Photo via Jeff the Trojan @ flickr.
An informal survey of the global TreeHugger gang revealed an interesting (and perhaps slightly redolent) tendency to move away from the use of deodorant each and every day. In fact, the majority of responding THers have partially or even wholly given up on deodorant, primarily kicking the habit due to trouble finding them without pore-clogging
aluminum chlorohydrate or
petroleum-based propylene glycol.
"At the risk of ostracizing myself I will reveal I haven't used underarm grooming products in over 15 years." - Anonymous TH blogger
Getting away from deodorant reduces the amount of products a person needs to use each day and the plastic receptacle count in the bathroom. In addition, the overall stink factor may not be as terrible as society would have us believe. Not convinced? Read on for four ways to help with a low-deodorant but not-too-stinky lifestyle....
Photo via GreenBeauty.ca.
Looking for green
beauty products can be a nightmare. Some so-called "green" products are about as eco-friendly as
bottled water, and many products that are great for the environment just don't stand up to our hectic lives (particularly in the sweltering summer months). Wouldn't it be lovely if a store just did all the filtering and testing for us?
Enter
GreenBeauty.ca, a new online retailer that specializes in environmentally friendly, healthy beauty products—and, we're happy to report, they
ship to the United States....
More images below
Now here’s something happy for rainy days: the Spud Raincoat, made from potatoes and designed by the guys from
Good for Environment! Under the brand name
Equilicuá, they make thought provoking products such as the
Econo, a water saving device for potted plants. The Spud Raincoat is for times when plenty of water is falling from the sky, and will definitely cheer you up on a grey day. The coat educates every by-passer on bioplastics by telling them “I was a potato”. And indeed, this waterproof coat is made entirely of bioplastic derived from potato starch and other natural resources, which makes it a 100% biodegradable and compostable product. And to give it the final touch at the end of its product life, the coat has integrated seeds so that plants grow out of it once it is returned to the earth!...
Image: Bubble Monster at Flickr, Audi insperation
Only a few months ago, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration would pick up the pace of the Chemicals Assessment and Management Program (CHAMP), partly in response to the barrage of activity in the EU under
REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of CHemicals). Now the EPA has thrown Industry and Citizens into confusion with an announcement that all activity to screen and prioritize hazardous chemicals under CHAMP is to be suspended, effective immediately. How is it possible the EPA finds doing
nothing better than doing something -- especially in the face of increasing concerns about the chemicals in our bodies, and even in the everyday products sold for our kids? And how long before EPA is
doing something again?...
Image via: Peau Ethique
Lions. Giraffes. Elephants. Oh My! These cute new baby toys from
Peau Ethique are made with natural, organic cotton, therefore using no dyes in the process. FanFan the Elephant, the GiGi Giraffe family (mom, dad, baby) and Lili the Lioness are all waiting to make your child's crib their new home....
Image: Author
The medieval physician
Paracelsus said: "Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy." Often quoted in paraphrase as
the dose makes the poison, this truism has dominated regulation and chemical management for centuries. Agencies strive to keep people and the environment healthy by establishing the "safe" level of a chemical.
At the same time that regulatory systems have proceeded on the "safe" level theory, biochemists have expanded the state of knowledge about the role of chemical messengers in the body. And the clash of cultures is about to change the way we think about chemicals in our lives. What does it mean for you?...
Image:
ECHA
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has announced the start of the first REACH enforcement project. REACH = Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of CHemicals. One goal of the enforcement project is to check if any chemicals are still coming onto the market in the European Union which were not registered by the 1 December 2008 deadline. Registered substances, also known as phase-in substances, may continue to be sold while manufacturers gather and submit the required test data to prove that use and sale of their chemicals is safe. But companies that somehow missed the deadline will be in for a surprise: the law promises that any chemicals which are not registered may not be sold. Only after all data is gathered and submitted can these chemicals once again be sold in Europe. No data, no market.
A tear-jerking video explaining why the EU acted to implement REACH, and how REACH is expected to be the first law to
really guarantee consumers protection from harmful chemicals, has been distributed by the cleverly named YouTube user
eutube:...
Photo courtesy of Jurlique.
We are all familiar with the words “organic” ingredients and “all natural” ingredients when referring to
beauty products, but it’s very rare to see “biodynamic” in the mix. But that’s exactly what Australian company, Jurlique, focuses on:
biodynamic beauty that delivers dynamic results.
For over 20 years,
Jurlique has been a pioneer in the “farm to bottle” process – growing, processing and formulating pure, potent extracts directly from their own self-sustaining biodynamic farm in South Australia. From herbs to flowers, we found that Jurlique’s targeted skincare products restored and rebalanced our skin effortlessly....
photo: McEvoy Ranch
Olive oil has long been known to be a natural moisturizer, so it's no stretch of the imagination that it would be a welcomed addition to a body care line. Recently McEvoy Ranch, an organic producer of some truly yummy artisan olive oil, did just that. McEvoy calls the line 80 Acres Body Care after the land on which the ranch grew its first Tuscan olive trees nearly 20 years ago. ...
We are always on the lookout for new beauty products to try and when a company comes recommended by a friend, even better. So when Alexandra Grabbe, Innkeeper of the “green”
Chez Sven B&B on Cape Cod, spoke so highly of
Trillium Organics' products (she uses nothing else in her guests’ bathrooms) we knew they must be wonderful.
At first glance, perhaps it was the ingredients list that attracted us the most to Trillium. Each product contains a label with “ingredient, source, function, and purity.”...
Like most of you, we have to walk through the cosmetic department of our local pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Normally we’d breeze down the aisle, which is full of colors, smells, and bright lights, but last week the label Organic Wear caught our eye. Made by
Physicians Formula, which has been a pharmacy staple for a number of years, Organic Wear is 100% natural origin makeup and offers various powders, bronzers, foundation, mascara, and just about any other product made from a popular brand. But it was the pretty
“Blue Eyes Organics” that we found our hand reaching for out of the bunch....
photo: Victoria's Secret
We've written about mega-retailer Victoria's Secret before on TreeHugger. Sites like
Victoria's Dirty Little Secret ousted the company for producing its catalog with paper made by clearcutting Canada's boreal forests. The company attempted to reverse its bad press by dumping
Canadian catalog source West Fraser Timber and printing on paper made from FSC certified fiber. Today
Victoria's Secret is stepping up to the green plate once again with the launch of its newest organic line of beauty products.
...
Photo: Cottonique
When doing some fact checking for the post regarding Rohner’s
lycra-free yet stretchy upholstery fabric we happened upon Cottonique. Here’s another company that also eschews the use of either synthetic elastomeric, (or even natural latex) fibres or trims.
To keep their line of cotton apparel chemical free Cottonique even avoid walk away from the use of bleaching, dyeing, optical whitening, fabric softners, shrinkage control resins and such forth....
Image credit: Valli Ravindran/Flickr.com
Like any good TreeHugger, I love
Lush's natural ingredients,
minimal packaging, and the fact they
won't sell out to the highest bidder. I was, however, always irked with their use of sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in solid shampoos. But the tides have shifted (thanks to customer demand), and most Lush Sampoo Bars are now SLS-free!
What's the big deal with SLS, you ask?...
photo:CTRL
Acne products, like many personal care products can be full of
parabens. Parabens, while designed to prevent the growth of bacteria within a container, have received increasing scrutiny from consumer advocacy groups and scientists alike in recent years. The jury is still out as to whether parabens can truly be linked to cancerous tumors. Read on and find out more about CTRL and what studies are saying about parabens.
...
Although, sadly, kitchens everywhere rapidly become gross (as pictured), products for cleaning are rapidly greening. Case in point: the Clorox Green Works line has had remarkable sales growth, since introduced in early 2008. Forty million dollars worth of sales is an
amazing market gain in such a short time: especially for a company with a brand name built on the root word "chlorine," a term that has long represented chemical anathema to a faction of traditional environmentalists. What a parable of brand power.
Note: Sales growth for the new product line has
not eroded cleaning product sales for the several small firms that pioneered low-hazard cleaning products in the USA.
And perhaps most significantly, Green Works seems to be luring customers away from traditional cleaning products rather than from green rivals - expanding the overall market for green cleaners.
Via:
SF Gate,
Clorox cleaners take big share of green market...
With those lazy days of summer soon to be gone and the promise of school days on the horizon, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Parent Teacher Association have teamed up to distribute funding to clean the air and protect school children from harmful particulate matter by retrofitting school buses.
The funding comes from a portion of penalties assessed by the commission that is used to support Supplemental Environmental Projects and it turns out the amount of funding the PTA can receive is up to a maximum of $5 million per year, though the number of locations and projects may vary.
...
Just when you thought you’d heard it all, it turns out the EPA is finally getting around to keeping rat poison out of the hands of children.
Amazingly, it only took until 2008 to happen, but better late than never. And now it seems you’ll have to be a farmer, livestock owner or certified rodent control employee to buy the stuff in bulk. With bags over 8 pounds no longer sold in stores.
And to further ensure this nasty stuff stays out of the hands of kids, they’re making sure that the loose bait-like pellets and the four most hazardous types of pesticides, known as “second-generation anticoagulants,” will no longer be sold for personal use either.
...
Cultivate Kids organic kids Tees remind us that growing organic isn’t just about reducing pesticides and preventing the spread of GMOs – it is about cultivating a healthy future for our earth and for our children. When we give our kids toxic messages instead of nurturing their natural qualities like curiosity and creativity, we end up short-changing both the children and ourselves. ...
Back in the day, cribs were made of metal and babies got lots of fresh air and sunshine. Now, most kids get put in shiny new cribs from Wal-Mart or Babies R Us, and guess what; they are made from particle board and are full of formaldehyde. Environment California found a half dozen products – out of 21 nursery furnishings it tested – emitted formaldehyde at levels high enough to trigger allergy and asthma attacks in children.. The regulators are all over cribs for safety, space between bars and little pieces, but not a word about formaldehyde; it is not even checked.
The Sacramento Bee notes that California officials have classified formaldehyde as an air contaminant since 1992. It's also considered a human carcinogen. A branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency has "basically said there's no safe level."
We have already suggested that the building industry should ban formaldehyde; it is hard to believe that it is allowed in childrens' furniture.
::Sacramento Bee
More on formaldehyde in TreeHugger:
Big Steps In Building: Ban Formaldehyde
FEMA Trailers Optimizing Formaldehyde Exposure
How CDC bungled FEMA Formaldehyde
image: Hulton Archives, Getty images...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 10.26.09
