Protecting the Health of Women - Because We're Worth It!

From the Summer 2004 newsletter of the Women's Community Cancer Project

c/o the Women's Center, 46 Pleasant Sreet, Cambridge, MA 02139

Cosmetics, Parabens, and Breast Cancer by Rita Arditti

Early this year the media reported that English researchers identified parabens in samples of breast tumors. Parabens (alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid) are widely used as antimicrobial preservatives in thousands of cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceutical products, and food.

There are six commonly used forms (Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, p-Propylparaben, Isobutylparaben, n-Butylparaben and Benzylparaben) and it is estimated that they are used in at least13,200 cosmetics products.

According to the lead researcher of the recent study, Philippa Darbre, an oncology expert at the university of Reading, in Edinburgh, the chemical form of the parabens found in 18 of the 20 tumors testedindicated that they originated from something applied to the skin, the most likely candidates being deodorants, antiperspirants, creams, or body sprays.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for nearly one of every three cancers diagnosed in U.S. women.

A campaign seeking the removal of toxic chemicals from cosmetics has been recently launched by Women's Voices for the Earth, a women's environmental justice group from Montana (www.womenandenvironment..org).

As a result of their initiative, a coalition of environmental and public health groups has emerged, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (www.safecosmetics.org), working to pressure the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of chemicals that are known or suspected carcinogens, mutagens, or reproductive toxins.

In January 2003 the European Union banned the use of these chemicals. By September 2004, all cosmetics and personal care products sold in the member states of the European Union will have to be free of substances considered CMR I and CMR II (carcinogens, mutagens, or reproductive toxins).

Accordingly, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is asking the U.S. cosmetics companies to sign the "Compact for the Global Production of Safer Health and Beauty Care Products" committing themselves to comply with those principles in the products they sell in the U.S. and other non-European markets.

The slogan of the campaign, "Because We're Worth It!" sends a clear message to those who disregard women's health concerns in the pursuit of profit.

1. Keep an eye on the campaign, have your organization join it, and monitor the follow-up that will ensue.
2. Spread the word about cosmetics, parabens, and cancer.
3. Go to the webpage of the Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org and read their report, Skin Deep, a safety assessment of the ingredients in personal care products.
4. Visit the webpage of Breast Cancer Action, www.bca.org, and keep yourself informed of new developments regarding corporate interests and cosmetics.

We are part a national and international movement to clean up theearth and out bodies. Think of the power we could have if millions of women demanded safe products for themselves and their families!

Luckily, Breast Cancer Action (BCA) from San Francisco (www.bcaction.org) an organization that is at the forefront of the movement developing critical analysis and recognition of the politics of breast cancer, has done a lot of work on cosmetics and breast cancer.

Their project "Think Before You Pink," www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org, raises excellent questions regarding the cosmetics industry, breast cancer, and their obsession with pink paraphernalia.

BCA points out that a huge number of personal care products contain ingredients that may raise the risk of breast cancer but that the companies that produce them, nevertheless present themselves as committed to the eradication of breast cancer. They do so by running "cause-related marketing campaigns," exploited the good will of customers but making pitiful contributions to breast cancer research. (See the NY Times ad "Philanthropy or Hypocrisy," October 24, 2003 on the BCA webpage).

Paraben-free cosmetics from www.thinkbeforeyoupink.org:

Aubrey Organics Skin, Body & Hair Care Products Caribbean Pacifics Suncare Products Dr. Hauschka Earths Beauty Cosmetics Honeybee Gardens Kettle Care herbal Body Products Living Nature Products Logona Cosmetics Martina Gebhardt Naturkosmetiks Natural Solutions-Holistic Beauty&Health Organic Essentials Skincare (and Nutritional Product) Organic Excellence Hair Care Products Real Purity Cosmetics Restored Balance Herbal Products Sante Kosmetics Suki's Naturals AnneMarie Borlind Natural Beauty

Note: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and all Terressentials products, among others, are also paraben-free as well as made from organic ingredients.

Read full article here.

Wake Up Call - Pesticides, Natural Chemicals and Our Health

When I read information like the following Abstract, I'm stunned that we wait for someone to "prove" what we have enough evidence to "suspect" is the cause of illness.  We wait until it's too late to do anything about it...instead of immediately thinking, "My life is too precious. If there is a 'possible link I am not going to take a chance.  I can live without xxxx in my life."

Pesticides and cancer: Dich J, Zahm SH, Hanberg A, Adami HO.

Abstract

"Epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between chemical pesticides and cancer is reviewed.

In animal studies, many pesticides are carcinogenic, (e.g., organochlorines, creosote, and sulfallate) while others (notably, the organochlorines DDT, chlordane, and lindane) are tumor promoters. Some contaminants in commercial pesticide formulations also may pose a carcinogenic risk.

In humans, arsenic compounds and insecticides used occupationally have been classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Human data, however, are limited by the small number of studies that evaluate individual pesticides.

Epidemiologic studies, although sometimes contradictory, have linked phenoxy acid herbicides or contaminants in them with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and malignant lymphoma; organochlorine insecticides are linked with STS, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), leukemia, and, less consistently, with cancers of the lung and breast; organophosphorous compounds (About 70% of the insecticides in current use in the United States are organophosphorous (OP) pesticides, a total of around 90 million pounds per year) are linked with NHL and leukemia; and triazine herbicides with ovarian cancer.

Few, if any, of these associations can be considered established and causal. Hence, further epidemiologic studies are needed with detailed exposure assessment for individual pesticides, taking into consideration work practices, use of protective equipment, and other measures to reduce risk. "

Source:  Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Karolinska Institute and Radiumhemmet, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

_ _ _

And here is a summary from the EPA's website:

Pesticides and Food: Health Problems Pesticides May Pose

Laboratory studies show that pesticides can cause health problems, such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer, and other effects that might occur over a long period of time.  However, these effects depend on how toxic the pesticide is and how much of it is consumed. Some pesticides also pose unique health risks to children.

For these reasons, the Federal Government, in cooperation with the States, carefully regulates pesticides to ensure that their use does not pose unreasonable risks to human health or the environment. "

What is "unreasonable risk"?  Is there such a thing as "reasonable risk" when it comes to our health?  Who decides?  People you know nothing about....or YOU?

YOU are in Charge of Your Health and the Health of Your Children

Were bombarded with pollutants from vehicle emissions, manufacturing plants, dry cleaner chemicals,  lawn mowers, those darn awful leaf blowers that make me cookoo, and pesticides sprayed everywhere.  It's a miracle our liver functions at all.  Then add pharmaceuticals, artificial coloring, sugar, lotions with Parabens and EDTA, and deodorants with things we can't spell much less pronounce, and no wonder we're walking hot beds for the development of Alzheimer's, Cancer and a host of other ailments.

Get in the driver's seat.  You are wise.  Don't wait 10 years until the FDA or the EPA has enough 'clinical' data.  By then you could be one of the subjects they're studying, God forbid!

I have thrown away my Teflon pans, I don't let plastic wrap touch my food (I place a small square of parchment paper or was paper on the food before I wrap it), I never put Aluminum Foil against any sauces or acidic foods (you know the acid eats right through the foil...yes?), and I told my gardener not to use pesticides on any weeds, and to hand rake my leaves.

Love your life and your children's lives enough to sacrifice convenience for caution. It's a different world...we have to think defensively. Some things we can do little about, like air pollution, so do what you can with things you have control over.

~ In Good Health. ♥

5 Things You Can Do Now to Improve Your Health

Many illnesses, including many cancers, cannot thrive in an alkaline environment. The American diet is extremely acidic...commercially raised red meat, coffee, sugar, fried foods and simple carbs... those make up the overwhelming majority of what we eat.

The components of what you put in your mouth and on your skin has to processed by your liver. This much abused organ is already working overtime to rid your body of toxins that you breathe and get on your skin ...household cleaners, register tape, etc..

FYI - 40 percent of cash register receipts printed on heat-activated paper have been found to contain the dangerous chemical Bisphenol A (BPA)!

I'm going to take just one from a very long list of dubious ingredients that we are commonly used in lotions, deodorants and makeup, namely: castor oil.

Castor oil and its derivatives are used in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals and perfumes.

The castor seed contains ricin, a toxic protein.  Allergenic compounds found on the plant surface can cause permanent nerve damage, making the harvest of castor beans a human health risk. India, Brazil, and China are the major crop producers, and the workers suffer harmful side effects from working with these plants.

This is ONE of many, many ingredients we don't take the time to research, trusting that no company would manufacture and sell a product that contained toxins.  I wish that were so.

Parabens are another ugly story.  Parabens are a group of compounds widely used as antimicrobial preservatives in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, including deodorants. Parabens are absorbed through intact skin and from the gastrointestinal tract and blood.

"Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors (Darbre, 2004). The particular parabens were found in relative concentrations that closely parallel their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products. They increase the expression of many genes that are usually regulated by estradiol and cause human breast tumor cells to grow and proliferate in vitro."

• Has anyone blown the whistle on cosmetic manufacturers?
• Do you still believe some government agency is really looking out for our health?

So on top of the hundreds of chemical substances our liver has to deal with, we pile on sugar (a toxin itself) and artificial sweeteners and hormone-filled animal protein, and preservatives.

We neglect the care this vital organ needs until it causes us pain or gets sluggish enough to cause alarming symptoms. Please don't wait that long.

Here are the 5 things you can do today to improve your health;

1) Eat Organic

2) Cut out sugar and white flour

3) Refuse to use products with ingredients you can't pronounce or don't recognize

4) Squeeze lemon juice in every glass of water you drink (lemons alkaline our bodies, making them inhospitable to most disease

5) Choose wild-caught, cold water fish (never farm raised) or organic free-range chicken as your animal protein of choice.

~ Be Well. ♥