Archive for March, 2009
March 25, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Health Care, Natural Beauty, Personal Care, diy · Tagged chemicals, cosmetics, diy, health, homemade, how to, lead, lipstick, natural, non toxic, projects, recipes, safe, toxic
I am sure you have heard this before. I am also sure you think that something was done about it and Lipstick is safe for use. But did you know that, even though it’s been more than a year since the health groups reported that top selling lipsticks contain lead, the FDA is still just sitting on this research? It almost seems meaningless to ask why because a reasonable answer is never forthcoming. In fact, they tend to act like nothing of the sort has come to light and no action is necessary. This has been the sketch of their previous behavior concerning dangerous ingredients in these sort of products and in my last post I addressed the litany of horrible toxins that are included in the most popular personal care and beauty products.
You would think the beauty industry owned the FDA. Perhaps they do. Perhaps in the future I will do research on their lobbying efforts and get the names of their lobbyists just for your reference and consideration. I’d love to know the names of the lawmakers who have held the hand of this industry through what is tantamount to a rout of the American public’s health and well being. Now that Obama has named Lester Crawford as the head of the FDA, my question is this. Will the FDA reinstate it’s mission and act on behalf of the public interest.. or will it just continue to give all of us this toxic treatment and not look twice, much less reprimand, the perpetrators?
I think if you have read these posts and are reading this one now, you should go to the FDA website or send them an email demanding action in this matter. In the meantime, you need to get yourself and your own out of harms way. And that doesn’t just mean eschewing lipsticks but also taking great care in the purchase and use of all personal care and beauty products. Just recently, Canada announced that it had found lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium during routine testing of children’s face paints. I would suggest you stop allowing your children to paint their face with anything at all until safe, natural and non toxic products are available.
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March 19, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Health Care, Natural Beauty, Personal Care · Tagged chemicals, cosmetics, face cream, health, perfumes, petrochemicals, safe, toxic
I have done other posts on cosmetics, mostly on how to make your own that will be both non toxic and safe for women with allergies. I have also done a previous post on the toxins in cosmetics. But there is a lot more to be said and I thought it might be a good idea to tell everybody what those toxins are so you can start looking at labels. But, did you know that cosmetics do not require approval from ANYONE before they appear on the shelves in your store? I mean, seriously, the FDA does not regulate cosmetics AT ALL. If you don’t believe me, go to this page on the FDA website. And for those of you who don’t want to just leave this page at the moment, here is the drift of what they state:
“Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act, cosmetics and their ingredients are not required to undergo approval before they are sold to the public. … This means that manufacturers may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, to market a product without a government review or approval.”
Now, to be fair, they do ban a few substances. I mean, they aren’t allowed to load up on Mercury or Chloroform, both known to be dangerous, but they are still allowed to load up on a lot of crap that is gonna make you sick when you read this. Especially when you realize that these same toxins are banned in many other industries and that most of them are banned on the European market. And here I was foolish enough to think that we had the most sophisticated system in the world. I guess I got fooled by the constant refrain I keep hearing about how rich and powerful we are. Not quite the same thing.
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March 13, 2009
· Filed under Hobbies & Crafts, Home and Garden, diy, herbs · Tagged crafts, diy, dyes, handmade, herbs, homemade, how to, non toxic, plants, projects, recipes, safe, tyedye
Now that I have posted everything you need to get started making herbal dyes (The Basics , Part Two: Mordants and Dyemaking Part 3), I want to move into giving you recipes for actually making the dyes. These recipes are divided by the color you wish to achieve and start with a list of the herbs that you can use to achieve that color. The recipes are fairly easy to follow and shouldn’t be hard to accomplish, as long as you have read the previous posts and refer back to them as needed. For ease of reference, I have added a link to each of the first three posts above.
There is one more thing I want to address before finishing up this series. That is the cleaning and washing of fabrics dyed with herbs. For the most part, these colors are permanent and difficult to wash out completely. But the misuse of some washing detergents, sunlight and over rinsing of the fabrics can deplete the color enough to force a redo. Of course, you a free to dye and re-dye all you want. The dyes are not chemical based so they won’t thin, fray or disintegrate your fabric like bleachs and some chemical based dyes will. But as far as washing goes, please try to use very gentle detergents like washing soda or green detergents as they will deplete the dye less drastically over time. Also, when drying the fabrics, use low heat or hang outside in the shade. Direct sunlight will cause fading, even after a few hours. Rinsing with cool water is recommended but do not put through too many spin cycles and be gentle when wringing the water out. Rinsing while hanging to dry is fine, but remember to keep them out of the sun.
Here are the guidelines and recipes.
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March 11, 2009
· Filed under Home and Garden, conservation, diy · Tagged conservation, eco, electricity, energy, energy star, green, home, safe, saving, temperature, thermostat, utilities
Everybody is looking for ways to save the planet and save money, too. It is the primary goal of all of us today in this cold economy with a fast warming planet. Some folks seem exasperated with it all, saying that going green is a luxury and right now, we have to be economical. But someone needs to explain conservation to these folk. Conservation IS saving. Saving money and saving the earth.
You should be conserving in every way possible every single day. It will lighten the load on your wallet, make your life simpler and help the gasping environment at the same time. You should be thinking in this mode every day, all day. How can I save this? How can I stop losing that? How can I simplify my needs? How can I save money? We cannot afford to slip backwards one time in this effort, as it can cost us that last dime and push us closer to bankruptcy while adding another pile of trouble on our world at large. When you think about it, you will realize that what has happened to America then began to happen all over the world. As a rich country, a superpower in the world arena, we control the destiny of billions. Including many countries we will never visit and many others we don’t even know the names of.
So it is very important that we get it together, for ourselves, for the world and even more so, for our children and their future. But that does not mean it has to be a loss or a sacrifice. In fact, we have sacrificed more in the past, chasing money and working like dogs, than we will in the simpler, kinder future. And some of the solutions to our most pressing problems are readily in hand today. And, best of all, they just don’t cost a lot while they will save us tons of money and trouble in the future.
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March 8, 2009
· Filed under Hobbies & Crafts, Home and Garden, diy · Tagged crafts, diy, green, handmade, homemade, how to, natural, projects, wreath
This is a very simple, easy to make project that I created for Spring. I make this wreath up in a day and it brightens the wall until September, when it starts to brown a bit and look crispy. But it is cheap enough and easy enough to be made up every March or April. And it’s pretty enough to duplicate every year.
Wreath Materials:
8″ Grapevine Wreath
1 Bag of Natural German Statice
1 Bunch of Dried Yellow Wheat
1 Bunch of Natural Dried Strawflowers
1 Bunch of Dried Bunny Tails
1 Pkg of Wooden Birds w/ Feathers
1 Small Wooden Nest
1 Pkg Medium Floral Wire
Small Pkg of Floral Picks
Method:
Although it might be easier and faster to use a glue gun on a Wreath project like this, I don’t recommend it. I think it’s thrifty and wise to use picks so that you can just remove the dried stuff in a year, pull out the picks, buy new Dried Flowers and reuse the Wreath Base and the picks. If you don’t care about thrifty, just use a glue gun and toss the whole thing when the season ends. That’s your call.
Use an 8″ Wreath so that it’s really fluffy and full. A larger Wreath base spreads out the Statice and Wheat too much and makes it seem scrawnier. And a Wire Wreath base just doesn’t work at all. So take my advice and get an 8″ Grapevine Wreath.
As far as colors go, this wreath works best with natural colors. Strawflowers in natural, yellow, deep red and white work the very best. Birds should be natural beige or yellow. Light colors of Wheat blend perfectly and make the color scheme come together beautifully and resonate a lovely Spring “feel”.
Making the Wreath is really easy. Bunch the Wheat in small handfuls and tie with the picks and wire. Trim the ends of the Statice to a smooth tip and simply slip them into the twisted vines of the wreath. Make sure you push them in deep enough to remain firmly in place. Don’t skimp on the Statice. It’s cheap and it makes the Wreath really full and plush. Once the Statice is full around the Wreath, then you can pick in the Wheat bunches until it seems like the Wreath is really full.
Bunch up the Bunny Tails and wire them together in small handfuls. Push them in on top of the Statice in places between the Wheat. Shove them in firmly and use enough to fill in every single gap. The Wreath will look really full. It isn’t done until it looks fluffy and full.
Once it’s full and fluffy, wire in one bird along one outer side of the Wreath. Go to the center bottom of the Wreath, where you like the way it looks when it’s hung. Wire in the nest there at the dead center of the bottom inside. A few inches away, wire in the second bird. Refer to the photo for an idea of how I did it.
Your Wreath is done and really for a nice place on your wall! It won’t smell much but it’s really cute and it’s makes everybody who sees it think of Spring!
Technorati Tags: crafts, diy, green, handmade, homemade, how to, natural, projects, wreath
March 8, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, conservation, recycling · Tagged eco, green, natural, non toxic, plants, recycling, travel, vehicles
Although it’s kind of cool to look at and is almost a form of art, the bamboo bike is practical enough for not only biking around but for racing bikes as well. There are several companies making this bike and Calfee Bamboo Bikes has won awards for the Best Road Bike, Best Off-Road Bike and People’s Choice Award at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Check this out:
Ghana Bamboo Bike by Calfee Design
Have I got your attention now?
According to Calfee, bamboo is an ideal material for bicycles. The vibration damping is a performance advantage on longer rides. It is also stronger and lighter than most metals. This is a green product and most people who buy it are making a statement even though the quality of the ride is primo.
Another great project involving the Bamboo Bike is going on at the Bamboo Bike Project. These folk are making bikes as a sustainable form of transportation for poor people in Africa. They are also attempting to stimulate a bike building industry in Africa to satisfy local needs. You can donate or help out by going to the website and making a donation.
Technorati Tags: bamboo, eco, green, natural, non toxic, recycling, renewable, sustainable, plants, travel, vehicles
March 8, 2009
· Filed under Health Care, Natural Beauty, Natural Remedies, herbs · Tagged cleanser, cosmetics, ecology, healing, health, herbs, marijuana, plants, remedies, weed
I saw this on the local news and found it fascinating. It’s about time that science applies itself to herbs, including illegal ones like Marijuana. And so the local station is reporting this great new find and I wanted to pass it along. Credit goes to WFTV-9, Orlando, Fla.
According to the newscast, a report in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology delivered the news that our body not only makes chemical compounds similar to the active ingredient in marijuana (THC), but these play an important part in maintaining healthy skin.
This report was put together from findings of Scientists from Hungary, Germany and the UK and could lead to could lead to new drugs that treat skin conditions ranging from acne to dry skin, and even skin-related tumors.
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March 8, 2009
· Filed under Environmental Detox, Health Care, Home and Garden, Personal Care · Tagged chemicals, cleaning, cosmetics, detox, eco, green, healing, health, non toxic, projects, safe, toxic
The air inside your home can be toxic. It can even be more dangerous to your heath that the sooty, pollen laden air outside your front door. This is because we go for long periods without opening windows or circulating air. In the winter, we rely on dry, overheated air that disperses dust and debris everywhere and in the summer, we rely on moldy, wet air conditioners that cause bronchitis and strange infections like legionnaires’ disease. As global warming marches forward, the winters will get colder and drier and the summers will be blazing. Humidity levels are dropping worldwide because of the lack of rain and this is causing the faster dispersion and wider spread of pollutants and air born toxins.
Overall, this closed up air and temperature control that we rely on is also why the air in your home likely contains two to five times as many pollutants as outdoor air, according to an estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And if you’ve been working with harsh chemicals, such as paint strippers, the air in your home may be one thousand times more toxic than the air outside during and immediately after the procedure. And if you rarely open your windows, double that time span and add hours to any application of cleaning chemicals, beauty products or household toxins like pest control sprays. They literally circulate throughout your home over and over again, looking for enough fresh air to disperse themselves. Without it, they hang like a cloud.
But don’t let me scare you too bad. There are solutions to this problem, a form of detox for your home. So you don’t need to wear a gas mask all day or run outside every few minutes to gasp “fresh air”. Just follow my hints and take the steps necessary to clean the air in your home. I will clue you in on the most common offenders of air quality and what you can do to reduce their effects.
But before you don a gas mask and hunker down in a closet, realize that there are steps you can take to clear the air in your home. Below, the typical offenders and how you can minimize your risk:
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