It’s one thing to put toxic chemicals on your skin. But to put them right inside your body? Depending on their ingredients, you could be setting yourself up for a big chemical no-no . That’s why shifting to safe non-toxic lube should be just as important as buying non-toxic shampoo, soap, or skin lotion.

We’ve teamed up with Lubezilla, an online marketplace that sells water-based organic lubricants, to bring you the latest news on what’s in most lubes – and what shouldn’t be. Here’s the skinny.

What’s In Most Lubes – and Why Does It Matter?

Your vagina may be the most sensitive—and fragile—part of your body. Lubes can help reduce sensitivity by reducing vaginal dryness and friction, making it easier and healthier to enjoy sex. All good.

But vaginal skin is thin and highly absorbent. That means that chemicals in the lubricant can be absorbed by vaginal tissue. The pH, or acidity, of the lubricant affects the natural acidity of the vagina, too. It’s also possible that the vagina itself will react to the lubricant by releasing moisture out of the cells in the vaginal wall to compensate for the presence of the lube.

Women’s Voices for the Earth, which has issued a new report on safe, non-toxic lube, says that vaginal cells can “shrivel up in an attempt to dilute the foreign lubricant gel” when it is constituted so differently from normal vaginal secretions.

Using one kind of lube one time generally won’t create a problem. But as with other personal care products, its repeated use over months or years could dry out the vagina and add to the build-up of the lube’s chemicals in our bodies.

Women’s Voices looked at the research, including recommendations from The World Health Organization. They concluded that it’s best to choose lubricants that match the pH level of the vagina and that have low “osmolality” while avoiding lubes that contain 4 specific toxic chemicals.

Here’s what that means.

What’s pH? And that other thing…

The pH level generally refers to how acidic or alkaline a product is. The lower the number, the more acidic the products is. WHO says lubes should generally be in the range of 3.8-4.5.

Osmolality refers to a substance’s ability to draw moisture out of tissues and cells. If a lube has higher osmolality than normal, which is below 1200 mPsm/kg, the vagina can literally shrivel up because the moisture in vaginal cells is pulled out.

Bottom Line: Look for lubes with a pH in the range of 3.8 – 4.5, and osmolality levels below 1200.

4 Toxic Chemicals in Lube

“Harsh chemical ingredients found in lubricants can also be toxic to vaginal tissue” and the balance of microorganisms that naturally inhabit the vagina,” reports Women’s Voices.

The 4 chemicals to avoid in particular are:

Chlorhexidine gluconate – A disinfectant that can actually kill off lactobacillus bacteria, which keep the vagina healthy

Parabens, like methylparaben and propylparaben – You’ve seen – and avoided parabens before. In the vagina, they can irritate the mucous membranes and cause rashes. Ironically, though paraben-laden lubes are supposed to make sex easier, they could also lead to fertility problems and disrupt your endocrine system.

Cyclomethicone, cyclopentasiloxane, cyclotetrasiloxane – These chemicals are found in silicone-based lubricants. They’ve also been linked to reproductive harm and uterine cancer in animal studies.

Undisclosed flavors or fragrances – Beware the generic term “flavor” or “fragrance” or “aroma” in your lube. The chemical cocktails used to concoct flavors and fragrances could include carcinogens, reproductive toxins and allergens.

Women’s Voices recommends against choosing lubes that offer “warming,” “tingling,” or colors, since those could also contain unnecessary and questionable chemicals.

What Safe Non-Toxic Lube Can You Buy?

Lubezilla offers a couple of brands of lubes on its site that can be found on the Women’s Voices  comparison chart. Those include:

Durex Play Soothing (slightly outside the osmolality bounds, but within the ph limits)

Lubezilla also sells a line of organic, plant- and water-based lubes that the manufacturers say are free of parabens, glycerin, and petrochemicals, as well as added alcohol, silicone, fragrances and dyes, plus “pH balanced just for women.” Some of these even use stevia extract, a sweetener derived from the stevia plant, in place of synthetic flavors.

By the way, you can find more tips for non-toxic safe sex from Women’s Voices here.

Note: Paid sponsors enable us to bring you the expert product reviews and green living information you want at no extra cost to you. We never recommend products, services or manufacturers that don’t meet our criteria for environmental responsibility. Thanks.

The post How to Choose a Safe Non-Toxic Lube appeared first on Big Green Purse.

In their “Dirty Secrets” study, WVE commissioned an independent laboratory to test twenty popular cleaning products for hidden toxic chemicals from five top companies: Clorox, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, SC Johnson and Son, and Sunshine Makers (Simple Green). WVE found reproductive toxins, carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and allergens — none of which were listed on the product label. 

“Consumers deserve to know what chemicals they are being exposed to, so that they can easily avoid products that may cause allergic reactions or serious long-term health impacts like cancer, birth defects, or pregnancy complications,” WVE declares – and I agree. That’s why I support WVE’s effort to get Congress to pass new federal legislation that requires cleaning product manufacturers to disclose all the ingredients they use in their products directly on the product label.

I also support WVE’s effort to persuade companies like Glade to list ALL ingredients in their product on their label. You may think Glade helps clear the air. According to WVE’s research, here’s actually what Glade is putting into the air:

Toxic Chemicals Found in Glade (according to WVE research)

(These are just a few of the hundreds of fragrance chemicals that may be part of a Glade fragrance)

Synthetic musks. Test results in WVE’s 2011 Dirty Secrets report found one of these toxic chemicals hiding out in Glade. Musks are:

• persistent (they don’t break down in the environment)

• bioaccumulative (they build up in our bodies)

• potential hormone disruptors

• may break down the body’s defenses against other toxic exposures

• showing up in our blood and breast milk

Allergens. Test results in WVE’s 2011 Dirty Secrets report also found several allergens in Glade products. Tens of millions of people are sensitized to these chemicals, which cause reactions that range from red bumps, itchiness and wheezing to severe breathing problems.

What Can You Do?

* For starters, skip synthetic air fresheners. WVE’s research focused on Glade, but in all likelihood most spray air fresheners contain chemicals that have negative side effects similar to Glade’s.

* Clean your house or your car with hot water and a combination of fragrance-free liquid soap or baking soda, followed with a spash of vinegar and lemon juice. These are cheap, safe, and won’t cause the health problems associated with many synthetic fragrances.

* Find the source of unpleasant smells (rotting fold, mold build-up) and get rid of them, rather than try to mask their smell.

* Add cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, half a lemon or orange, and some apple peels to a small pot of water; simmer on the stove to enjoy a relaxing scent that won’t make you sick.

Send Glade a Letter Asking Them to Clean Up Their Act

Women’s Voices for the Earth has drafted a letter you can send to Glade urging them to reveal all the chemicals they use in their product – including those that can make us sick. Send it, and pass it along to your friends and theirs.

Thanks.

Related articles

Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products

Green Consumer Clout Motivates Tide to Clean Up Its Act

Women’s Voices for the Earth Champions Healthy, Safer, Non-Toxic Cleansers for Moms and Kids

The post Is Glade Air Freshener Bad for Babies? appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Think again.

When Women’s Voices for the Earth released a report noting that Tide detergent contained chemicals that could actually be harmful to kids, millions of consumers were outraged. They were buying the Procter & Gamble (P&G) product to keep their children clean and safe. Yet according to the report, Tide actually contained the cancer-causing chemicals 1,4- dioxane at levels safety experts considered threatening.

Mom blogger and consumer activist Lori Alper sprang into action by launching a petition drive on Change.org.  urging the company to ditch the dangerous compounds.

Today – 78,000 signatures later – Tide capitulated. In response to consumer demand and a lawsuit filed in California by As You Sow, P&G agreed to phase out the carcinogens by September 2013.

“When I started
my petition on Change.org, I knew that Procter & Gamble listened to
consumer feedback, and I was hopeful we could get this dangerous chemical out
of our laundry,” said Alper. “I can’t wait to see what we can do
next.”

Related articles

Women’s Voices for the Earth Champions Healthy, Safer, Non-Toxic Cleansers for Moms and Kids

Protect Us and Our Kids from Toxic Chemicals Now!

Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products

The post Green Consumer Clout Motivates Tide to Clean Up Its Act appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Why does WVE focus so directly on toxic
chemicals? Aren’t laws like the Toxic Substances Control Act protecting us
already?

Unfortunately,
the Toxic Substances Control Act is outdated and fails to protect us from
harmful chemicals like BPA, lead, and phthalates. Of the more than 80,000
chemicals out there in consumer products, only 200 of them have ever been
adequately tested for safety.

Most
of those chemicals that have been tested have been looked at only for their
short-term impacts to adult men in industrial settings. That’s one of the
reasons why WVE focuses on toxic chemicals and women’s health: how women are exposed and the health impacts on
women–especially girls, women of color, and women of childbearing age–are
unique and have been mostly overlooked in the past.

There
are a number of reasons that women are more impacted by toxic chemicals. First,
women are much greater users of consumer products that can contain toxic
chemicals:

* Women use
an average of nine personal care products each day, exposing themselves to a
mixture of over 100 individual chemicals. 25% of women report using an average
of 15 products daily.

*  While
gender roles have certainly changed over time, studies show that women are still
doing over 70% of the housework in the average home, which means a higher
exposure to household cleaning chemicals.

*  Fragranced
products are more heavily marketed to women, and women are more likely to
suffer from fragrance allergy than men.

Second,
women carry the health impacts of toxic chemicals in a unique way. Women have a
higher percentage of body fat, and many chemicals tend to accumulate in fat
tissue. Women can also pass chemicals on to their children during pregnancy and
through breastfeeding.

Third,
research shows that women’s health problems are on the rise. For example,
breast cancer rates have risen from an average of 1 in 20 to 1 in 8, women’s
infertility is increasing, and puberty is occurring earlier in girls.

Lastly,
Women’s Voices for the Earth believes that women have tremendous social,
polictical, and economic power to change the systems that allow toxic chemicals
in our products in the first place. That’s why we create opportunities for
women to raise their voices, whether it’s to spread the word to friends and
family, call on companies to make safer products, or ask lawmakers to pass
policies that will truly protect us from toxic chemicals.

Don’t companies that produce the
products we use have to meet standards for health and safety?

Yes, there are certainly some standards
in place, but they’re few and far between. And the standards that do exist are inconsistent
across industries.

For example, the cosmetics industry is
self-regulated. Guess who reviews the safety of cosmetics? Not the Food and
Drug Administration, but the Cosmetics Ingredient Review panel. Guess who pays
them to do that job? Cosmetics companies!

And we’ve seen how ineffective this system
is with the Brazilian Blowout blowup. This popular hair straightening treatment
contains up to 10% formaldehyde (a known cancer-causing chemical) – but the
company was lying and labeled their bottles formaldehyde-free. Neither the
cosmetics industry nor the FDA has done anything to protect stylists and their
clients from this toxic product, although it’s been taken off the market in
several other countries.

 There’s also no standard for using the
word “natural” or “organic” on personal care products. Any company can put
those words on their labels whether their ingredients are healthy or not.

Another great example is the cleaning
products industry. There’s no law that cleaning product companies have to list
the ingredients in their products, which means that companies are allowed to
keep toxic chemicals like phthalates and synthetic musks a secret from
consumers.

This is why WVE is working on some
government policies right now – because we need strong safety standards across
the board. We’re working to pass the Safe Chemicals Act, which would actually
require that chemicals be tested for safety before
they’re placed in products. We’re also working on the Safe Cosmetics Act, which
would ban toxic chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and mutations from
personal care and salon products.

Are some chemicals more dangerous than
others? If you had to choose, what three chemicals would you urge women to
avoid at all costs?

 We’re not saying that all chemicals are
toxic, because that’s certainly not the case. But some chemicals are harmful to
our health, like chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption, fertility
problems, learning disabilities, and other serious health impacts.

It can be difficult to avoid a lot of
harmful chemicals, because many products don’t come with labels and even
labeled products may not list all the ingredients. But here are three toxic
chemicals that can be avoided by checking labels or by switching your products:

BPA – linked to increased risk of breast
cancer, infertility, early puberty in girls, and other problems.

• Ditch the canned foods and opt for fresh or frozen
  fruits and vegetables instead.
• Seek out products from the few companies now using
  BPA-free can liners like Westbrae Natural, Hunt’s, Healthy Choice and H.J.
  Heinz.
• Look for plastics labeled “BPA-free.”

Triclosan
– a hormone disruptor
that’s showing up in blood and breast milk

• Avoid anti-bacterial hand soap with triclosan listed on
  the label.
• Reduce your use of disinfectant products.

Synthetic
Fragrance – can be made up of hundreds of chemicals, all of which are kept secret from consumers. Common
fragrance chemicals include phthalates (linked to reproductive and
developmental harm) and synthetic musks (which break down the body’s defenses
against other toxic exposures and are linked to increased risk of breast cancer).

• Look for cleaners, laundry detergents, and personal
  care products labeled “fragrance-free” Warning: “unscented” does not mean
  fragrance-free!
• Discontinue use of air fresheners. Click here for tips to reduce odors
  around the home.

You can check out our 15 Toxic Trespassers and Ten Steps to Reduce Exposure for more ideas on avoiding toxic
chemicals linked to women’s health problems.

How do you let people like me know what
we should look out for when we shop?

 WVE works hard to create
easy-to-understand resources for women to help them protect their health, like
our 15 Toxic Trespassers fact sheet and our Tip of the Month for avoiding
harmful chemicals. And because we know it can be overwhelming to think about
ridding your house of toxic chemicals all at once, we recommend taking it one
step at a time. When your current shampoo runs out, think about replacing it
with one that doesn’t contain synthetic fragrance. Or when pick one step to
take in the kitchen, like buying a big bag of baking soda for deodorizing
instead of a potentially toxic air freshener.

You know that here at Big Green Purse,
we believe that shifting spending to greener products and services is important
for two reasons: it’s a fast and simple way to protect yourself and your
family; and it’s a great way to encourage companies to manufacture safer
products. When it comes to cleaning products, what impact could it have if
women shifted to even one safer cleaning product, whether it be a tub and tile
cleanser or a window cleaner?

 When it comes to cleaning products,
women’s consumer power is shifting the face of an entire industry right now.
When we launched our Safe Cleaning Products Initiative in 2007, no companies
were disclosing ingredients and many were still using toxic chemicals like
phthalates, synthetic musks, and triclosan. We developed our Green Cleaning
Party Kit as a solution to some of the toxic cleaners that were on the shelves.
Until we know that products are healthy, it’s safer to make our own cleaners
with non-toxic ingredients like vinegar and baking soda.

As thousands of women participated in Green
Cleaning Parties across the country, companies started to take notice. Women
weren’t buying their products, and they were using their consumer power to show
companies they wanted a change. And companies listened. Now, many major
companies are starting to list some ingredients online, and have started to
remove some toxic chemicals linked to women’s health problems.

So you can make an impact by buying
from a company that lists all ingredients on the label, or from a company that
pledges not to use chemicals like phthalates or synthetic fragrance. Where you
spend your dollars shows what kind of safe and healthy products you want to see
on the shelves.

Could you say more about the house
parties WVE organizes? How can the Big Green Purse community get involved?

 WVE’s Green Cleaning Parties and Green
Momma Parties are a fun way to take meaningful steps to reduce your exposure to
toxic chemicals, bring friends and family in on the fun, and take action to
make a difference.

These parties help women to use that
social, economic, and political power mentioned earlier. Not only are WVE
parties fun ways to bring friends together to educate them about harmful
chemicals, they offer immediate solutions for safer alternatives, like mixing your
own non-toxic cleaners and suggestions for safer products. These parties also
give party guests the opportunity to take easy actions to raise their voices
for healthier products right there at the party, like emailing their senator to
support the Safe Chemicals Act, or calling their favorite cleaning product
company and asking them to list ingredients.

The best part is that both the Green
Cleaning Party Kit and the Green Momma Party Guide are free to download! Big
Green Purse followers can sign up on our website to host a party.

So many organizations like WVE are based in Washington, D.C. so they can lobby
Congress. How did you end up in Montana? Do you still manage to lobby Senators
and Representatives from there, or is that not your focus?

 That’s a great question! WVE started in
Missoula, MT in 1995 as a local organization that gave women the opportunity to
raise their voices for environmental change. We started out with organizing
women to fight local polluting facilities like incinerators, hard rock mines,
and large-scale pesticide spraying – and it’s always been core to our mission
that our members are part of our work and meaningfully engaged in it.

In 2004, we expanded our work to the
regional level with a successful campaign that convinced Albertson’s to display
mercury warning labels on seafood cases. And we cruised onto the national scene
when we co-founded the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, and then the National
Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance a few years later.

Today, WVE is a national organization
focusing our work on eliminating toxic chemicals linked to women’s health
problems, but it’s still the heart and soul of our mission that our members are
involved in our work. We don’t need to be in Washington D.C. because we provide
opportunities for women to raise their voices no matter where they are.

Is WVE a membership organization, too? How can people reading this post support the
great work that you do?

 WVE’s members are what makes our work
so successful! There are lots of ways to support our work:

• Sign up for the WVE Action Network to become a member (for free!) and
  receive our email updates

• Host
  a Green Cleaning Party or a Green Momma Party

• Like
  us on Facebook and
  start spreading the word about toxic chemicals and women’s health

• Make a donation to support our work to empower women

RELATED POSTS:

Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products

Looking for safe and healthy baby products? Check out these suggestions from WhattoExpect.com.

The post Women’s Voices for the Earth Champions Healthy, Safer, Non-Toxic Cleansers for Moms and Kids appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 “Baby Emma just found
out Tide’s toxic secret—and she’s shocked that her favorite detergents are
contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical!

Women’s Voices for the Earth’s recent report, Dirty Secrets: What’s Hiding in Your Cleaning Products, revealed a secret cancer-causing chemical called 1,4-dioxane
hiding out in both Tide and Tide Free & Gentle – which, appallingly, is
marketed to moms as a healthier choice for their children’s laundry.

Emma decided that Tide can’t hide their secret anymore.
We’re blowing their cover by spreading this
image on Facebook revealing that Tide®
and Tide Free & Gentle® contain
a chemical known to cause cancer.

We need your help to get this photo to go viral. Help Emma convince Tide to take the cancer
out by posting her image on Tide’s Facebook wall
and sharing it with your friends.

 Tide® and Tide
Free & Gentle® are two of the top-selling
detergents in the country, which is why the company doesn’t want people to know
they contain 1,4-dioxane, a chemical known to cause cancer.

You know what makes this even more appalling? (Aside from
the fact that 1,4-dioxane doesn’t need to be in there, and that Tide knows how
to take it out—they just won’t.) Tide Free & Gentle® is marketed to unsuspecting moms as a
“healthier choice” for their children’s laundry! If only those moms knew…

That’s why, even if
you don’t use Tide®, Emma needs your help. There are
millions of people out there who have no idea that Tide is toxic, who are
unknowingly washing their clothes in a product that contains a carcinogen. You
can be the one to open their eyes to this toxic detergent by helping us
spread this image.

 What
is 1,4-Dioxane?

1,4-dioxane is classified as a probable
carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a known carcinogen
under Proposition 65 in California. 1,4-dioxane is sometimes found in products
that create suds, like shampoo, liquid soap, and bubble bath. It is an expected
contaminant when chemicals like sodium laureth sulfate, PEG compounds, and
others are present.

We know that it’s possible to
strip this harmful chemical out of products. Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide)
reformulated its Herbal Essences®
shampoo in 2010 to strip out 1,4-dioxane. Tide Free & Gentle® contains three times
the amount of this cancer-causing chemical!

Johnson & Johnson, another massive
consumer products company, announced
in July that is stripping 1,4-dioxane from all of its products worldwide.
There’s no reason that Procter & Gamble can’t do the same.

 Tide is providing us with the perfect example of why we need
to pass the Safe Chemicals Act, which will actually provide a baseline for what
“safety” means. Because we obviously differ from Procter & Gamble (makers
of Tide®) on what is safe when it comes
to toxic chemicals.

For example, the Tide
website says:
Safety: The Most Important Ingredient in
Tide®. If that’s true, 1,4-dioxane should never have been
in the product in the first place from our perspective.

 But Procter & Gamble continues to claim
that levels of 1,4-dioxane are “safe” in its detergents. The bottom line is that there is no safe level of a known
cancer-causing chemical.

We’re done being ignored by Tide. It’s time to turn up the
volume, and it’s time to take it viral.

Help us reveal Tide’s secret and force them
to remove this harmful chemical by spreading the word all over social media!

**Not on Facebook? You can still take action by sending
a quick email telling Tide to take the cancer out.

 RELATED POSTS

Tell Tide to Come Clean and Ditch the 1,4-Dioxane Now

 Protect Us and Our Kids from Toxic Chemicals Now

The post Tell Tide to Clean Up Its Cleaning Products appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 If you ever felt headachy, nauseous, or irritated after cleaning your house, chances are it’s not just from doing the work. A report just released by the nonprofit group Womens Voices for the Earth suggests that certain chemicals in some household cleaning products may be hazardous to women’s health. Kids are at risk, too.

A review of 75 studies and research papers points to “a link between certain chemicals in some cleaning products and asthma and reproductive harm,” says report author and WVE scientist Alexandra Gorman. “That means that children, pregnant women, women trying to get pregnant, and persons with asthma are especially vulnerable to these chemicals.”

Air fresheners deserve special attention, says Gorman, because they may contain carcinogenic (cancer-causing) chemicals as well as chemicals associated with respiratory and reproductive harm.

The report’s findings are particularly worrisome for women, who still do over 70% of the housework in the average home, and who comprise nearly 90% of maids and housekeepers in the U.S. Children are vulnerable because their organs and immune systems are not yet fully developed. Certain chemicals may interfere with the development of kids’ neurological, endocrine and immune systems.

You can read the full report on the WVE website.

You can also take immediate precautions by abandoning whatever commercial cleaning products you use in favor of the safer alternatives and make your own recipes listed at Big Green Purse.

The post The Dirt on Cleaning Your House appeared first on Big Green Purse.