ECOsmarte blog

'Tis true, folks. If you are not familiar with Burt's Bees, they are makers of most excellent personal care products, and a very successful company. They have an admirable record of being earth friendly and holding very high standards for their products. For example, here is a list of the ingredients they will NEVER put in their products - straight from their website:

* Parabens - Synthetic preservatives that are potential toxins and endocrine disrupters
* Sulfates (sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate) - Synthetic cleansing agents that potentially damage the lipid layer of your skin
* Chemical Sunscreens (parsol 1789/oxybenzone) - Synthetic sunscreens that get absorbed and potentially disrupt hormone balance
* Petro Chemicals (petrolatum/mineral oil/paraffin) - Non-renewable byproducts of crude oil with potentially dangerous impurities
* Glycols - Synthetic chemicals that potentially draw other chemicals into the bloodstream
* Phthalates - Synthetic fragrance components that are potential toxins
* PEGs or PPGs - Synthetic ingredients processed with ethylene oxide, a toxic residual impurity
* DEA/TEA - Synthetic stabilizers that can react with other ingredients in products and form nitrosamines, known carcinogens
* Formaldehyde Donors (DMDM hydantoin/ diazolidinyl urea/ methylisothiazolinone) - Potential effect of some preservatives degrading over time and releasing small amounts of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen
* 1, 4-Dioxanes - Accidental by-products from ethoxylation (common ingredient processing), which are not declared on ingredient labels and are classified as possible carcinogens

After reading that, I wanted to run to my bathroom to see exactly how many bottles of whatever else I own have the above toxic ingredients! Fortunately, much of what I use is Burt's Bees brand. I love their products! I use their skin care line, their makeup, and really enjoy all the variety of luscious lotions, i.e. lemon butter cuticle creme, almond milk beeswax hand creme, peppermint foot lotion and milk & honey body lotion. Being a lotions and potions kind of gal, I have bought and used them with much pleasure until yesterday.

I ventured off to the local store that carries Burt's Bees products. I found exactly what I was looking for and took it up to the cashier. As I completed the transaction, I remarked how pleased I was to have found what I needed. The next words of the grandmotherly-looking woman behind the counter would rock my world, and not in a good way.

"Did you know that Burt's Bees was just bought by Clorox?"

"You have got to be kidding me..."

"No, it's true. I saw it in the news yesterday."

"Wow, thanks for the information, I'll have to check into that."

I went home, jumped on the internet and verified the truth of her assertions. Burt's Bees owners sold out for $925 million to Clorox, and the deal will be completed this month. Arrrrrrgh!

I happen to know a bit about chlorine and its hazards because I am in the water business. So I am quite familiar with the toxic by-products that we expose ourselves to every time we put our bodies in a pool or spa that is sanitized with Chlorine or drink water that has been sanitized with Chlorine or especially take a shower in unfiltered water that has been sanitized with Chlorine products. You can research this easily on the internet as well.

Clorox asserts the following:

"Clorox® Regular-Bleach is proven to be versatile as a disinfectant and a powerful cleaner in your home. In fact, it's so powerful that it is often perceived that bleach is harmful for the environment. But the fact is that bleach starts as salt and water and ends as salt and water."

If you read further you find this qualifier:

"During use as a cleaner and disinfectant, and during disposal, about 95 percent to 98 percent of the bleach reacts and quickly breaks down into salt and water. The remaining 2 percent to 5 percent breaks down to form by-products that are effectively treated by municipal waste water treatment plants or septic systems."

They only forgot one word; toxic by-products. Some very damaging substances, dioxins and furans, for example, and also trihalomethanes, can arise when chlorine products come in contact with organic matter such as wood, soil, waste, etc. Dioxins and furans can form when chlorine atoms react with wood pulp, as is the case in the paper bleaching process, or when municipal waste or backyard garbage is burned but not thoroughly. Dioxins and furans are extremely toxic chemicals, known carcinogens and hormone disruptors, and are among the"dirty dozen" chemicals targeted for elimination in the 2001 Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Trihalomethanes, including the carcinogen chloroform, are formed when chlorine reacts with carbon-containing organic matter. Some studies suggest that trihalomethanes may cause miscarriages, birth defects, and bladder and rectal cancers.

Household bleach usually contains trace amounts of hazardous organochlorine compounds, particularly in scented varieties, and tiny amounts are further produced as it breaks down. Chlorine from bleach could produce dioxins, dioxin-precursors, and bioaccumulating chlorophenols from contact with organic matter in the waterways. Also, small amounts of trihalomethanes can be produced as well, since they can form whenever chlorine encounters common sources of carbon such as dirt, sewage, or leaves in the water stream.

After all that, household bleach actually poses the greatest threat to health through carelessness or misuse. According to the EPA, in the year 2000 alone more than 25,000 children were exposed to or poisoned by household chlorine bleach. Moreover, if chlorine is combined with ammonia or with cleaners that contain acids (like toilet bowl or oven cleaners), toxic and highly irritating chloramine and chlorine gases can be produced.

Knowing all that, why even use bleach when there are many excellent alternatives that you can make yourself (if you don't want to buy the high-priced green alternative cleaners). Here is just one place on the internet that gives specific recipes.

Winding up my Clorox bashing...The nastiest thing about the company is that they do animal testing, which you probably won't find mentioned on their website. But here is an online petition to sign that asks Clorox to stop doing animal testing, especially since the need for animal testing has been eliminated by other alternatives.

Socially responsible company? No.

Environmentally responsible company? No.

Company trying to "green" up their profile by acquiring socially responsible and environmentally responsible companies? Yes.

So...when I get to the end of my Burt's Bees products...I won't be buying more. I will be searching out a company that is truly socially responsible, earth friendly and not just pretending to be. Now that I know better, I won't be able to get the idea out of my mind that somewhere in the huge conglomeration of companies that is Clorox, there are animals being tortured needlessly. Not with my dime!

Major contributor to this article Larry Couture, our ECOsmarte CEO. His mind never stops working and periodically he offers up a topic of interest - This one is important and enlightening...

Ionized Micro Water Devices
Known by many names: ionized water, high pH structured water, alkaline water, energized water, micro-water, micro-clustered water, reduced water, or ionic mineral water (and that's not all of them), what they all have in common is high pH, or alkalinity. The measure of acidity and alkalinity is called pH. The range is from 0 to 14, with neutral being 7. There are many people that adhere to the belief that alkaline water is good for you.

Why Do People Drink Alkaline/High pH Water?
Here's the basic theory. Our bodies are normally slightly alkaline, from 7.2 to 7.6. All our cells are slightly alkaline and must remain that way to stay healthy and alive. Disease is known to thrive in an acidic environment in the body and will not do well in an alkaline environment. If we have chronic acidic conditions in our bodies we become vulnerable to disease. The more acidic our body is, the more susceptible we are to disease. When blood pH is acidic people are usually very sick and high pH waters consumed help increase the blood pH.

The body tends to become more acidic with age. A 1996 study entitled "Age and Systemic Acid-Base Equilibrium: Analysis of Published Data" by Anthony Sebastian, MD and Lynda Frassetto, MD at University of California at San Francisco showed that at about the age of 45, acid wastes accumulated in the body start to overwhelm the body's capacity to buffer acidic conditions. How does your body buffer the acid up to that point? You're not going to like this. By dipping into its reserve of bicarbonates (calcium, magnesium and potassium) - read BONES here (and organs, too). Bicarbonate minerals are an alkalizing component, countering the acidity. Your body responds with short term fix that has long term consequences. This theory explains why we lose bone density and become more susceptible to disease as we age.

Why do our bodies become acidic? Well, all cells produce waste, which is acidic. You eat food, metabolize it, and the end waste product is also acidic. These wastes leave our bodies through perspiration (so get out there and sweat) and urine. Other contributors of acid conditions in the body are quite interesting to take a look at.

Diet is a major factor. Rather than go into the details here, there are many places online where you can find lists of what to eat to encourage alkalinity in your body. As you could probably guess, the "bad" list contains the usual: meats, dairy products, coffee (ouch), sweets, soft drinks, microwaved food, fast food, processed food, etc.

Drinking/Cooking Water is mega-important. The various chemicals put into water to sanitize it are all acidic, esp. Chlorine. So, hmmm... let's think about what really happens when you use reverse osmosis for your drinking/cooking water. You are removing all the minerals, as well as all the nasty chemicals. But minerals are an alkaline component in water, so yes, you are creating acidic, albeit clean, water. Test it with a pH strip if you don't believe me.
Showering/Bathing Water is the probably the most important. It is the component that could actually cancel out all your efforts with diet and drinking water. Here's why. Unless you have a whole house water system that removes the Chlorine and other sanitizing toxins, your body will absorb five times more acidic water through your skin membrane than you could ever drink and cook with. The vaporizing of the Chlorine and direct inhalation into your lungs is acidic as well. Efforts towards alkalizing your body without filtering your shower water would be an exercise in futility.

So where does ECOsmarte come in?
Well, ECOsmarte water systems change the minerals in the water to bicarbonates, which is exactly what you need to buffer the acid, so that your body does not continue to tap your reserves.Conventional biology recognizes that water with calcium, regardless of pH, is absorbed through the stomach wall, minerals broken down by gastric acid, which all become part of the blood. Our bicarbonate calcium is soluble, more bio-available, and takes less gastric acid to break down when the calcium is in bicarbonate form-- important for older people with weaker stomach acids. ECOsmarte has had many instances over the years of customers calling in to tell us that their various illnesses have dramatically improved or even disappeared after installing an ECOsmarte whole house water filtration system. This is all anecdotal, but seems to be supported by the theories and claims of the proponents of alkaline/high pH water.

For you readers who are already owners of a high pH water device, ECOsmarte filtration and bicarbonate calcium reduce the damage the city water causes on these portable units that can self destruct in a matter of months without pretreatment due to scale and chemical damage. Plus, our whole house water filtration and treatment will turn your shower/bath into the healthy, alkaline place you've been looking for!

Alkaline/pH/ionized water stories/comments welcome...