Pure know-how
Elizabeth Payne
The Ottawa Citizen
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=8030f442-5903-450e-93e3-cac2e5fb49b6
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Ottawa women's website helps others assess safety of personal and household products.
When Patti Murphy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, one of the first things she did was get rid of all the plastic containers in her house. Although Murphy had always been health-conscious -- she had gone to a naturopath for years -- she was stunned to learn that some ingredients in the personal care and household products could be exacerbating her cancer.
Her naturopath warned her to watch that her estrogen levels did not go up because estrogen can fuel the growth of some cancers. She pointed out that many household plastic containers contain ingredients such as BHAs (butylated hydroxyanisoles) that can mimic, enhance or duplicate hormones and that could leach when the plastic is heated.
"I had no idea," says Murphy. "We got rid of them all."
The 44-year-old mother of three considered the act an "emergency measure" to protect her health during a crisis. But the more she read about toxins in everyday products, the more convinced she became that what she was learning could benefit other women too.
That's what prompted Murphy and her friend and neighbour Tamey McIntosh, 35, to create Pureknowhow.com, a website to share their growing knowledge about the potential dangers of household and personal-care products and to help readers assess alternatives.
The website and its weekly e-bulletin, which was launched last month, look at products such as lipstick, foundation, anti-perspirants and home-cleaning concoctions, and assess the latest research about their ingredients and their possible effects.
Murphy and McIntosh, both mothers of three who work outside the home, initially talked about opening a store that would sell cosmetics with no toxic ingredients and provide advice and support for women. It's still a great idea, they say, but in the end they felt a website that helped readers understand the vast information about household chemicals would be easier to manage.
The purpose of the website, says Murphy, is not to "scare people to death," but to empower them.
"On average, women use 12 personal-care products each day, exposing themselves to 168 unique ingredients," begins their first e-bulletin, which is still available on the site. "Why do you care? Many ingredients used in body-care products can have negative effects on our health. Many ingredients may be: an irritant or allergen, a known hormone disrupter that affects our estrogen levels, a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing). Our skin has a remarkable ability to absorb applied products, partially or completely into the bloodstream. Up to 60 per cent of the products we use on our skin are absorbed and deposited into the circulatory system. Many products contain 'penetration enhancer' chemicals that can drive other ingredients faster and deeper into the skin to the blood vessels below.
"Daily exposure to low doses of synthetic and sometimes harmful ingredients may, over time, accumulate toxins in our bodies."
The pair have plans to extend the
e-bulletins to include products for children and men, but women -- particularly those in their 30s, 40s and 50s -- will remain the focus of the website. They say that's because women control so much of household spending that they can influence what is in products.
"It wasn't until mothers stopped buying Goldfish (crackers) with transfats in them," Murphy says, that the company that makes them began producing transfat-free crackers. "We have that power."
Murphy and McIntosh believe that once women understand that chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulphate and sodium laureth sulphate, which make detergents, shampoos and toothpaste bubble, can also irritate skin and eyes and are potentially carcinogenic when combined with other ingredients, they will demand that manufacturers give them more alternatives.
Some alternatives already exist, they say. For example, old-fashioned staples such as vinegar and baking soda can do a thorough, safe job of house-cleaning, while many commercial household cleaners contain reproductive toxins or ingredients that may be carcinogens. Other chemicals may be endocrine-disrupters that can affect humans and wildlife. The problem is that product ingredients are not listed on cleaners.
"The most hazardous cleaning products are: corrosive drain cleaners, oven cleaners, acidic toilet-bowl cleaners and anything containing chlorine or ammonia," says a Pureknowhow e-bulletin. "A simple rule of thumb for your cabinet clean-up: If something makes your eyes tear, your nose crinkle, or your skin itch, get rid of it."
Pureknowhow.com aims to help women digest the available information, which is often complex and difficult to find, about products. It provides links to other websites with more information about toxins in everyday items, and also provides reviews of natural personal care and cleaning products that Murphy and McIntosh write themselves.
After undergoing successful surgery for her cancer, Murphy returned to her job at the Public Health Agency of Canada last
fall. But after six months, she took another leave.
She now devotes much of her time to researching and disseminating information about toxins in products. The website's weekly e-bulletin is free to subscribers, and people from across North America have responded with positive feedback and suggestions for future e-bulletins. The pair have talked about their website on TV and hope to receive invitations to speak to small groups about what they are learning. This afternoon, between noon and 5 p.m., they will take part in a beauty day at Rainbow Foods on Richmond Road.
Although Murphy says her life doesn't seem to have changed a great deal since her cancer diagnosis and treatment, it has changed in one essential way: "How I look at things is different."
And that point of view is what drives Murphy and McIntosh to take a hard look at what they call their "personal environment" and the products that they let into it.
Elizabeth Payne is the Citizen's editor of senior writers. Balancing Act appears every other week.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007