and the digestive system and have been found in biopsies from breast tumors in concentrations similar to those found in consumer products.  A 2004 UK study detected traces of five parabens in the breast tumors of 19 out of 20 women studied (read about it here), and while this small study doesn't prove a causal relationship between parabens and breast cancer, it is still important because it DID detect the presence of intact parabens—unaltered by the body’s metabolism—which is proof that these chemicals do penetrate skin, stay in breast tissue, and do not tend to break down or be processed efficiently by the body. Another more recent study found higher levels of parabens in the area nearest the underarm of the breast - the region in which the highest proportion of breast tumors tend to be found. 

Sadly, parabens are everywhere, and are particularly prevalent in a wide variety of beauty products including shampoos, lotions, deodorants, scrubs, moisturizers and eye makeup.  Worryingly, they have been found in nearly all urine samples tested from a cultural cross-section of U.S. adults, with adolescents and adult females having higher levels of methylparaben and propylparaben in their urine than males of similar ages.  This obviously places women, the primary users of beauty therapy clinics and any dodgy products that might be on the bathroom shelves, at high risk of the toxic effects of parabens.  The fact that adolescents are showing the presence of these chemicals in their systems has worrying implications for long term health if they continue using the products which contain them. Given the world's sad obsession with the preservation of youth, that is entirely likely.

Of greatest concern is that parabens are known to disrupt hormone/endocrine function, and are linked to increased risk of breast cancer and reproductive toxicity. They mimic estrogen by binding to the receptors on cells, increasing the expression of genes usually regulated by natural estrogen.  These genes cause human breast cancer cells to grow and multiply.  Parabens are also linked to immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity and skin irritation, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that something which kills bacteria in water-based solutions, and therefore has toxicity to certain cells, has no place in human skin or vulnerable tissue where it can penetrate and lodge in vulnerable organs to potentially percolate and cause serious health concerns further down the line..

Other chemicals contained in beauty products also have some worrying long-term effects.  Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), which helps soap, facial cleansers, and other cleansing products (e.g. shampoo) lather up, can irritate skin, and other potential irritants include benzyl alcohols, which are used to scent and preserve perfume, makeup and hair dyes.  Cocamide MEA binds the ingredients of many moisturisers.

A Daily Mail online health report has declared that the industry magazine “In-Cosmetics” alleges that the average woman absorbs nearly 2.2kg (5lb) of chemicals from toiletries and make-up every year, with no idea about any of the possible side effects, seen and unseen, of the interaction of the various chemicals contained within the variety of products used.

So, even if one of these percolating chemicals isn't harmful in and of itself, what happens when you add several others to it?  And can you imagine having absorbed the equivalent of five 1lb blocks of butter every year in potentially harmful chemicals?  Even if the figures are wrong, the presence of these chemicals in human tissue is proof that we are ingesting some of it.  And ANY at ALL is unacceptable, in my book.

So I’m off to find a “green” beauty therapist; someone who is committed to sustainability in their work practices and ethics, who uses bona-fide and endorsed eco-friendly products, including fair trade tea and coffee that they serve in cups they are prepared to wash instead of cheap and nasty drinks in paper or styrofoam cups that typically get sent to landfill. I want to go to someone who uses eco-friendly equipment and supplies too, like recycleable containers and refills.  I'd like to find someone who has effective and sustainable recycling waste policies, whose staff share their commitment to sustainability and health, and who won't be putting my health and safety at risk (even inadvertently), by using products on my skin that have the capability to do me serious harm. 

I genuienly and wholeheartedly believe that green clinics are the way forward.  Green beauty and hair salons have a REALLY BIG future, not just here in the UK but worldwide.  I run a chemical free domestic cleaning business and our Customers love it that we don't bring chemicals into their homes!  We're actively committed to ensuring their homes are clean without the use of chemical agents they really don't need, and they see the sense in it.  The same goes for the body that each one of us lives in and expects so much from.  Our bodies don't need parabens or other foreign chemicals. They don't need to be put at risk in any such way that forces them to store unwanted substances that have no helpful place in them.  So yes, certainly, do what I plan to do - visit a clinic or salon for the big spring overhaul or makeover, but I encourage you to do some homework first about the products they use, and don't be afraid to ask questions about their commitment to sustainability, in areas like I've mentioned here. That way you can make an INFORMED decision about who you go to for your treatments, what gets put onto your skin, and whether or not you have contributed to the ongoing sustainability of the world you and your family live in.

Looking good and feeling great are important to our sense of well-being, our feelings about how the world sees us, and our confidence levels, and it should NEVER have to come at a life-threatening price, or even the suspicion of one. Every decision we make towards health and sustainability, no matter how small, makes a difference overall.   Eventually, every type of beauty treatment will hopefully be non-threatening to health and the planet.  If we take advantage of what is currently on offer for organic and natural beauty therapy, it all helps guide manufacturers towards making ALL of it safe.  Create the demand, the producers will respond.

Have fun with your makeover!  Click here if you fancy treating yourself to some truly gorgeous, organic, natural skincare and aromatherapy products that you can have delivered to your doorstep. And if you'd like a chemical free spring clean of your home, click right here.