Clean Living

"You do not inherit this world but instead it is loaned to you by your grandchildren"

    Those of you who know Danny & I know we really try to live clean, eat good food and live ethically respecting the precious world we've been blessed with while staying healthy and sane. The thing is it is very easy to have a belief and preach and a whole different thing to implement those beliefs entirely. It's not right of us to say one thing and only sort-a , kind-a do it. Well as of now that's no more. We are starting a clean sweep and plan do so in phases.

     So phase 1: Eliminate all toxic products. No we don't have an unventilated photo studio or open canisters of ammonia but some of the everyday products that everyone has contain chemicals that are almost as bad and unless you are a chemist or have an incredible memory for words good luck reading the back of the label to decipher it. So basically the 2 aspects we are looking at is the "Paraben Level" and the "Toxic Chemical Environmental Impact Level". Some studies say that the parabens and toxic levels cause things : asthma, migraines, nosebleeds, nausea, infertility, cancer and shortened lifespan. Of course there are other studies out there that say this is being over exaggerated. However what I have found after doing some research is that even if people claim it's being over exaggerated they do raise your risk and they are without a doubt bad for the environment when they go down the drain and eventually into the water. So, why not use something that not harmful, that's good for the planet and just in case lessens our risk. It certainly can't hurt.

     There is of course a safe level that is basically unavoidable unless you decide to start making your own products...which I'm not. The "Paraben Level" is on a 0-10 scale, 0 being good and 10 being deadly toxic. Anything that is a 4 or below is safe unless you have certain illnesses such as cancer running in your family then obviously lower if you can. The "Toxic Chemical Environmental Impact Level" is based on a  1-10 scale but this time the 10 means "best impact" and 1 means"worst impact". A safe level is a 7 or above. We went through all of our products, (cleaning, makeup, hair, etc) and found their levels. Anything we have that's not in the safe zone is getting phased out. By this I mean we will use the remaining amount ( because I refuse to waste product and money) and then never buy this item again. All new items purchased will follow this guideline. We actually only have to trade out a few things such as using aloe lotion instead of gel and finding a new laundry detergent along with a few other things.

     Now if I've gotten you a bit paranoid about what toxins may be lurking in your cabinet don't worry there's resources to check your products against. To find the "Paraben Level" go to http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ . For the "Toxic Chemical Environment Impact" visit http://www.goodguide.com/products . Remember you must really look it up based on each individual product and not the brand name because it varies greatly. If you are disposing of toxic materials please take them to the proper dumping location where they can be recycled or disposed of safely. If you don't know of a location it can be found at http://search.earth911.com/ . If you'd like more information about home made recipes, this clean movement of the documentary that spurred it all visit www.chemicalnation.com. Stay tuned for phase 2 as we proceed to make our little world a bit cleaner.