Food additives: dangerous cocktails in our food

Food additives: dangerous cocktails in our food

A fantastic article!

Which Sweetener to Use?

There’s so much we don’t know about sweeteners, but the Association does have the accumulated experience of many thousands of families. Combining experience with what we do know, here’s a suggested guideline for choosing sweeteners:

http://dorway.com/which-sweetener-to-use/

Household Cleaners ~ Non-toxic alternatives

There are many simple and inexpensive alternatives to avoid toxic chemicals in household cleaners. Try the following recipes:

WINDOW CLEANER

Use a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water. The first time you wash windows using this solution, add a couple of drops of dish soap to get rid of the film left by earlier chemical cleaners.

ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER

Use white vinegar or baking soda to clean toilets, sinks, floors and other surfaces.

LAUNDRY SOAP

Mix equal parts laundry borax and washing soda (sodium carbonate). Borax is available at most grocery stores. Borax should not be swallowed.

In general, around the home you can use:

WHITE VINEGAR

Removes grease, prevents mould formation, cleans windows and floors.

TABLE SALT

Disinfects and scours.

SODIUM BICARBONATE (Baking Soda)

Scours, cleanses, deodorizes, removes spots, softens fabric and unclogs drains (mixed with vinegar).

STORE BOUGHT PRODUCTS

Biodegradable and environmentally friendly. Look for a certification logo.

 

For more non-toxic alternatives and further reading on this topic please take a look at:

Guide to Less Toxic Products: http://www.lesstoxicguide.ca

A-Z of Chemicals

A-Z of Chemicals

Safer Solutions offers a fantastic A-Z guide of Chemicals to let consumers know what is in our everyday products.

Their guide advises us of the Health & Environmental effects of these chemicals and offers alternative methods to use.

Truly a great resource!

Why throw away unwanted items in the home instead of using a few recycling ideas? Society no longer tolerates waste, even if waste and want abound in equal measure. The environmentally-friendly, socially responsible way to clear clutter from the home is to make sure that it is used again wherever possible. Listed below are some of the most common types of household items that can be sold, recycled or even ‘upcycled’.

Books

Throwing away old books is a sin like no other. Websites such as eBay and Amazon Marketplace provide people with an opportunity to sell old books online, making a small return on books that would otherwise have collected dust for years before being dumped in the bin.

Rare or unusual books, or any work of fiction or non-fiction that appeals to collectors, should be sold for more cash, perhaps through a specialist dealer. If old books are not likely to generate enough cash to justify selling them, libraries and schools might be happy to take them for free.

Furniture

There are more than one recycling ideas for old furniture. An old dining room chair might have acquired a wobbly leg over the years or perhaps the springs of a sofa have had enough of entertaining coach potatoes every night. Whatever the reason, old furniture at some point or another becomes destined for the tip.

Households can avoid throwing away unwanted furniture by recycling items through organizations, such as the Furniture Re-use Network (FRN), Goodwill or local shelters. FRN claims to divert 90,000 tonnes of waste from landfill whilst helping some 700,000 low-income families.

FRN also estimates that around 30 per cent of the 10 million or so items of furniture thrown out by Britons each year can be repaired and reused. Antique furniture can also be sold for profit whilst old cabinets, shelves and tables can be upcycled to produce new, more usable furniture.

Games, Music and Movies

Among recycling ideas that do not always occur to people who want to remove clutter from their homes is that it is possible and perfectly acceptable to sell DVD’s online along with old games and music CDs. The market for used CDs and DVDs is surprisingly large, so it is certainly not inconceivable to think that a person with a dozen or so rare or highly sought after albums could pocket a tidy sum by auctioning CDs on eBay. If the hassle of listing items and dealing with bidders seems too much for sellers, direct services such as Music Magpie can be used to make a little extra cash from old games, music and films.

Shoes and Clothing

A favourite pair of jeans can only last so long. Old shoes can only survive so many steps. Coats and jackets change with each season. Whilst wearing items of clothing within a thread of their life may be common practice again due to worsening economic conditions, many people choose to throw out old clothes before they become heavily worn. There is no need to do this, however, as plenty of charities will gratefully receive donations of clothing, not least Oxfam, charitybags.org.uk and the Red Cross.

Baby Gear

Baby clothes and toys become keepsakes for parents as toddlers grow up, but not all items of baby gear need to be kept, especially not safety gates, cots, prams, pushchairs and car seats. Donating second-hand baby gear to charity is just one of the recycling ideas that can help thousands of parents who are struggling to cope in the current economic climate. Parents can donate old baby equipment to the Red Cross, Barnardos and other such charities.

Disinfectant Overkill

The Problem

Powerful antimicrobial chemicals (also known as disinfectants) are increasingly found in household cleaners, from laundry detergent to kitchen cleaners to handy wipes. Yet research has shown that some of the most common antimicrobial chemicals used in cleaners could have serious health consequences. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to potential health impacts from simple irritation of the skin, eyes, and respiratory systems to hormone imbalance, immune system impacts, asthma, and potential reduced fertility. The overuse of disinfectant chemicals also contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, more commonly known as “superbugs.”

The truth is that in most households, the need for routine disinfection is rare. Research has demonstrated that less toxic ingredients, such as vinegar and borax, have antibacterial properties that may be used in place of harsh chemicals. And there are other steps that can be taken to prevent the need for disinfecting in the first place.

Common Antimicrobial Chemicals Found in Household Disinfectants

Chlorine bleach is commonly used to treat drinking water, sanitize swimming pools and to whiten laundry, and is a strong eye, skin, and respiratory irritant. Mixing chlorine bleach with other cleaners like ammonia can release dangerous chlorine gas. Exposure to chlorine gas can cause coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, or other symptoms.

Ammonia is often included in glass cleaners and other hard-surface cleaners, and can be irritating to the skin, eyes, throat, and lungs. Ammonia can burn your skin, and can damage your eyes (including blindness) upon contact.

Triclosan and Triclocarban are commonly added to household cleaning products such as hand soap and dish soap as well as a broad range of other products from toothpaste to socks. These chemicals are persistent in the environment, and are linked to hormone imbalance, and potential increased risk of breast cancer.

Ammonium quaternary compounds (“quats”) are found in household cleaning products like disinfectant sprays and toilet cleaners, and some have been identified as a known inducer of occupational asthma. Certain quats have also been linked to decreased fertility and birth defects in mice.

Nano-silver can be incorporated into textiles, plastics, soaps, packaging, and other materials, giving each the natural antibacterial property of silver metal. Nano-silver particles can penetrate deep into your body and have been shown to be toxic to the liver and brain.

Spread the word
Make sure that your friends and family know about the potential health hazards of overusing disinfectants. If you employ a cleaning company or an independent house cleaner, ask them to reduce their use of antimicrobial products in favor of everyday cleaning products.

Plax exposed…

Do you use Plax on a regular basis? I noticed the other day that a large supermarket chain was selling these for $1 a bottle in the sale item and also giving you the option to buy in bulk… why are they trying to get rid of this so badly?

Let me tell you why…

Plax, for those of you that don’t know is an oral hygiene and mouthwash.
Research has now shown that it can cause cataracts, flaking of the skin, corrodes and impairs hair growth.

It effectively enters and maintains residual levels in the heart, liver, lungs and brain from skin contact. Furthermore it is routinely used in clinical studies to deliberately irritate the skin so the effects of other substances can be tested!

This is what we are putting into our bodies every day? Please take my advice and stop it. There are many other natural and organic mouthwashes on the market so please choose one of them next time.

 

The issues with many antibacterial washes…

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has registered many antibacterial washes as pesticides… The chemical structure of many of these products is often compared to the likes of some of the most toxic chemicals on earth and in turn a human health risk/environmental risk.

Triclosan is a chlorophenol – in a class of chemicals that are suspected of being related to causing cancer in humans. This chemical can cause many internal and external issues with the body, and furthermore these pestides can be stored in the body fat, sometimes accumulating to toxic levels.

GDM technologies has recently revealed a common every day culprit of this is Dettol. When purchasing products such as this please ensure you are checking the ingredients list.

The myths about mouth wash exposed…

Are you aware of what you are readily gargling down your throat every morning?  If not. You must read this.

These products have been marketed so well to everyday consumers that it has almost become common practise to use mouthwash on a daily basis.

This is fine ensuring your mouth wash doesn’t contain either of the two ingredients:

• Zinc Choloride
• Benzoic Acid

Please check the labels!

Why?

Zince Choloride may cause skin, eye and respiratory tract irritation or burns. Ingestion may result in irritation or burning of the digestive tract which can furthermore lead to headache, dizziness, difficulty breathing, coughing and nausea. Chronic exposure can result in permanent liver, kidney and respiratory system effects.

Benzoic acid causes respiratory tract irritation, eye irritation and possibly injury. Absorption through the skin has produced laboured breathing in humans.

Whilst studies show that health risks vary between individuals it is important to however be aware that many well known mouth wash products will contact either of these two chemicals and to avoid them where possible.

A quick analysis of house hold cleaning products…

Recent studies have revealed some scary findings regarding harmful chemicals being found in many everyday household cleaning products (antiseptics, disinfectants and sanitizers). The ingredient to look out for is Quaternary Ammonium / Benzalkoniumchloride. This chemical causes toxic effects by all routes of exposure including inhalation, ingestion, dermal application and irrigation of body cavities. Effects can be anything as calm as irritation to as far as burns to the skin/membranes and allergic reactions.

Depending on the concentration and the severity of the burns other signs may include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, anxiety, restlessness, coma, convulsions and hypertension and even death [which occures within 1-3 hours of ingestions of a concentrated solution].

Counts of Haemolysis and Methemoglobinemia (a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin – a form of hemoglobin -is produced) have also been reported infrequently.

Please avoid any household cleaning agents that contain this chemical. There are many other great completely natural products now on the shelves at Woolworths. Make the change and go for something that your body will thank you for.