When I look at the title for my post today it reminds me of the Sesame Street segment, “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong.” Do I need to give you a hint which one doesn’t belong?

I am on a little bit of a rant today. I find such hypocrisy that so many people who refer to themselves as Crunchy or Granola moms, women who stress about cloth diapering and buying organic produce but think nothing of using or even promoting the use of Lysol, pesticides, Clorox products, Johnson & Johnson’s, Aveeno, Tide, Wisk, Shout, Resolve, Pledge, Neutrogena, Avon and I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. I just want to shake them and say, “Do you even know what’s in those products? Do you think you can call yourself “Crunchy” when you allow that toxic waste in your home or worse bathe your baby with it?” I throw up a little in my mouth when bloggers who are extreme couponers show off their enormous hoards of products and cringe as I think about the air quality in their home from the out-gassing of those products. Or when they brag they got it for ten cents, I wouldn’t even take that for free. If you mention something they call you jealous of their stock piled poison.

As a mother of a cancer survivor, I try to educate others on the dangers of these products but it mostly falls on deaf ears, they’re only concerned with right now, not down the road how these products could impact their family’s lives. They talk about allergies, asthma and skin rashes not even thinking it could be from the chemical levels in the air of their homes and the residue left from so many household products they use. I even approached one blogger with Crunchy, Granola, Organic and everything else in her blog title when she was promoting a campaign for Lysol products which was ironically called “Healthy Home”, haha Lysol and Healthy Home a complete oxymoron. I was approached with the same campaign and turned it down flat as I do for Johnson & Johnson’s, Aveeno etc. I would never promote such toxic products. Well, she asked me what I wanted from her, she tries to be crunchy when she can but this was a paid opportunity and she was taking it.

Going through my news feed makes me want to scream, pushes and campaigns, coupons for these carcinogen filled products is so rampant. Please readers if you do nothing else, research what I told you, know what you have in your home and what you’re buying in the store. Don’t think if you don’t concern yourself it won’t matter, because it does. Have you ever wondered why there are such increases in allergies, asthma, cancer, autism, miscarriage, infertility, birth defects, Alzheimer’s etc.? If you have, then you need to educate yourself on the dangers. Please knowledge is power, good health is priceless!!! Stepping off the soap box now and you can rest assured it is not from Tide!

Toxic Clean???

I want to share something with you that I have been thinking about for a while now. I think we are all aware of the movement in recent years to “go green.” However, I don’t think as consumers we are as aware as we should be and take many things at face value. You may be wondering, what I mean? Let’s talk about cleaners that are marketed as “green,” do you really know what that means? Do you go to the supermarket and see the new cleaners packaged with flowers on the label and called “green something”, toss it in your cart and think you are doing something good for your family and the environment? I did. I used to, if it said it was “green”, “eco-friendly”, “plant based”, I was all for it. Then, I would take my products home and feel good that I was not using harmful cleaning agents.

If you take a look at the commercials that market household products to us like laundry detergent, they will usually be focused on the smell, and how even after 7 days, the smell is still as strong or how they have fabric softeners added right in, so you will never forget. Then, we are told to control static cling by adding a dryer sheet to our clothing in the clothes dryer. It is easy to get wrapped up in the scents of detergents; don’t you want to go to sleep with your blanket as soft as a cloud and smelling like lavender? What we don’t hear about is, the nasty side of all this. The chemicals that are in these products, the toxins that we are cleaning our family’s clothing with, the dryer sheets that are filled with toxic chemicals that we throw in and then heat our dryer up to make sure we release every bit of it onto our clothing. Clothing we wear on our skin, the largest organ that is just absorbing these toxins in.

When we think about the ugly side, it is no wonder that incidents of childhood cancers, infertility, premature menses, autism, ADHD, and other cancers are rising dramatically. Cancers that have no hereditary links, but are due to environmental factors. I know this too well, our teenage son was diagnosed last June with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We have no risk factors, so if you ask me if I believe that environment and the agents we are exposed to are causing us harm, I think you know what my answer is.

The problem is that most of the time when we go about putting our homes on a detox, that the very products we are replacing them with, are as toxic or more toxic then what we were using. How can that be? Do you know what it takes for a cleaning agent to be deemed “green”? Did you know that a product can be marketed as “green” if it is biodegradable? Are you are using products that are so strong they have warnings on them, not to inhale, only use in ventilated area, harmful to people and pets, may cause eye and skin irritation etc? Do you think these products could be healthy for your family?

I find it amazing that we are marketed wipes and sprays that are said to kill the germs like the rhinovirus and influenza and we are advised to spray all the surfaces in our home, doorknobs, telephones, hard surfaces and the air. Did you know that these very wipes and sprays are not to be inhaled or ingested? Yet, we spray the surfaces we will surely be touching and we are spraying it in the air we are sure to be breathing. Okay, so you may be thinking that you don’t use any of those germicide sprays, you only use air fresheners with pleasing scents like cinnamon and vanilla. You may want to take a look at the back of your air freshener, plug-ins, scented candles, and linen sprays. Very likely, you will find that you should not be breathing these agents in. Why then are we told they are room sprays, air fresheners, room deodorizers when we are not to be breathing them in? Why in the world are we spraying these in our homes and making our air quality unhealthy to breathe?

Then, we can talk about beauty products, skin creams, cosmetics, scrubs, shampoos, baby products which have come under much scrutiny lately for containing chemicals and toxins. A major name in baby care products that we trusted for generations, was found to have 2 cancer causing chemicals in their baby shampoo and products. So you might think that once this was discovered, the FDA ordered all of the products off the store shelves. That is not the case and the company is gradually phasing the use of these chemicals out of their baby products and I believe they plan to have this done sometime in the next 2 years.

Again, there we are, trusting consumers, once again being sold “gentle” products with known carcinogens that we are applying to our most precious little lives. Scary isn’t it? What can we do? It seems we are misled, we can’t believe labels, and we have to be skeptical. Are you still using these products? Is the cabinet under your sink filled with chemical cleaning agents with safety caps, and warnings? If you are truly interested in detoxing your home, and getting rid of the harmful agents, please contact me. You might be thinking that you cannot find products that will do what you need them to do and are natural. I can tell you, that you can. I can show you products that will work as well as chlorine bleach, products that will kill germs and sanitize without putting your family at risk. Products that you will be on average less than the products you are buying in the grocery store. Products that will give you some peace of mind. If you have any questions, please contact me as I would love to help you. It is almost time for Spring Cleaning!!!