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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Our Daily Toxins

This past weekend my mother and I took a day trip up to the Bouctouche area. One of the many places we stopped at was the Olivier Soapery where they make soap from pure products. They hand craft their soaps from the pure products such as olive oil, cocoa butter and bees wax. Then they add petals of various flowers to give the soap colour as well as a special smell.

One thing the ladies at Soapary mentioned is that the word “Natural” or the word “Pure” on a product label does not always mean the product is safe or even made from natural ingredients. They have a saying at the Soapary – If you do not put a product that is found in various skin care products in your mouth – Don’t put it on your skin.

While we were there they made soap with just the three ingredients listed above and then just added boiling hot water with sea salt to create the chemical process needed to form soap. They added petals of flowers and then poured the mixture into moulds, which would have to set for six days.

They gave us a fact sheet, which shows various chemicals that are used in other soaps, cosmetics, shampoos, and toothpaste. Some of these ingredients are incredibly harmful and could cause cancer. Have you ever bothered to read the ingredients on the package labels of the various cosmetics you may use during the day??

According to the fact sheet they supplied us with – the commercial cosmetic industry says that it is safe to put toxic chemicals into our personal care products because the amount in each product is to small to matter. Really?? Try to think of how many products you use in a single day; toothpaste, soaps, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, body lotions, shaving lotions and makeup.

Unlike food and drugs, cosmetics and body care products are not approved for safety by any North American government agency before they are sold. The European Union now bans 1,100 chemicals from personal care products unlike 11 ingredients banned or regulated for use in the United States.

Since I am so sensitive and allergic to many perfumes and certain smells I thought I might have a problem at the soap factory; however, I was surprisingly not as affected as I thought I would be. This may have to do with the lack of chemicals used to create the soaps. One smell that always gets to me is the antibacterial hand cleansers that every place I go seems to have installed. I can not use them and I know immediately when someone in my vicinity has used some as I immediately begin to sneeze and cough. The Soapary does offer various (non chemical) products that act as antibacterial and provide better cleanliness. Perhaps we all need to re-think the products we are putting on our bodies as well as in our bodies.


Lisa Emery, B.A. is currently living in Amherst. Lisa invites comments to her columns. You can contact Lisa at: emeryvine@gmail.com. Follow her on her website at: http://emeryvine.webs.com

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