Breast cancer prevention means controlling the environmental toxins running rampant in your home.

Manufacturers love to say that their products only use trace amounts of dangerous chemicals, often known or suspected carcinogens. But the problem is these “trace” chemicals add up in a woman’s system. This is especially true because the industrial era has brought so many chemicals into our lives in places that we might never have suspected.

Carcinogens hide in personal care products, furniture, building supplies, and cleaning products to name just a handful. But there are a number of steps that you can take to detox your home of many of these chemicals.

One of the biggest changes holistic health nutritionist and breast cancer survivor Kristina Sampson’s made in her life is switching to cleaning with vodka. That’s right, this health guru couldn’t believe what she found in so many of the household cleaning products we use without even thinking. Today, Sampson heads to the liquor store for her cleaning fix because she’s found that the cheapest vodka in the store is one of the best natural disinfectants on the market.

But that’s just the beginning. With the help of Sampson and tons of research, we’ve uncovered a crazy list of chemicals that all women should avoid where possible.

81 Toxic Breast Cancer Prevention Culprits Hiding in Your Home

Endocrine Disruptors

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body, and they are found in everyday products. They disrupt the body’s endocrine system (a bodily system made up of glands and hormones) from sending the correct signals. This group of chemicals include parabens, phthalates, triclosan, and triclocarbon. Of 40 women tested, parabens were found in 99 percent of their breast tumors, according to Sampson. These ingredients are used because they are chemically very stable which is good for manufacturing but bad for your body. Since the chemicals can’t break down, they stay in your system. Avoid them by reading labels. Also, avoid anti-bacterial products that likely contain triclosan. Here are a number of places they hide.

1. Shampoo

2. Conditioner

3. Body lotion

4. Face lotion

5. Anti-aging creams

6. Toothpaste

7. Socks

8. Foundation

9. Shaving cream

10. Anti-perspirants

11. Deodorants

12. Makeup remover

13. Spray gel

14. Facial wash

15. Eye cream

Fragrance

Many products that contain endocrine disruptors also contain another scary culprit, fragrance. When you see the word fragrance, you may picture fields of lavender or sunflowers–a subtle natural fragrance that makes all of your favorite products that much more appealing. Not so fast. Fragrances are one of the most dangerous chemicals in everyday products. Here’s why: Fragrances are protected by intellectual property and that means that manufacturers don’t have to tell you the source of the fragrance. Basically, it’s a ridiculous loophole that allows companies to hide what could be hundreds of chemical additives. Fragrance are a means of hiding endocrine disruptors, allergens, and neurotoxins in products. And they’re everywhere including almost all of the products listed above. Avoid fragrance by choosing fragrance-free products or fragrance that comes from natural sources which are listed. Here are some places you’ll find fragrance.

16. Soap

17. Body wash

18. Lipstick

19. Lip gloss

20. All purpose cleaner

21. Perfume

22. Body spray

23. Pet shampoo

24. Hand soap

25. Scented candles

26. Diffusers

27. Facial masks

28. Massage oil

29. Dryer sheets

30. Laundry soap

BPA

While BPA is also an endocrine disruptor, it gets a separate category because it’s found in another category of household products. BPA is an industrial chemical that has been used in plastics and resins.

31. Canned foods

32. Baby toys

33. Baby bottles

34. Plastic #7, polycarbonate

35. Compact discs

36. DVDs

37. Protective eyewear

38. Sales receipts

39. Sippy cups

40. Cell phones

41. Laptops

42. Tablets

43. PDAs

44. Computer gaming units

45. Game consoles

Benzene

Benzene is a colorless or light colored liquid that’s very flammable. Benzene is one of the top chemicals used for industrial purposes in the U.S. It’s also a chemical linked to breast cancer.

46. Tobacco smoke

47. Glue

48. Paints

49. Furniture waxes

50. Detergents

51. Gasoline

52. Solvents

1,3-Butadiene

This chemical is found in many of the mammary tumors of rodents. It’s an air pollutant and a human carcinogen. The pollutant had a greater impact on younger female rodents than on older.

53. Latex gloves

54. Spray sunscreens

55. Carpet

56. Adhesives

57. Rubber

58. Tires

Lead

Lead is a naturally occurring substance that’s found in the Earth’s crust. It’s an element, so it can’t be broken down into smaller pieces. Researchers have found that lead is a substance that causes cancer to grow. Although more research needs to be done to know definitively, it’s good practice to avoid this known neurotoxin whenever possible.

59. Drinking water

60. Soil

61. Ceramics

62. Bullets

63. Batteries

64. Pipes

Mercury

Methylmercury can disrupt the hormone regulated cellular process. Higher accumulations have also been found in cancerous breast biopsies of women than in women without cancer. Mercury is also known to impact the central nervous system. Those exposed to too much, can suffer from a wide array of symptoms including sleep disturbance, headaches, fatigue, memory and concentration problems, and neuropathy.

65. CFL lightbulbs

66. Fish

67. Thermometers

68. Thermostats

69. Skin lightening creams

70. Antiques

71. Vaccines

72. Dental fillings

Pesticides

Household pesticides and pest killing poisons are often listed as human carcinogens. Dichlorvos, a common ingredient in household pesticides, for example is associated with mammary tumors in rats and mice. Another, glyphosate is linked to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Avoid household pesticides as much as possible in your home. Use natural methods like predatory insects to protect your garden and household plants.

73. Roach sprays

74. Roach baits

75. Bath and kitchen disinfectants

76. Rodent poisons

77. Insect repellants

78. Weed killers

79. Products that kill mildew

80. Flea and tick soaks

81. Bleach

Don’t panic. Of course some of these chemicals are currently in your home. It’s nearly impossible to be free of all environmental toxins. But there are steps that you can take to start reducing the build up. Some, of course, are easier than others. Start buying natural makeup and personal care products free of the chemicals above. Clean with vodka, white vinegar, and baking soda rather than chemical cleaners. Choose natural materials like untreated wood and glass in your home instead of plastic. And lose the chemical pesticides.

Related on EcoSalon

Behind the Label: Avon’s Crusade Against Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Prevention Tied to 102 Chemicals Besides BPA

Tis the Irony: Susan G. Komen Partners With Major Fracking Company 

Image: Wicker Paradise 

The post 81 Toxic Breast Cancer Culprits Hiding in Your Home appeared first on EcoSalon.

Avoid the pink product mania and participate in Breast Cancer Awareness Month by supporting good organizations instead.

We’re sick of the commercialization of the breast.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and for several weeks we’ve become increasingly blown away by the amount of pink junk being pitched our way in the name of “awareness.”

What does awareness really mean? Is it buying a cute pair of pink socks? Is it painting your nails with bubblegum polish? Is it downing a package of pink cookies?

Breast cancer is real. It’s not cute and it’s not fun, and much like viral campaigns have been said to cheapen real cancer fights, pink products are just another thing on the list that might us feel good about promoting a cause but in reality don’t truly engage us on the issue. And that leaves a lot of us stuck with pink fatigue.

Breast cancer has touched everyone on our staff in some way. No doubt you can say the same. We emphatically support breast cancer awareness. That doesn’t mean we have to like a good cause being pinkified in order to hawk yet more retail. Especially when the products supporting the cause are themselves toxic.

Cheap jewelry

Pink silicone rings and cheap charm bracelets probably made in a sweatshop; do we really need to be sporting these to show our support?

Pink Gemstones

Because nothing says healthy like mining the earth for toxic materials.

Perfume

According to Breast Cancer Action, Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s new perfume “Promise Me” contains chemicals “not listed on the label that are regulated as toxic and hazardous.”

Makeup and Accessories

Instead of getting sucked in by pink brushes and palettes, opt for green beauty products that are natural and toxin free.

Cookies and Cupcakes

What better way to honor breast cancer than by eating goodies made solely with processed ingredients and chemicals?

We’ll stick with our Pink Lady organic apples from the farmers’ market, thanks.

We’re all for businesses supporting good causes with their money, but let’s take a moment to think about our individual actions. Think about what would happen if instead of buying more junk we don’t really need, we gave it all to an organization doing breast cancer research and education.

Buying things we don’t need isn’t going to solve breast cancer, and wearing pink isn’t going to make someone living with cancer better. So what can you do? Here are five organizations we think are doing a good thing when it comes to breast cancer awareness and research. Support them.

1. Breast Cancer Fund – Devoted to exposing and eliminating the environmental causes of breast cancer
2. American Cancer Society – A nationwide, community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem
3. National Breast Cancer Foundation – Give a mammogram to an uninsured woman
4. Think Before You Pink – An initiative of Breast Cancer Action, a watch dog of the breast cancer movement
5. National Breast Cancer Coalition – a coalition that includes hundreds of organizations, representing several million patients, professionals, women, their families and friends

Images: Azrol Azmi, The Breast Cancer Site, Gemvara, Promise Me, Target, Pink Ribbon Shop

The post We Love Breast Cancer Awareness, We Hate Breast Cancer Commercialization appeared first on EcoSalon.

When your celebrity crush doesn’t share your political and social values.

When I was a kid, my favorite movies were Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I chalk that up to being an only child. With thanks to my dad for enduring The Care Bears movie, most of the time I was outnumbered.

Jane Russell, co-star to Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, passed away last week and I was instantly saddened. At a young age, I was well aware that I was never going to be a Marilyn, but certainly I could aspire to be a Jane. She was known for playing saucy, smart, forward-thinking ladies with just a hint of alpha flirt (her character in Gentlemen hits on an entire Olympic swim team), and her breasts’ appearance in The Outlaw appalled the Roman Catholic Church so thoroughly, they fought the movie’s release. Yet despite her sex appeal, she was attainable, the Dorothy to Rue McClanahan’s Blanche, if you will.

But I’ve since learned that Jane Russell the woman wasn’t much like the characters she played. My fascination with Jane started in my tender years, well before the likes of Gawker, E! and Perez. Today, we know more than we want to know about our favorite – and least favorite – celebrities, and sometimes choose to admire them more for their off-camera work than for what they do onscreen. We can pick our favorites based on how they align with our own conscious values. We can easily see who supports what charity, who donates and who doesn’t – or who thinks global warming is a conspiracy.

To wit: I am forced to like Pamela Anderson now because of her work with PETA. I still find it a little surprising, this admiration. And while I’ve never even seen Dawson’s Creek (or most of her acclaimed movie roles since then), I love Michelle Williams. First, she’s a fellow short-hair. But more importantly, she recently started a non-profit to provide free yoga – complete with babysitting – to single mothers.

Then there’s Cyndi Lauper. It is without irony and with pride that I say I have seen her in concert three times during this decade. Yes, I still like her music, but I love what she’s about. She started The True Colors Fund, which advocates for homeless Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) youth, and this year is helping to open The True Colors Residence offering permanent housing for LBGT youth in New York.

Then there’s Jane. After a botched abortion before she married, Jane Russell became a vocal opponent of choice. And according to her obituary in the New York Times, she said the following to an Australian newspaper in 2003: “These days I’m a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist.” Bigotry, she added, “just means you don’t have an open mind.”

It’s clear that Jane and I wouldn’t have seen eye to eye.

As a kid, I naively assumed that people I liked on screen agreed with me and that we’d be friends if we met. But it’s also reflective of a world without the internet, a world in which no matter how hopped up on pills she may have been, I never would have seen Marilyn Monroe’s crotch in a limo.

Had I known about Jane Russell’s politics before I met the character Dorothy Shaw, would that have taken something away from the movie that I cherish so much? Maybe knowing more about her beliefs tarnishes a bit of the love, but when I hear her name I will always think of her eyes flashing as she unleashed my favorite line: “Nobody chaperones the chaperone. That’s why I’m so right for this job.” She was feisty to be sure, but I know now that I wouldn’t have liked much of what she had to say outside of a motion picture.

There’s both good and bad that comes with knowing what your favorite celebrities are up to in their personal and political lives. Unlike some who hold that celebrities should just can it (usually applied to celebrities holding views opposite their own), I love that so many people use their fame to speak out about their beliefs. But I do miss my six-year-old’s assumption that after the double wedding at the conclusion of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, my hero Jane Russell and her BFF Marilyn Monroe went home and lived happily ever after.

Image: pinkmoose

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