What if you found out the very thing you use to guarantee a clean life is actually polluting your house and body?
That’s how I felt when I first wrote about toxin-heavy laundry detergents three years ago (see Issue #133). Because the sad truth is that you expose your body to toxic chemicals every time you use regular soap to wash your clothes. That’s also true for a host of other cleaning products. Here’s what you need to do. . .
Continued below...
Announcing a New Special Report How Joe Healed His Osteoarthritis We’re always excited when we come out with a new book here at Cancer Defeated, and this is one of the best we’ve ever published. You’ll discover an all-natural therapy that kick-starts joint healing and is clinically proven to actually regrow cartilage. In fact, seven out of ten patients who try this therapy NEVER need joint replacement. If you or someone you love suffers from chronic joint pain, then you know relief never comes fast enough or stays as long as you hoped. And often it never comes at all. Day-after-day pain is not just an inconvenience. It gets in the way of everything you want to do in life. That’s why the news of this pain breakthrough – and many others -- in our new Special Report could literally restore your active lifestyle. Best of all, these discoveries prove you don’t need dangerous drugs or surgery to relieve the worst chronic pain—even “hopeless” and “irreversible” pain can vanish. So please click here to see how Joe healed his “irreversible” osteoarthritis with one remarkable natural discovery and is finally pain-free… |
Fortunately, there are safe alternatives. Even better, advocacy groups have started cracking down on the money-grubbing companies who put profits ahead of human welfare when it comes to cleaning products in general, and laundry soap in particular.
Contaminated soaps have been used
on clothes for decades
A little over a year ago in California, Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide detergent) agreed in court to reduce the levels of the chemical 1,4-dioxane in the company’s laundry products.
Thank goodness for that, because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has labeled 1,4-dioxane a probable human carcinogen. And Proposition 65 in California, which governs toxic chemical exposure in consumer products, classifies 1,4-dioxane as a synthetic petrochemical carcinogen.
1,4-dioxane earned that designation because it’s known to cause cancer, based on the results of animal studies that included an increased risk of breast cancer after exposure to the toxin. The substance also triggered liver and nasal tumors in rats.
Several advocacy groups have been pushing for years for P&G to remove this toxin from its products, especially after independent testing in 2011 showed Tide Free & Gentle contained 1,4-dioxane at 89 parts per million, and regular Tide contained 63 ppm of the toxin. (Note that Tide Free & Gentle – the more seriously contaminated of the two products – was marketed to mothers as the healthier choice for their babies. The fact that it was the opposite, and put their families at risk, tells you all you need to know about our chemicalized society.)
Following these findings, it took two years, tens of thousands of people, and a lawsuit from an Oakland-based nonprofit called As You Sow to push the company to do what it should have done from the start: remove toxic contamination from its products.
Rather than put a warning label on its products, P&G agreed to reduce dioxane levels to less than 25 ppm in both types of Tide.
By the way, other laundry detergent offenders with high levels of 1,4-dioxane include Ivory Snow Gentle, Purex, Gain, and Cheer.
The real threat behind this
carcinogenic “cleaning” product
Laundry detergent isn’t the only offender. You’ll also find 1,4-dioxane in hair care products and cleaning formulas. The Organic Consumers Association detected dioxane levels as high as 279 ppm in cosmetics, shampoos, and various other personal care products.
This toxin is so common because it gets created through a process called ethoxylation, a cheap technique employed by makers of cleaning products to lessen the severity of the harsher ingredients they use. So really, it’s a byproduct of ethylene oxide reacting with other ingredients. As such, it’s considered a “contaminant” or an “impurity” as opposed to an ingredient, and so the law doesn’t require the maker to list it on product labels.
Why is this particular toxin so harmful? For starters, the chemical easily binds to water and then stays there. Meaning you can take water contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and purify and filter it, and you’ll still be left with low levels of the chemical. For this reason it’s found in numerous water supplies across the country.
According to the EPA, the greatest health threat from 1,4-dioxane doesn’t come from imbibing water, but rather through repeated inhalation of low concentrations among workers at industrial sites. Animal studies show that daily exposure to the chemical at concentrations over 50 ppm for a period of two years caused liver and kidney damage.
Now, there’s no concrete testing that shows how much of the chemical you might inhale as a consumer washing your clothes on a regular basis (or even washing the dishes or other things, since the contaminant is spread so far and wide).
But as far as I’m concerned, it’s best to avoid it. If a study shows repeated exposure over two years has definite health consequences, what could the effect be after repeated exposure – however small – over decades? Tide and these other brands have been around that long, and many people use them on a daily basis.
How to rid your life of this toxic threat
So how can you attempt to get clean laundry, free of poisons? I recommend trying the various “green” cleaners you’ll find at natural health stores. Seventh Generation and Method laundry detergents both tested free of 1,4-dioxane in an extensive study.
In addition, learn to read labels and avoid anything with these potentially poisonous ingredients:
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There are also certain ways to avoid detergents altogether. Some folks advocate simply washing your clothes in hot water. You can also wash them in vinegar – I’ve heard it works wonders.
Lately, I’ve been washing my whites in hydrogen peroxide – they come out with that
“whiter white” that commercial detergents promise but rarely deliver. And there’s no smell (or toxicity) as there is with chlorine bleaches. But I doubt if hydrogen peroxide is safe to use with colors.
I wash lightly-soiled clothes – for instance shirts that just need to be deodorized – without detergent. They come out fine, and so far no one has complained that I have a certain air about me.
Whatever route you choose, just make sure you start avoiding 1,4-dioxane as completely as you can.
Meanwhile, another substance found in some households – and often labeled dangerous – turns out to have powerful health benefits. If you missed this article in the last issue, you can read it now, just click here. . .
Kindest regards,
Lee Euler, Publisher Announcing a New Special Report How Joe Healed His Osteoarthritis We’re always excited when we come out with a new book here at Cancer Defeated, and this is one of the best we’ve ever published. You’ll discover an all-natural therapy that kick-starts joint healing and is clinically proven to actually regrow cartilage. In fact, seven out of ten patients who try this therapy NEVER need joint replacement. If you or someone you love suffers from chronic joint pain, then you know relief never comes fast enough or stays as long as you hoped. And often it never comes at all. Day-after-day pain is not just an inconvenience. It gets in the way of everything you want to do in life. That’s why the news of this pain breakthroughs – and many others -- in our new Special Report could literally restore your active lifestyle. Best of all, these discoveries prove you don’t need dangerous drugs or surgery to relieve the worst chronic pain—even “hopeless” and “irreversible” pain can vanish. So please click here to see how Joe healed his “irreversible” osteoarthritis with one remarkable natural discovery and is finally pain-free… |
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