Dear Folks with Green Home Living and Washington Toxics Coalition:

RE: Breathe Easy on Safer Cleaning Products

I see in this article by Philip Dickey, reprinted from Washington Toxics Coalition -- a couple of lines that maybe mean well, but give an incorrect impression. Perhaps a dangerous one.

"Although fragrances are not usually considered toxic, many people cannot tolerate strong fragrances in air fresheners, perfumes, fabric softeners, and cleaning products. Some products are now available without fragrances for those who prefer them. Air fresheners should not be needed. It's better to find sources of unpleasant odor and remove them. You can also "freshen" air by opening windows to bring in cleaner outside air."

True, fragrances are not advertised as toxic. And it's also true that our various government agencies charged with protecting public health, including the Food and Drug Administration, have not warned the public about the toxic chemicals in fragrances. But I'd like to plead for a rewriting of that line to acknowledge that fragrances are indeed toxic and because they are, many people cannot tolerate . . .

Back in May 1999, the Environmental Health Network petitioned the FDA. Our document, replete with analyses, was accepted and logged in as Docket Number 99P - 1340 and has since generated nearly 1,300 letters. Now that may not seem like a lot, but if the subject were other than synthetic scents, rest assured the FDA would think that was quite a response from the public. You can learn of the toxins found in six unnamed fragrances, and one named, by visiting the petition at http://users.lmi.net/wilworks/FDApetition/bkgrinfo.htm

I hope that more folks will learn of this golden opportunity to inform the FDA. All people have to do is write to the FDA -- contact info available through the Petition -- demanding safer products, proved safe before marketing. Folks could also plead that in the meantime the FDA should enforce its own regulation already on their books for warning labels for products released to market without adequate testing.

Also, I'd like to suggest that the line about air "fresheners" could use a little work. Instead of saying, "Air fresheners should not be needed," the truth is, Air "fresheners" should not be used. I had a woman exclaim to me that despite her freshening her son's room, his asthma worsened. I fully knew where this conversation was going, but I played along, asking if she meant by freshening that she had opened windows. "Oh, no," said she, "I used air 'fresheners'." I then gave her information on the harmful effects of air "fresheners" and EHN's links to check. I can't help but feel that when you find that even Dr. Dean Edell acknowledges that air "fresheners" are really air polluters, you really want to take a stronger position in informing the public. For more info on Air "Fresheners," including the work of the late Julia Kendall and the doctors Anderson of Anderson Labs, as well as the link to Dr. Dean's article, see EHN's page

We've got to keep in mind that the fragrance industry is self regulated and further protected by trade secret laws. The only way we'll learn of the toxins in any scented product is to hire a costly analysis. As that's been done and is reflected in EHN's FDA Petition, please feel free to share that information far and wide. The public has a right to know. And I also believe that those of us who know have an obligation to inform.

I hope this information helps you help others. We all are stakeholders when it comes to breathing.

Sincerely,

Barb Wilkie



Dear Barb,

Thank you for you informative letter. We all truly are stakeholders when it comes to breathing.

Dear Green Home Living:

RE: Green Home Living Issue 001 and 002 So I Tried It . . . about home made laundry detergents

I’d like to try making my own laundry detergent at home but I have a “problem”. I have a front-loading high-efficiency washer in which you are only supposed to use low-suds soaps. Any idea how I can find out if the recipe you used is “low-suds” enough?

Thanks for any help you can give me,

Deb Miller


Dear Deb,

I too have a front-loading, high efficiency washer (fyi-frigidaire energy star 5 cylce washer model # FWT425RHSO in the unlikely event we have the same washer) and i have had no problem regarding sud level. While I'm not sure what qualifies as 'low sud' or exactly how to measure it, i have just vigorously shook a clear glass jar containing my latest batch of lavender/bergamot scented laundry soap and I took the following measurements-by holding a tape measurer outside of the bottle and simply measuring the level of liquid inside of the bottle vertically):

total volume of liquid	4 1/2 inches
layer of sudsy bubbles that settled to the top	1 inch

So 1 divided by 4 1/2 equals 22.22% suds; (that surprised me because simply 'eyeballing' it i would have guessed the sud level to be about 15%.)

Whether this is in any way helpful I'm not sure. Perhaps you could contact the washer manufacturer, give them the ingredients and see what their opinion is. In any case, if you decide not to risk using it in the washer, I have found this laundry detergent to be fabulous for all my hand washables. I've even used it to clean the bathroom, and i'm not kidding the bathroom has never looked or smelled better. If a lavender/bergamot scent is not your thing, it's fun to experiment with essential oils of whatever scent you do like.