Women's Voices for the Earth

Moms ask Tide to remove carcinogen from detergent.

Cassidy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:51:57 +0000

mother nature network

February 17, 2012

Do you have any idea what ingredients are used in your favorite cleaning product? If you’re a dedicated ‘make-your-own cleaners’ kind of greenie, then I’m sure you do. But what if, like me, you rely on store brands to get your counters and clothes clean?

Women’s Voices for the Earth, a national eco-watchdog group, recently tested a sampling of 20 cleaning products from major corporations, including Clorox, S.C. Johnson & Son, and Procter & Gamble to determine what chemicals are used in each product. Their report on the testing, entitled “Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in your Cleaning Products?” revealed a number of allergens, phthalates and carcinogens in some of the country’s most popular cleaning products, including at least one that is marketed as a “healthy” alternative to other products.

Salon safety examined.

Cassidy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:13:57 +0000

The Billings Outpost

February 8, 2012

Deb Courson Smith

Montana has a connection to high fashion.

Bozeman-based Women’s Voices for the Earth has been working on salon safety issues related to Brazilian Blowouts, a popular hair-straightening treatment that now comes with a warning label in California as part of a settlement between that state and companies.

The settlement requires that hair stylists and their customers be warned of exposure to a cancer-causing chemical. Alexandra Scranton, WVE’s director of science and research, says salon workers across the nation are exposed to dangerous levels of formaldehyde from the products.

The 10 Best Ways To Prevent Cancer.

Cassidy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:02:17 +0000

MSN.com

February 16, 2012

Leah Zerbe, Rodale.com

Getting active and cutting excess body fat are two of the best ways a woman can dramatically slash her breast cancer risk — the science is clear. However, obesity, along with genetics, contributes to just 30 percent of the breast cancer diagnoses women get every year. What isn’t so clear is what causes the remaining 70 percent of cases. And a new report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Science may not provide much hope of definite answers anytime soon.

The goal of the two-year-long study was to determine whether there is strong link between breast cancer and environmental factors. Specifically, the panel of 15 cancer-research experts and nine members of the IOM looked at hormone therapies, hair dyes, flame retardants, plastic and canned food chemicals, heavy metals, different types of radiation, smoking and drinking tendencies, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. Though the report authors recommend high-priority research on endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A(BPA), dioxins, and flame retardants because of the “provocative, but as yet inconclusive” evidence of an association with breast cancer, they weren’t able to say definitively that chemicals were culpable in causing the disease, citing a lack of reliable scientific literature.

L’Oreal defends safety of its lipsticks, after FDA cites high lead content in some products.

jpmyers@ehsic.org — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

At L'Oreal, which makes lipstick at plants in Franklin and Piscataway, they think the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is poisoning their business.

400 lipsticks found to contain lead, FDA says.

jpmyers@ehsic.org — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Four hundred of the nation’s most popular lipsticks contained trace levels of lead when tested recently by the federal government, confirming similar results of earlier analyses but on a much wider scale and at higher levels than previously detected.

Leaded lipstick: How much is too much?

jpmyers@ehsic.org — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics highlighted an FDA analysis of lead in lipsticks. The study found lead in all 400 lipsticks tested, with levels of up to 7.19 parts per billion. Safe Cosmetics says this is more than twice the levels reported in a previous FDA study, and it has concerns.

Is that lead in your lipstick?

jpmyers@ehsic.org — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Recent tests by FDA scientists, updating tests from 2007, reveal increased lead levels in US lipsticks, with two brands above California's standard of 5 ppm. FDA says it is considering setting an upper limit for lead in lipsticks, but to date no such limit has been set.

Lipsticks contain twice as much toxic lead as they did just five years ago.

Cassidy — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:40:58 +0000

Business Insider

February 15, 2012

Mandi Woodruff

In “Lipstick and Lead: Questions and Answers,” the FDA lays out the results of an exhaustive analysis of 400 different lipsticks, the majority of which can be found at any local drugstore.

The last study of its kind was conducted in 2007 and since then, the average amount of lead in lipstick has doubled.

Keep Your Laundry Safe & Truly Gentle

Cassidy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:02:45 +0000

WVE’s recent report Dirty Secrets revealed secret toxic chemicals hiding out in top brand name laundry detergents and dryer sheets, like the cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in Tide Free & Gentle®. In addition, liquid fabric softeners can contain toxic chemicals linked to respiratory and skin irritation, as well as reproductive and developmental toxicity. Many of these laundry products are heavily fragranced– designed to impart those synthetic fragrance chemicals straight into your clothes.

We’ve put together some easy tips for you on how to keep toxic chemicals out of your laundry so that it’s truly gentle:

Add ¼ – ½ cup white vinegar in your rinse cycle as fabric softener

Throw in wool balls or an old wool sweater to eliminate static and improve dryer efficiency

Use hydrogen peroxide for whitening instead of chlorine bleach

When possible, hang your laundry in the sun to dry, it will whiten and freshen too

Use hydrogen peroxide, corn starch, baking soda, or lemon juice to remove stains

Laundry detergents should be safe! Tell the makers of Tide to strip 1,4-dioxane out of Tide Free & Gentle!®

Find more non-toxic tips!

Household cleaners hide chemical secrets.

Cassidy — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:45:05 +0000

Babycenter blog

February 10, 2012

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff

SC Johnson & Son, maker of Windex, Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles and more, recently became the first major cleaning product manufacturer to disclose cleaning product ingredients on labels. Sounds great, right? Sure, except when you read the fine print: Fragrance is the exception to the rule. As we’ve reported at Healthy Child Healthy World, scientists have linked synthetic fragrances to hormone disruption, skin irritations, allergies and more.

But the company’s decision is a step in the right direction, and one that we hope others will follow.