Dirty secret of e-cigarettes.

I have had this article tacked to my bulletin board for ages.  I saved it because I intended to blog about it.  The article is by Donald Bucklin, M.D., a regional medical director for U.S. Health Works.

Have you all seen the advertisements by some of today’s celebrities? They are talking about e-cigarettes and how much safer they are.  They are being allowed in places that have bans on traditional cigarette and cigar smoking.

SAFE?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Something has to make the smoke that comes out of it.  Do they want us to believe it is just a mist or water vapors?

Dr. Bucklin mentions that he was surprised to learn from his daughter that hookah pens were all the rage among the high school crowd.  He goes on to describe the e-cigarette as a device of roughly cigarette size and proportions that contain a battery, something to vaporize, and a button to make it go.  And because nothing is burning you are technically not smoking.

The industry wants us to believe that switching to the e-cigarettes is much safer and that smokers are better off with them than cigarettes.  Of course they do not contain tar, carbon monoxide and the 400 plus chemicals released by burning tobacco.  So what have long-time smokers and the young smokers who have begun smoking the e-cigarettes traded the tar and chemicals for?  Are you ready for this?  Most commonly that vaporized something is propylene glycol.  

And what is propylene glycol?  Propylene glycol is a synthetic liquid substance that absorbs water. Propylene glycol is also used to make polyester compounds, and as a base for deicing solutions. Propylene glycol is used by the chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries as an antifreeze when leakage might lead to contact with food. 

So you tell me, are these e-cigarettes really any safer?  Instead of breathing in smoke and the chemicals from traditional cigarettes, we are breathing in the fumes from vaporizing propylene glycol.

 

 

There it is (something to vaporize).  

Catch Up Monday: Layers of Fragrance

This post was originally shared on May 3, 2012.  I have chosen to post it again as there are so many new followers and this is something that I am passionate about sharing with others.  I never thought once about it until becoming ill and sensitive to chemicals myself.

I wonder how many give any thought to how many layers of fragrance they are wearing and the amount of chemicals they are being exposed to as a result of these layers.  I know that I never thought much about it until I became ill and my body refused to tolerate fragrances and chemicals of any kind.

Think about it for a moment.  You get up in the morning and shower using fragrant or scented soaps, shampoos, and conditioners.  You exit the shower and put on scented lotions, hair gels and hairspray.  Next comes make-up and perfumes.  Last you put on your clothes that have been laundered in scented soaps and fabric softeners or worse yet come from the dry cleaner.  Every one of these products you have put on your body is full of chemicals.

Your sense of smell over time becomes dulled as your body masks itself to all these fragrances.  Have you ever walked by a little old lady and thought you would keel over from her perfume as if she had taken a bath in it?  After years of putting it on I believe she has become so masked that it takes more and more for her to even smell what she has put on herself.

We need to be more aware of what we are putting on our bodies and absorbing through our skin.  I have learned to do without a lot of products that I have not been able to find that are safe enough for me to wear.  I no longer color my hair, wear fragrant lotions or use fragrant products.  I think that what we put on our skin is worth thinking about.

Less Toxic Cleaning Products

Finding cleaning products that don’t cause me to have an allergic reaction took some time. A great resource that I purchased to help me live with less toxicity was, “Less Toxic Alternatives” by Carolyn Gorman  with Marie Hyde.

For me I have found that most free and clear products from Seventh Generation are ok.  I also have found that Super Clean by AFM works as a heavy-duty cleaner and diluted to make a pre-wash spray.  I can tolerate borax and plain baking soda (not the arm and hammer laundry soap).  I use Bon Ami for scrubbing and chlorine free bleach agents made from peroxide.  AFM makes a product called Safety Clean for toilets.

The downside is that my whites don’t get as clean as they used to with all the chemically loaded products and bleach that I used to tolerate.  It is something that I am willing to live with in exchange for less chemicals.

Recently I purchased a system by Lotus that ozonates the water for cleaning.  The water has very good cleaning and sanitizing properties.  I use it for several of my cleaning needs.  I use it for cleaning my floors, kitchen counters and showers.

Another very important purchase for me was a scrubber for my tile floors.  I had tried just using my steamer with pad but it didn’t get the dirt out of the grout or the pits in the tile.  I purchased a scrubber that did a little better on the surface but still did not clean the grout, edges of the tile or get  the dirt out of the pits and crevices in the tile itself.  Out of desperation I decided to purchase a commercial product by Koblenz.  This works great and it turned out to be less expensive that the noncommercial scrubber I had.

I would love to hear from those that read this post how they manage to safely clean their homes.  Please let me know what you have found to be safe.  I am sure others will also benefit from your ideas and suggestions.

How Do You Get Fragrances and Chemicals Out of New Clothes?

Those of us who have MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity) are all to familiar with the daunting task of getting fragrances and chemicals out of clothes that have been purchased in  the store or in online shops.  I have found that online purchases are usually easier to deal with as they haven’t been exposed to as many fragrances and other chemicals found  in most department stores.

Depending on where the piece of clothing was purchased and the fabric it is made of plays a big role in how many times I have to wash the item.  For new purchases, I place the clothing in the washing machine with baking soda, powdered milk and 7th Generation Laundry Soap.  I allow the machine to agitate a little and then let the clothing soak for an hour or two.   Once the soaking has stopped, I finish the washing cycle and take a whiff.  Generally it can take three to four washings to be able to tolerate the item. If this doesn’t work I may add a little AFM Super Clean to a wash cycle.  Some of my information has come from a book by Carolyn Gorman with Marie Hyde.  The book is titled, Less-Toxic Alternatives.

I know others who have literally had to boil their clothes to get some of the formaldehyde and other chemicals out.

I am curious what have you tried to remove chemicals and fragrances from new clothing?

Layers of Fragrance

I wonder how many give any thought to how many layers of fragrance they are wearing and the amount of chemicals they are being exposed to as a result of these layers.  I know that I never thought much about it until I became ill and my body refused to tolerate fragrances and chemicals of any kind.

Think about it for a moment.  You get up in the morning and shower using fragrant or scented soaps, shampoos, and conditioners.  You exit the shower and put on scented lotions, hair gels and hairspray.  Next comes make-up and perfumes.  Last you put on your clothes that have been laundered in scented soaps and fabric softeners or worse yet come from the dry cleaner.  Every one of these products you have put on your body is full of chemicals.

Your sense of smell over time becomes dulled as your body masks itself to all these fragrances.  Have you ever walked by a little old lady and thought you would keel over from her perfume as if she had taken a bath in it?  After years of putting it on I believe she has become so masked that it takes more and more for her to even smell what she has put on herself.

We need to be more aware of what we are putting on our bodies and absorbing through our skin.  I have learned to do without a lot of products that I have not been able to find that are safe enough for me to wear.  I no longer color my hair, wear fragrant lotions or use fragrant products.  I think that what we put on our skin is worth thinking about.

Why is that lady wearing a mask?

Me wearing my mask.

I have watched as little children innocently ask their mothers this very question. The answers vary from a mother suddenly noticing that I have a mask on and answering I don’t know to a mother replying maybe she is sick and doesn’t want to get us sick. My chemical sensitivities are such that to be able to go into the grocery store for a short period I must wear a charcoal mask to lessen the severity of what I breathe in and lessen my reactions to those chemicals. I have had people see me and suddenly veer off in a different direction for fear that I could spread some dreaded disease to them when in fact they are the ones I am protecting myself from (the cologne, laundry soaps, fabric softeners, etc.). When I was in Dallas in 2003 a friend and I who also wears a mask had made an excursion to  window shop at a store we had seen that had very nice clothes in the window.  We decided to stop because she wanted to see if she thought she could tolerate the clothes or if the store would be too fragrant for her to be able to get the smells out of the clothes.  I write about this in my book. 

By this time Lisa had begun gaining weight and needed clothes.  We had driven by this store that featured clothes in the window that she thought might be safe for her.  We decided to stop by there one morning.  So here we were both in our masks knocking on the door to get the clerk’s attention.  We finally got her attention and asked her to come to the door.  We wanted to ask her if she would be willing to bring something out for us to look at.  She cautiously opened the door; the whole time she kept looking at us in our masks and back to her register.  I think she thought for sure that we were going to rob her.  When we explained why we wearing the masks, she was very accommodating.  There was also a time when we were standing outside another store waiting for a clerk to bring something out and a man approached us and asked why we were wearing masks.  We tried to explain it to him.  So, he said you are allergic to perfume and we just said yes.  As he walked away he asked if we were sisters because we both had on masks.  That generated a good laugh by both of us.

The mask presents many issues.  In winter it causes my glasses to fog up.  In warm weather the heat from wearing the mask is so stifling that I feel as if I could pass out.