Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Artificial Fragrances

Do you get headaches often? Susceptible to rashes? Occasionally feel nauseous for no good reason? It could be the artificial fragrances in your air freshener, candles, or soaps. They actually contain toxic chemicals, and are not tested for safety - shockingly.

This is an interesting site (or scary, depending on how you look at it!). I have selected a Bath and Body Works product. They list the ingredients of the product, and you can click on each ingredient, and then click on the possible effects of each ingredient. Carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds, skin irritants...now why would you put that in a body lotion?

So what do you do to keep your home smelling fresh? Here are some great suggestions. If you are used to using chemical air fresheners, you may have to rethink your idea of what smells "clean."

There are many personal care products (lotions, soaps, etc.) that do not use chemical fragrances - they are easy to find at health food stores and online.

Over time, I have rid our house of any of these artificial products (it does take time!), and I have found something interesting: my nose is MORE sensitive now than it was. I pick up on things I never would have noticed before. My children each have their own smell. I can often tell at the grocery store if something will taste good, because I can smell it while it's still packaged! Were those chemicals burning my sense of smell? I can't help but wonder.

2 comments:

  1. No, not more to think about! You have already challenged us with food..which we are doing well...now this!!

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  2. Ha! That actually brings up a good point. There are natural medicine people who tend to talk like the sky is falling - there are chemicals everywhere, everything causes cancer, we're all gonna die! :) There's even one guy who insists wi-fi and cell phones cause cancer. I hope he's wrong...

    All we can do is the best we can do. If that means we replace one product in our home per month, to head in the right direction, that is perfect and fantastic. Obviously none of us can afford to throw away all the products we use every day and just buy all new ones. That would be nuts. But when something runs out, we can replace it with something better. I have experimented with lots of brands and know the natural ones that work well, so feel free to ask what I use.

    Ultimately we all have to trust God to help us make good decisions, provide the money to make good changes, and get us the information we need to make the choices we make. We don't really get to control anything - including our health. We just do the best we can with what we know. :)

    Does that make it any better?

    And, good job on the food!!! :)

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