Last week was a busy week in the world of cosmetics and personal care products! It started with the introduction in Congress of a new bill: The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. This ground-breaking legislation proposes an overhaul of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, giving the FDA the authority and resources it needs to ensure that cosmetics and personal care products do not contain ingredients linked to adverse health effects.

Coinciding with the introduction of this legislation, the Safe Cosmetics Campaign (who was instrumental in pushing this through) released a new video called “The Story of Cosmetics” –a sequel of sorts to Annie Leonard’s 2007 widely viewed and critically acclaimed video “The Story of Stuff.” This is a clever animated video that, like its predecessor, attempts to spell out in the simplest possible way the problems inherent with the status quo –in this case: the way cosmetics manufacturers make products. As you can probably imagine, it’s already rankled the cosmetics industry! I highly recommend it and you can view it below. If this is a subject you want to know more about, I’ll be blogging about it in the coming weeks so stay tuned in to the Aroma Zone.

Much of the work done by the Safe Cosmetics Campaign is based on something called the precautionary principle, which basically encapsulates the essence of the phrase “better safe than sorry.” In other words, if there’s no scientific consensus that an action or policy suspected of being harmful to people or the environment is not harmful, the burden lies with those who want to carry it out to prove otherwise.

There are more interesting “story of” videos at The Story of Stuff Project web site.

There’s no question that there are harmful bacteria that can make you very sick or even kill you –the SARS and Swine Flu strains being the most recent threats that come to mind. But we can’t let our fears of these viruses blind us to the potential harm that comes from trying to kill all germs and bacteria (real or imagined). Or more to the point, what’s the hidden price we pay when we use a product or take a drug that’s designed to kill “bad” bacteria but it also kills “good” bacteria in the process?

Our intestines are loaded with “good” bacteria (intestinal flora) that help break food down so the body can make use of its nutrients. Much of the “good” bacteria in your digestive tract also protects you from poisons in food and other infections like yeast infections which thrive on excess sugar in your gut. When you have an infection (like a bladder or upper respiratory infection), the antibiotics your doctor prescribes kill both good and bad bacteria. While you may rid yourself of one problem, in killing the “good” bacteria, you may be getting another problem. Women often get a yeast infection as a direct result of taking antibiotics for other infections. Then they are given a different antibiotic to address that problem and the cycle perpetuates. Or, as is often the case, the condition clears up only to return months or even years later.

This phenomenon, when played out on a big scale, can have significant consequences, as was the case in 2007, when there was a huge outbreak in drug-resistant staph infections. While this has been an ongoing problem in hospitals, it was rare to see an outbreak of this magnitude in schools and even the locker rooms of professional sports teams. Thanks to our incessant use of antibiotics, this bacterial strain has become immune to what was previously used to kill it. The result? Each year in the United States, we lose almost 18,000 people to this type of infection. Ironically, it seems the only cure is to further the cycle by creating stronger (and theoretically better) antibiotics.

Our national obsession with germs and bacteria may have started as far back as the Civil War but seems to have taken root in the early public health campaigns of New York City. With the advent of clean drinking water and new sewer systems, came a new level of awareness regarding the importance of cleanliness and good hygiene as well as the hidden health threats looming in filthy, unsanitary conditions.

Many of our beliefs around germs and disease may have been fueled by the work of Pierre Bechamp, and later, Louis Pasteur. Pasteur is well known as the scientist who brought us “Germ Theory” and led us to believe that germs from the outside world invade our bodies and “cause” disease, which is why we have to kill them before they kill us. In an ironic twist, it turns out that Pasteur had plagiarized some of the work of Bechamp, who demonstrated that it’s the “terrain” (meaning the environment inside your body) that matters more than the germs themselves. Pasteur distorted the work of Bechamp and made a name for him self by asserting that it was the other way around. As he lay on his deathbed, he admitted that Bechamp was right when he uttered “The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything.”

The proliferation of Pasteur’s “germ theory” combined with the success of early public health campaigns eventually gave rise to a new generation of household cleaners, personal care products, and drugs designed to kill bacteria and germs. Juliann Sivulka’s extensive research, presented in Stronger than Dirt: A Cultural History of Advertising Personal Hygiene in America, suggests some of the “anti-microbial” advertising began as early as 1875 and continued well throughout the twentieth century.

Without any guidance on how to lead healthier lives and strengthen our immune systems to better handle the biological challenges we might encounter, we’ve increasingly come to rely on anti-bacterial (and potentially toxic) products like bleach, ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, and more recently, hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial soaps, to assuage our fears. Many of these products now contain worrisome ingredients like Triclosan, a derivative of Agent Orange, whose over-use is creating new resistant strains of bacteria or “Super Bugs.” Ironically, these Super Bugs pose an even greater threat to our future ability to resist infection and disease, which begs the question is our fear of germs really helping us or could it be inadvertently hurting us? Knowing the genesis of our “germaphobia,” it’s not hard to see how the work of a misguided scientist coincided with larger commercial interests to bring us to this point.

Everywhere you go, germs and bacteria surround you and so does the fear of how they may harm you. The media is saturated with sensational stories about the hidden germs in hotel rooms, and the ever-encroaching threat of foreign and exotic, even life-threatening viruses. We have become obsessed with germs and bacteria, but bacteria are everywhere –around us and inside us. And even though we know that not all bacteria are harmful, we are constantly seeking to eliminate them … consequences be damned!

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m a real skeptic when it comes to taking prescription meds if you can use a natural solution or alternative instead. I often wonder how our almost blind acceptance of traditional western medicine (allopathic vs. holistic) may be inadvertently hurting us rather than helping us. This is especially true when it comes to antibiotics, which I believe are over-prescribed and often inappropriately doled out leading to more problems down the road (I myself have not taken any in the past 20 years!).

I’ve become increasingly fascinated with how our belief systems (both conscious and subconscious) affect the choices we make and ultimately the quality of our lives. I’m curious about how these forces impact our ability to be or stay healthy and their implications for healing and overcoming disease. And being a big picture type of person, I also wonder about the environmental implications of over-using antibiotics and anti-bacterial products.

Is the short-term gain we get from using these substances worth the price we may pay later on? The world is undeniably full of bacteria. Both modern medicine and society have long exceeded the boundaries of sensible practices in their respective approaches to dealing with it. Only by taking a step back and openly embracing natural alternatives will it be possible to successfully turn the tide of antibiotic-resistant infections that threatens us today.

As I promised in my last post, here are the other 3 of 6 suggestions for using commonly found ingredients in your kitchen to create your own green and natural cleaning products and solutions. These were excerpted from an article in the April 2009 issue of Real Simple magazine. Be sure to check out some of the books in the resource section at the end, including a room-by-room guide from Real Simple and continue to share your real-life experiences with these solutions, if you’ve used any of them.

Borax
A water softener that when added to laundry, makes detergents more effective. It’s also alkaline so it’s effective at killing mold and fungus. Pour it into your toilet bowl, swish it around then let it sit overnight before flushing. Add it to dishwater to soak and clean your china (including hand painted china), and sprinkle it on the bottom of your dishwasher and let it sit overnight to deodorize it.

Vinegar
Because of its acidity, this common kitchen ingredient can wipe out tarnish, soap scum, mineral deposits as well as dirt and grease. Pour equal parts vinegar and water and run it through the brew cycle in your coffee machine. Halfway through turn the power off for about an hour then resume. When done, run several cycles with clean water. Use it straight to clean drains (flush afterwards with cold water). Spray it directly onto walls to kill mold (rinse after 15 minutes and let dry). Use a 50/50 mixture with water to clean mineral deposits in your steam iron. Add a 1/4 cup to a bucket of warm water to clean almost any type of floor (except marble and wood). Mix 1/4 cup with 2 cups of water and a squirt of castile soap in a spray bottle and use as a window or glass cleaner (for best results wipe off with newspaper).

Baking & Washing Soda
Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) and its cousin Sodium Carbonate (washing soda) are hardworking cleaners that effortlessly cut through grease and grime. Washing soda is stronger and can’t be ingested. Use washing soda for tough jobs like cleaning barbecue utensils, stove burners, and even removing tough stains from garage floors or other concrete surfaces. You can sprinkle the washing soda directly onto the concrete and sprinkle a little water to form a paste then let it stand overnight, scrub and hose down or wipe clean. For stove burners, soak them overnight in a mixture of 1/2 cup washing soda and 1 gallon of warm water, then clean as usual. For stained tea cups and coffee mugs use a mixture of 1 part baking soda to 2 parts water and soak for 30 minutes before washing them.

Some additional resources for more information and recommendations:

Better Basics for the Home, Annie Bond

Green Clean, Linda Mason Hunter

Naturally Clean, Jeffrey Hollender

The Naturally Clean Home, Karyn Siegel-Maier

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained, Robert L. Wolke

To access a wealth of natural cleaning tips, visit www.realsimple.com and do a search on ‘Natural Cleaning Guide.’

Sometimes I wonder if the effort it takes to find a good green cleaner or variety of cleaners is worth the investment of time and money when there are so many safe and natural ingredients that are probably already in your kitchen (or certainly widely available for a low cost) you could use to make your own green cleaning solutions. Below 3 of 6 suggestions taken from an article in the April 2009 issue of Real Simple magazine. Check back in a few days for the other three as well as additional resources.

Lemons
The acid in lemon juice removes dirt and rust stains and works especially well as a scouring paste when mixed with table salt. Use it to clean stainless steel countertops by dipping a lemon half in baking soda and running it across the surface (then wiping clean); increase the grease-cutting power of your dishwashing liquid by adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to it; deodorize your garbage disposer by cutting a lemon in half and running it through the disposer; clean stains out of grout by adding a little juice to a teaspoon of cream of tartar to make a paste and use a toothbrush to scrub it out; or brighten your laundry whites when you add a 1/2 cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle.

Liquid Castile Soap
This gentle, plant-based liquid soap is great as a natural body wash and because of it’s ability to loosen grime and dirt from surfaces, it can do double duty as an effective floor and surface cleaner too. Combine 1/4 cup (i.e. 2 oz) of liquid castile with a gallon of warm water and use it to wash your car, or mop your floors (if the floors are greasy you can add 1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar and a couple of drops of orange essential oil to the mix). You can also use it to clean leather upholstery (add two drops of soap to a quart of warm water). Combine 1 tablespoon of soap with 1/3 cup of baking soda and go to town on your sinks, showers, tubs, and ceramic tiles.

Cooking/Vegetable Oils
You probably never considered that the same oils you cook with can be used as furniture or even shoe polish! Plant-based oils like olive and safflower dislodge dirt, diminish scratches and bring new life and luster to wood that has aged or dried out from exposure to the sun. Make your own polish by mixing 2 cups olive or vegetable oil with the juice of 1 lemon. Use it to keep rattan and wicker furniture from drying or cracking. You can even use it to clean cast iron cookware by making a paste with vegetable oil and a teaspoon of coarse salt to remove cooked-on debris. And a little vegetable oil can help remove paint or stubborn glue from your hands (Jojoba oil is especially good for this, though a lot more expensive).

Have you tried any of these solutions? If yes, then share your experiences with us by commenting below.

If you want to take your all natural, earth friendly cleaning a step further, you can easily make your own green cleaning supplies at home. This way, you can also lessen the environmental impact on your local landfill by leaving the plastic containers at the store and not in your garbage can.

If you happen to own an LCD television or a computer monitor, you’ve probably discovered that cleaners like Windex are useless for getting your screen streak free. However, did you know that a simple solution of one part white vinegar and one part water will get your screen looking as good as new? If you add in one part rubbing alcohol to that solution, then you have a safe and effective cleaner for your windows and mirrors. Not only does this solution work just as well as chemical-based cleaners, it’s simple to make and costs a fraction of store-bought cleaners.

You’ve probably wondered what chemicals are hiding in that bottle of Drano or Liquid Plummer but didn’t think there were any other options for unclogging your drains. If you were one of those kids who made a volcano at home for a class project or a science fair, you may want to try this experiment. Simply pour two tablespoons of baking soda into your drain and then add vinegar and stand back. Wait a few moments, add some warm water to see if the clog is removed.

Furniture polish is another one of those items that many of us can’t imagine living without. What looks better than a freshly dusted and polished table? There is an all natural alternative to those nasty aerosol wax polishes. Start with one part olive oil, one part vinegar and then add in a teaspoon or two of lemon juice. Transfer this mixture to a spray bottle and you have the cheapest and most effective furniture polish ever. Liquid wax jojoba is also a good choice (though pricey for cleaning -I personally would save that for your skin care needs). All natural lemon oil may also be an excellent solution to the problem.

Selecting green cleaning products for your home often comes down to simple common sense and questioning the beliefs you may have come to accept as truths handed down to us from generations of advertising and marketing campaigns. These campaigns have set the standard for cleanliness in our minds based on the notion that harsh detergents and chemicals are the only way to effectively get the job done. Try a kinder, gentler approach and see for yourself.

Consider some of the most widely used cleaning products like all-purpose glass and surface cleaners, bath and tile cleaners, mold and mildew removers, floor waxes, laundry detergents, and even oven cleaners. If you use any of these, then you’re probably well aware of the strong and sometimes sickening chemical smells these products often have. Over the years, we’ve come to erroneously equate these smells with strength and effectiveness. Remember the old ad slogan for Ajax? “Stronger than Dirt” made up an entire campaign for this company that helped shape beliefs about other cleaners. In other words, if it doesn’t have a strong chemical smell then it must not be doing the job.

The truth is that the chemicals that give these products their noxious smells are not only toxic to inhale but in some cases can even kill you. Take a common and widely used product like Windex for example. This is a product people have used for generations, but did you know that it contains ammonia? Ammonia is a dangerous chemical that can easily make you pass out if you breath too much of it and potentially lethal when combined with something like bleach. This seems like a steep price to pay for clean mirrors and windows and yet most of us apply it or similar products liberally and frequently without a second thought.

Everyone knows how dangerous and even toxic a mold or mildew infestation can be, so it only seems natural that we would buy a simple spray to prevent it from happening. However, a spray like Tilex may be even worse for you to breathe in than the mildew it is eradicating. That’s because it contains concentrated bleach, which means it can stain anything that isn’t white, will burn your lungs if you don’t cover your nose and mouth while you spray it, and can be quite harsh if it comes in contact with your skin too.

Speaking of cleaners that stink up your entire home, oven cleaners are notorious for making your eyes water and your skin sting. Products like Easy Off contain ingredients like Diethylene Glycol Monobutyl Ether, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals that cause kidney damage in humans, create chemical burns, and can even cause blindness in some cases.

Thankfully, natural cleaners have made great strides in the United States and abroad so you no longer have to go to specialty stores to find them. Most major grocery chains carry at least one brand of all natural cleaning products. But how do you know what to choose? Here are some general tips on what to look for:

• Phosphate-Free & Bleach-Free Laundry Detergents. Phosphates are water-softening mineral additives once widely used in detergents to enhance their stain-removing capabilities. In addition to threatening aquatic and plant life, they can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea if ingested, and skin irritation due to their corrosive nature. Bleach is harmful to your lungs and mucous membranes and produces trihalomethanes –toxins linked to cancer– as well as absorbable organic halides, which are harmful to marine organisms. Look for dish and laundry detergents that are free of both phosphates and bleach.
• Chlorine-Free Dishwasher Detergent. Just as too much chlorine in your pool can irritate your lungs and eyes, chlorine fumes in steam that leaks from dishwashers can irritate your eyes and make it harder for you to breathe. Chlorine also tends to contain organocholorines, which have been known to cause cancer and leave a chemical residue on your dishes that can transfer to your food.
• Ammonia-Free Bathroom Cleaners. As mentioned earlier, ammonia can be harmful to your lungs as well as an irritant to eyes and skin, which frequently comes in contact with bathroom fixtures that have been cleaned with it. You’re better off with an all-natural cleaner that uses vegetable enzymes or natural mineral polishers like borax or an old standby like Bon Ami polishing cleanser.
• Plant-Based All-Purpose Cleaners. Look for plant-based cleaners as these are biodegradable which means they can be broken down by fungus, bacteria, or other naturally occurring organisms, and are safe to release into the environment. Look for cleaners with surfactants made from natural sources like coconut or olive oil, and use citrus essential oils rather than “fragrances” that smell like citrus that may combined with harmful chemicals like ethoxylates, butyl cellusolve (a skin-penetrating neuro-toxin) or ortho-phenylphenol (a harsh eye and skin irritant).

The key with any green cleaner is to carefully look at the ingredients and claims involved. If you’re dealing with a cleaner that is made primarily from harmful chemicals instead of organic extracts, all natural oils, or things like baking soda and calcium carbonate, you should probably be shopping for a better option. Keep in mind that few cleaning products actually provide a list of ingredients on the bottle. Don’t be fooled by claims like “Citrus Power” or “Oxy Active.” It can have natural claims on the label without actually being a natural product, or as is often the case, it may contain a combination of natural ingredients and harsh chemicals. And consider making your own green cleaning supplies.

It is truly amazing how the green revolution has changed our lives. We separate our garbage, carpool to work, and even consider buying hybrid cars just to help save Mother Earth. Ironically, many of the everyday household cleaning products we still use are loaded with dangerous chemicals that are anything but environmentally friendly, and potentially quite toxic for us.

Even your laundry detergent or dish soap can be problematic. Environmental activist Barry Commoner did a study that demonstrated the increase in phosphates found in one city’s wastewater from 20,000 tons in 1940 to 150,000 tons in 1970. Phosphates, though made from naturally occurring minerals can damage the level of oxygen in the water, which in turn has disastrous effects on fish and plants alike. And the extra fragrances that are typically included in both detergents and dryer sheets often contain phthalates –chemicals used by industry to soften plastics. Studies suggest that these toxins can affect brain development in children, among other things.

The good news is that there are now a growing number of safer alternatives that can keep your home sparkling and your mind at ease. But before you run out to the store to find these new innovative products, it helps to know a little about what nasty chemicals may be lurking in the cleaners you have under your sink right now, so you can be sure to pick greener replacements that will also get the job done.