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05Apr

Natural vs green: what does it really mean?

by: Adria categories:Bodycare, Column, Health Comments Off

Natural vs green labels

After a lunch time talk I gave at Edmonton’s city hall last month, one woman approached me and asked me if I could spend more time talking about the difference between green/eco-friendly and natural. The terms, she said, were too often used interchangeably, and she’s right. We tend to flip back and forth between the two as though they’re twins, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes there are gaping distances between them (more like Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Twins). So I clarified the issue in this week’s Ecoholic column. To dive into the details, read more here.

You know I love to call out companies that claim they’re natural, claim they’re green but are really just full of BS. What of companies that can honestly claim to be both, to some degree? I had a lengthy conversation with a chemist at Nature Clean, one of Canada’s oldest ‘natural/naturally-derived,’ ‘nontoxic,’ ‘biodegradable’ cleaning companies, certified by EcoLogo. I’ve given good reviews to their Tub and Tile cream and all purpose cleaner, but started getting agitated by the fact that it contained a palm-derived ingredient. Natural, yes? But green? Well, not so much. I’ve been itching to know why they’d use palm-derived fatty polyglycoside when palm is such a controversial ingredient plagued by sustainability woes (hence why it’s on my Ecoholic Body Mean 15 list). So I gave Nature Clean a call and ended up in a surprisingly open, frank dialogue on green versus natural with their chemist Martin Vince.

Nature Clean LabelMartin first tells me their palm ingredient is fully certified via the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. I know the RSPO is the only sustainable palm certifier out there and is the only organized attempt at greening the industry, but the RSPO has faced a lot of flack for letting violations slide, I point out. Martin responds, “We know the Roundtable is not the ideal situation, but it’s better than not having it.” Why not avoid the ingredient altogether then? “We are actively looking for alternatives. We’re looking at grapeseed derived surfactants, but they’re not suitable for cleaning products currently. Alkyl polyglucosides are one of very few surfactants that are 100% natural (palm oil mixed with dextrose). Most are hybrids like alcohol ethoxylates, which has chances of contamination with [carcinogenic] 1-4 dioxane. We’ve chosen the purest we can currently use. And we do need surfactants because that’s what does the cleaning.”

What do you think? I know Martin’s right when he says says that replacement ingredients aren’t without impact either. Coconut plantations (like all monoculture crops) also encroach on natural habitat and basic table salt (used in natural cleaners) can certainly be ecologically disruptive to mine. Everything we buy has an impact somewhere, whether we’ve taken it from nature or concoct it in a lab, but let’s agree some are worse than others.

I’ve got to admit that at least Nature Clean has put itself out there more than other “green/natural” cleaners who refuse to list their full ingredients and simply offer up vague terms like “plant-based surfactants” or, in the case of Eco-Mist, “potatoes, corn, grains” (come on, that’s a recipe for stew not a clear, watery cleaner). Ultimately, as consumers, we’ve got to keep reminding companies that we’re watching and that yes, we want it all. Not everything we buy will be totally green (in its many senses of the word) and natural, but we’ve to push them and ourselves to come close.

 

01Mar

How close is too close? The ins and outs of cell phone safety

by: Adria categories:Column, Health, Miscellaneous Comments Off

news-eco-0228_largeWondering about cell phone safety and whether it’s worth looking for a phone lower in radiation? The answer is complicated…and may surprise you. Check it out the column in Ecoholic.

13Feb

Since we can’t live in a bubble: Tackling hormone disruptors

by: Adria categories:Big Issues, Column, Health Comments Off

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Ever feel like you’ve got a lot to get off your chest? I did this week so I wrote about hormone disrupting chemicals, not once, but twice (three times if you count this blog). First, in my column covering a conference on hormone disruptors, talking about what the feds are or aren’t doing to protect us from this family of disruptive chemicals.  And since that got me thinking, I wrote some more, in a blog NOW entitled Dying for Us: Considering the Women That Make Our Stuff. 

 It got me thinking about all the women that work with hazardous chemicals for a living, the women that make the stuff we use everyday – from the canned food and beverages we buy to the cars we sit in, the women who style our hair, do our dry cleaning or help heal us in hospitals, the women who work with cleaners, plastics, solvents, the list goes on. [James] Brophy and [Margaret] Keith found, as a whole, this highly exposed group has a 42% greater chance of getting breast cancer, and depending on where they work, that rate jumps dramatically (think women who make any of the metal goods that surround you, the women who grow the non-organic foods you may buy).

It also got me thinking about something the New York Times said, how hormone disruptors are the tobacco of our time. In truth, they’re worse since they’re so many different products from our cosmetics and our cleaners to our canned foods and our cars. And they’re making us sick in so many different ways - thyroid problems, early puberty, fertility woes, rises in breast/prostate/ testicular cancer, fibroids, endometriosis, genital birth defects, obesity, heart disease, ADHD, the list goes on. Not to mention their impacts on wildlife and biodiversity. Consider it, with climate change, the one-two punch to the planet. 

And yeah, while I talk about hormone disruptors almost every week in my columns on flame retardants, bodycare, BPA, reno materials, stain proofers, you name it, and have for years now, something about the conference I went to struck a deeper cord. Having all those scientists, researchers, cancer orgs, women’s networks and workers unions in one room standing together saying, ‘listen we are in crisis, Houston, we have a problem,’ it got my attention and I hope it gets yours. These are the people on the ground looking at the data pleading to be heard by our government regulators, to be heard by corporations, to be heard by chemists, saying look, you can’t keep playing whac-a-mole, tackling one harmful hormone disruptor like BPA or PBDE flame retardants at a time. They just get replaced with other hormone disruptors. You have to take them on as a whole – something Europe is voting on the coming weeks.

I’m going to keep talking about how to minimize the toxins in our lives, sharing tips with you on how to be smart shoppers and how to avoid the chemical minefield out there.  But it can’t all fall on us, the people doing the shopping.  That still leaves the majority of Canadians swallowing estrogen-mimickers like BPA and exposes the women and men making our stuff to illnesses that shouldn’t come with your paycheque.

So please, tell your politicians elected to represent you that it’s time to deal with hormone disruptors head on. In the meantime, we all have to press for safe chems where we work, safe cleaners in our schools, safe products on shelves – because, despite the rumours, we can’t really quarantine ourselves with bubble wrap.

 

 

29Jan

EcoholicTV: Dry Skin SOS

by: Adria categories:Bodycare, Health Comments Off

Ecoholic TV: Dry Skin SOS from Adria Vasil on Vimeo.

Ecoholic TV is back! Yep, we’re here with more Ecoholic Health Corner and this time I run to my old friend and naturopath Alexandra (aka Alex) Triendl for some extra help tackling winter’s dry skin curse. Got eczema? Psoriasis? Or just plain dry skin? Tune in for some ideas on supplements, masks and more. Oh and in case you missed it, here’s a link to our last video on beating colds and flus naturally and sustainably.

26Nov

Ecoholic TV: The down low on sustainable cold and flu remedies

by: Adria categories:Health Comments Off

Ecoholic Health Corner – Cold & Flu from adria vasil on Vimeo.

Feeling crummy and trying to cure what ails you? Check out the latest Ecoholic TV for the scoop on why you should bypass Buckley’s and make a beeline for more sustainable  options. My old pal and naturopathic doctor Alex Triendl shares some her favourite natural remedies (by the way, this is the naturopath I have on speed dial for all my health needs! She was a consultant for my Ecoholic Body health chapters).

04Oct

Is there lead in your dishes?

by: Adria categories:Column, Health, Home Comments Off

I’m a little suspicious of my plates. The scrapes and scratches on these Kengington Market imports have me wondering whether they’re leaching something dodgy. And yet, I never bothered to buy a lead test until two readers contacted me recently wondering about their ceramics. Then I got to reading. Here’s what Health Canada has to say about lead in dishware:

“For many years, glazes containing lead oxide were used on ceramics when they were manufactured to give these products a smooth, glassy surface free of blemishes. Bright yellow glazes may also contain cadmium. In some glazed ceramics, small amounts of lead and cadmium in the glaze may be released into food. Both lead and cadmium are toxic heavy metals and can cause serious health problems, especially in children.”

Yikes.  Although they kind of make it sound like lead leaching is a thing of the past, that isn’t always the case. Actually, two physicians out of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philly decided to test a bunch of dishes from their local Chinatown last year and were pretty shocked by what they found. Of the 87 plates, spoons, cups, etc that they bought at 18 stores and swabbed then with LeadCheck (the same swab I used on my plates), 25% tested lead positive. But as I say in this week’s column on the topic, imports aren’t the only concern.

Now don’t panic and toss your plates on the ground like a Greek wedding guest. The feds say a good lead-free glaze should protect you from what’s inside. If you’re worried about your dishes, I definitely recommend doing your own lead check though. I won’t reveal whether my dishes ended up being tainted – you’ll have to read my column for that!

 

 

 

28Sep

The pink ribbon problem: why pink and green shouldn’t clash

by: Adria categories:Big Issues, Bodycare, Health Comments Off

You’re busy, I’m busy, we’re all busy. Which is why it’s kind of nice when a company saves us all a little time and donates to a charity in our names. You know, like a shampoo giving $1 to the breast cancer. What could be wrong with that?

If you’ve seen the film Pink Ribbons, Inc. you know there’s a dark side to the pretty pink sash. Who really benefits from the whole thing? How much are they actually giving to charity in exchange for all that warm and tingly PR, not to mention the boosts in sales? And what the hell is lurking in these products anyway? Should a pink ribbon product contain ingredients that may be harmful to the workers who make them, the people who use them or fish downstream? Those are questions I get to in this week’s Ecoholic column. By the way, in the column I mention Dole’s pink ribbon produce and the health problems faced by workers growing Dole fruit…If you want to know more about this you’ve gotta watch Bananas!*On Trial For Malice.

The fundamental question is, is there any true altruism anymore? It’s one Donna Sheehan, founder of the Canadian Breast Cancer Support Fund, asks. Her charity raises money for financially challenged women fighting breast cancer. It also challenges us to change the conversation around breast cancer.

“We want to talk about prevention,” says Donna, “rather than the millions spent on raising awarenesss because what does that really mean?” What does it mean? What we do know is that less than 10% of breast cancer funds go towards prevention. Hence CBCSF’s mission of spreading the ‘think pink live green’  mantra.

Out of Quebec, Breast Cancer Action Montreal is pushing a similar message. They’ll be coming out with a pretty poignant Little Pink Lies campaign any day now. In the meantime, sign their super important petition demanding that Health Canada legislate our Community Right To Know what crap is hiding in our everyday products. Like California, we really should have labels that say:  Warning: This Product Contains An Ingredient Known to Cause Cancer.

Wouldn’t life be just that little bit easier if product labels told us when they were bad for us? I know some Californians have told me you start to tune out these warnings when they’re everywhere, and, hey, maybe a lot of people would, but at least we’d be informed. And we could spot a cancer-causing ingredient a mile away. Forget the pink shampoo, now that would be an awesome gift to get from the feds for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

 

10Sep

Scrambled eggs? How fertility and household chemicals mix

by: Adria categories:Column, Health, Kids 1 comment

What’s with the “new normal”? No, I’m not talking about that new Modern Family-wannabe on NBC, I’m talkin’ 9 year olds with boobs and line-ups at fertility clinics. Yes, screwy fertility is the subject of the latest Ecoholic column (you can give it a read here). From menarche (your first period) to menopause to men’s, um, performance problems, our bodies are definitely breaking old norms – are household chems partly to blame? I explore the link in the column but, as always, there are few things I didn’t get to. For one, the cocktail effect. The EU’s Environment Agency recently came out and said the soup of endocrine disrupting aka hormone disrupting chemicals in cosmetics/food/drugs/household products/pesticides may be contributing to falling fertility, rising cancers, diabetes and obesity. Health Canada, on the other hand, told the Suzuki Foundation when it petitioned HC about the govs lack of action on this front: “relaaax, it’s just a few trace chems.”

Let’s look at some bonus stats. Here in Canada, infertility rates have nearly doubled since the last time the nation’s basal temperature was taken in 1992 (when 8.5% of 18-44 year olds were deemed infertile, up already from 5% in 1984). Oh sure there are a lot of older women trying to get their baby on these days, but push that aside and we’re still having more problems. In 1984 5% of 18-29 year olds were infertile, now we’re talking 7 to 13%. Male infertility and early menopause are also on the rise. And when immigrant girls move to Canada, they too start to get their periods before than their cousins back home. So what’s up??

The mystery factors: whether we’re talking early puberty or adult infertility, there are a lot of potential factors at play. Obesity, smoking, STDs like chlamydia, heavy boozing and chemo can all effect fertility. We know that all of the above compromise our health in complicated ways but things like non-stick chemicals  and spray tans shouldn’t. They should be non-issues, totally risk-free. Alas, nope. A lot of them are hormone disruptors that, yes, mess with our hormones – from nonstick chems blamed for early menopause and infertilility to plastic chems tied to low sperm counts.

Here’s a quick list of hormone disrupting chems to minimize wherever you can in your life:

  • Bisphenol A (largest source: canned food – go for fresh food instead)
  • Phthalates (in soft vinyl, synthetic fragrance – go for unscented)
  • Mercury, lead and other heavy metals (avoid fresh tuna/big fish and get your water tested for lead)
  • Flame retardants (in dust from older stuffed furniture, electronics – dust/vacuum often!)
  • Non-stick chemicals (found in some popcorn bags, fast food wrappers)
  • Beef hormones (eat hormone-free, naturally raised meat.
  • Animal fats (Trim the fat – it stores persistent chems. That means no pork belly for you, hipster/foodies!)
  • Gymes (found carpet cleaners – use natural, nontoxic solutions ie Pink Solution)
  • Pesticides (stick to all natural pest-control)
  • Fake spray tans (just say no – of course, all Hollywood would turn white overnight if they took this advice)
17Jul

Chill out: Bonus AC-free ways to beat the heat

by: Adria categories:Column, Health, Home Comments Off

Another day another sizzler. As we melt into little pools of sweat at our own feet, I can’t help but think of those old 80s ads, you know, with the frying pan and the egg and the “this is your brain on drugs” message. This, honey, is your planet on climate change. While farms go thirsty thanks to record drought in the US and parts of Canada (the driest summer since 1956 in the US and the worst in a decade in eastern Canada), people are cranking their ACs like mad. What do you do if you don’t have one or are trying not to use yours to keep your energy-use down? Why you read my last Ecoholic column and get a few tips! But there are a few more I didn’t get into.

  • Chill out: stress will only get you sweating. Try a little meditation or tai chi in the shade to calm your mind and body.
  • Eat raw food to avoid turning on your stove or oven. Just boiling water in my kitchen was enough to turn it into a steam room. For raw-licious ideas, I like Doug NcNish’s Eat Raw, Eat Well.
  • Go for an evening dip at your neighbourhood public pool! Funnest way to cool down, for sure.
  • If you’re a homeowner….Get light-coloured Energy Star shingles (a great tip that came in from a reader named Mary). She had them installed and said: ”We really notice the difference in heat in our home over the previous black shingles.”
  • Having awnings installed over windows is another great option for keeping the heat off your house.
  • Plant deciduous trees! On the south, east or west side will do. Okay so they’ll take a few years to get to work on cooling your home BUT trees can cut cooling costs by a good 30 per cent once they’re grown! When the leaves drop in winter they let warming light in. But, ugh, let’s forget about winter for now. Unless visualizing snowmen helps your mind keep calm. ;)
29Jun

Lung buster or mood lifter? The down low on exercising outdoors

by: Adria categories:Column, Health Comments Off

I’ve always loved jogging outdoors. Okay yes, it’s harder on the knees and some days I really wish there were moving sidewalks out there pulling my feet forward just like a gym treadmill, alas, nature hasn’t offered that option up. Now that the birds are chirping and the breeze is beckoning, more and more of us are busting out into the open air to run/cycle/rollerblade/skateboard/you name it. The question that came in from a long-time Ecoholic reader and supporter, Janice, was: what’s all that smog doing to our health when we’re doing this stuff outdoors. For the full answer, check out this week’s Ecoholic. Well, actually it’s not the full, full answer because I didn’t have room to include the results of a new study out this week. News flash: study found exercising outdoors in nature in particular boosts moods, whereas the gym, well, not so much. What, not so surprising? This same week, another study also came out saying that the ozone in smog ups your chance of a heart attack. For the details of that study, click here. All this to say, my advice in the column still stands. Want to find out what I said? Click here. Happy Canada Day long weekend, everyone! I’ll be doing some exercise outdoors myself, but the kind that involves a canoe, a lake and lots of fresh air. If any of you are in the Muskoka area of Ontario, stop by the Huntsville  River Mill farmers’ market on Saturday and say hi. I’ll be there signing books!