cancer causing agent in baby bath revisited...

Re: INFO: Cancer causing chemicals found in some baby bath..

I'll actually typed this last night...but i think it got lost in the shuffle. so i just cut and pasted:

ok,i am going to direct this one towards Southpawboston...(now that i know you are a biochemist! What does all this REALLY imply??? just recently have i caught wind of buzzes like this....and it's all so new to me. why were our parents just fine using soap? i know we are using new and different products then they did....is that why? is this REALLY a concern? since i am out of the states....i don't hear this stuff in local conversations.

i have the huggies shea butter (love the stuff!) and now what do i do? i just want to know the difference between a real threat....and perhaps a scare? does that make sense?

lol, how can i answer this??!! for one thing, we live in an information age where disturbing facts find their way into our brain whether we look for them or not... this did not happen in our parents' generation. second, our parents grew up in the age of "better living through chemistry". it was the common belief that everything could be enhanced by chemicals... food flavorings, food additives, preservatives, body products... the thinking back then was that all this stuff was safe since we had regulatory oversight by big governmnet agencies like the FDA... we now know that this is not the case... we DON'T live better through chemistry (although in fairness, i do believe heavily in medicine, and there are some amzingly remarkable drugs out there that have saved many peoples' lives and allowed people with debilitating diseases to live better lives! my mom is a breast cancer survivor and she wouldn't be alive today without the medical procedures and cancer drugs that she took...and still takes). i don't think we live better because of all the artificial products on the market. our lives have become perhaps more convenienced, but better? well, that's debatable. but we're still going full steam ahead with chemical living...we've built up huge industries that make ingredients in these products (and foods) and they are very resistant to change (and they have powerful lobbies to convince our lawmakers not to push for change). anyway, to answer your question about what is a real threat and what is only a scare... there is no way to know! the way i see, it, probably 9 out of 10 examples are just scare... but you never really know if anything is bad for you or not. the only things that i truly believe are NOT bad for you are things that have been used for generations, long before the hype of "better living through chemistry". the way i see it, if it worked for my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents... it's probably good! and to answer your question, i think it is why we are hearing all these things now about health hazards... we're using things that were never around a generation or more ago. and i have an inherent distrust of our FDA in telling me what is safe or unsafe. that is why my family has made the switch to mostly organic food. it's not that everything non-organic is BAD, but i just don't want to take the chance. so rather than worry and fret over everything we buy for our household (we used to fret constantly over this stuff), we just decided to make a sweeping lifestyle change. that's the only way we could stop worrying about all this crap. organic food, and natural soaps. sure, we pay more now for this stuff and our monthly expenses have gone up by a couple hundred dollars, but how much is that really in the broader scheme of things?

I wish we could afford an extra $200/month expense to switch to organic.

I personally believe many chemicals might not hurt the "average" person, but sensitive folks can have reactions anyway.

I want to do as much all-natural as I can. I just got the ingredients to try making my own laundry soap--I'll post back when it's done!

southpawboston...thank you. that was exactly what i was looking for. i think especially living outside the country...where stuff like this is never mentioned...it's therefore never a concern. actually it all kind of started (my awareness) when i found this forum. and a friend down here (who i used to think was an extremist...perhaps alarmist...fanatic...something along those lines) now I am beginning to see the reality of it all...and perhaps logic in it. (this is the friend...well actually coworker's wife...who i am getting to know, who milled the wheat for me to make true whole wheat bread for my DD with constipation issues. between whole wheat everything and soy milk...she is all better!!!!) so, all that to say, i am seeing validity in this, what i used to think alarmist, thinking.

you got me thinking as well. today there is probably more cancer, more heart disease...more obesity...than back in our parent's/grandparent's day...etc.. I just wanted to approach all this with some facts. more than just "everyone is talking about it. etc...". or give in to the sensationalism that can occur.

so, it's not worth the risk...to use our Huggies Shea Butter (arh! i love the smell!). are there any suggestions to all natural..or as close to it for kids? I used Dove for DS. DD...i use Johnson and J. stuff.

thanks for your time in responding! i feel a bit more informed...so that i can make an informed decision for my family. organic things can be difficult to find here, however, i'm not sure how our veggies are grown here (if pesticides are used or not). perhaps not. organic meat is not an option as well as organic milk, unfortunately. of course with what the budget allows.

is there a sure way of knowing if something is genuinely "organic" ??

jenny, would love your recipe for homemade laundry soap if you find one. also bubble bath! (someone else mentioned that one earlier). this same person (wheat miller...) also just washes her laundry in vinegar and baking soda, and hangs it out to dry. for sure her cloth diapers...and i'm pretty sure for everything else too. 1/4 cup and 1/4 cup if i can remember correctly. but wouldn't that get really expensive? anyway, just thought i would share.

I'm also switching out as much as I can to organic and such. I've really learned alot by reading this thread and the other one that started it all....as well as all the links everyone posted. I love that the car seat board members are a wealth of information and ideas that goes far beyond car safety!

If you can't afford/don't want to go wholly organic, know that there are some areas in which it makes sense to pay more for organic and other areas where it doesn't. Grapes, bell peppers, strawberries, apples, spinach, and pears tend to be heavily contaminated with pesticides. Bananas, kiwifruit, and broccoli do not. (Not that this always help. I live in an area where organic food is pretty easy to find, and in the off-season, organic bell peppers are almost non-existent.) So it can make sense to buy organic versions of high-residue or products made from them, like applesauce, juice, and raisins. I also buy organic dairy, poultry (only kind of meat we eat), and basmati rice. Fish, of course, is a worrisome area, both for health and environmental issues. We eat only a few types of fish, for just that reason.

I'm also pretty adamantly opposed to the indiscriminate use of herbicides and pesticides around the house and yard. In fact, I worry about those more than I worry about what we consume. We avoid lawn chemicals like the plague (don't want my kids playing on chemical-coated grass or soil, my dogs eating it, or any of it running off into our local streams). I'd much rather live with some dandelions and crabgrass, or pull them by hand. I'm amazed at how some people I know will respond to a few ants by spraying ant-killer all over the house. We've gotten the same results (and better smells) by sprinkling cinnamon across their paths. I don't think non-toxic solutions work for everything, but they should always be the place to start. Particularly since they're often cheaper!