DIRTY DOZEN.....

IYears ago, I worked at a little health food shop called NUTTER'S. I worked with a lady, who was somewhat of a health nut, and she didn't like chemicals. She told me about a chemical called sodium lauryl sulfate and I am sure she told me why it wasn't safe for us humans. Memory lapse-I can't remember.  I knew it was in every single kind of hair care product I have ever bought.But somewhere I knew that I should make my own soaps etc. So,  I  started to slowly acquire ingredients to start making my own soap, household cleaners, laundry soap/detergent, and even dish soap. But did I? No. Hell, I even packed it all up and moved it six hours.

Here I am thinking I should really make my own laundry detergent. Since I started blogging, and reading what others are doing to become more self-sufficient and more self-reliant, it has given me some confidence and that push that I needed. So after searching for the 'ingredients' that I needed, I actually screwed up the nerve and made  my own laundry detergent. I know it sounds silly, but I don't take failure very well. And I always think when something doesn't work it out, that it was a waste of ingredients and money. My time is free.

Yesterday, I made a bottle of dish soap. Madeline thought it smelt really good. Hubby couldn't get over how  effectively it cleaned the mold that had took up residence in his lunch box--Frank hasn't worked in eight days. The last day that he worked was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Sister and brother in law were already here for the weekend by the time Frank got home from work. Frank being absent minded that he is, forgot about the food in his box. I know---it is a very eww moment. That is one of the reasons why I don't wish to make his lunch.

This morning, Madeline did up the breakfast dishes, and she is screeching like a banshee from the kitchen, that must have taken a few lessons from a sailor. Apparently the dish soap didn't create enough bubbles for her. I tried explaining to her-which is nye impossible to explain anything to a teenager-that the 'companies' had her fooled into believing that we need a sink full of sudsy to get the dishes done. You really don't want to know what her reply was-it goes back to those lessons from a sailor. Imagination needed here.

Now, that I have actually started to make my some of my own cleaners- ok, it has only been two, but ya gotta start somewhere-I am becoming more aware of what is 'in' the products that are available from the store.

I was watching the CBC news this morning-  they did a story about the David Suzuki Foundation These 'greenies' discovered  in our personnal care products, 12 chemicals that are really harmful to all of us. I would advise everyone to go have a look at the list of the "Dirty Dozen". There is at least one of every single chemical in every product that I used this morning. In the shampoo, the hair conditioner, the body wash, my deodorant, and to even my body lotion, which I thought was natural.

Some of these chemicals are known to interfere with hormone functions. The cause problems with  reproductive and developmental problems. And some of these chemicals  may promote tumour growth. Others are recognized as a human carcinogen. Some studies suggest  there might be a possible association between the chemical parabens, and breast cancer.

It is really frightening what is actually in the products that we all come to trust and use on a daily basis. It really bothers me that these companies knowing what they know about these chemicals, are still putting them into our products knowing  they are  harmful, not only to us, the animals, and the environment.

Do these companies really think, that we as consumers are really that ignorant. I would also like to know where is their integrity? Their honesty? They themselves and their loved ones are using these same products as the rest of us. Don't they care? It really disgust me that people put way to much emphasis on money.