DAT CANDLE LIFE.
Let’s talk about all those yummy smelling candles, and plug-ins, and sprays, and basically ANY of your household products with a “scent” - trust me, lean in close for this one.
Of all the health changes to make- this is the MOST IMPORTANT- Kick “fragrance” to the curb
When you see ‘fragrance’ on a personal care product's label, just read it as ‘hidden chemicals.’ Why should you care?
This is a major loophole in the FDA's federal law that allows manufacturers to include nearly ANY ingredient (even toxic ones) in their products under the name ‘fragrance’ without ACTUALLY LISTING the chemical. ‹‹‹— just keep re-reading that until it sinks in. THAT IS RIDICULOUS.
In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) which grandfather in between 63,000 - 100,000 chemicals that were on the market. These chemicals were grandfathered in, without any testing, and are simply unregulated. Today, only about 50% of the chemicals on the market have been subject to any chemical testing at all. Under this act, manufacturers are protected by trade secret laws, so that they do not even have to post what ingredients are in their products. If you go look at a bottle of household cleaner, you may be surprised to see that they only list a small percentage of the ingredients in the bottle. Under the TSCA, manufacturers are protected by trade secrets laws that allow them to keep their ingredient lists a secret.
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So, what does that mean to you? Simply put: these chemicals have not had any safety testing and we know very little information about their effects.
If it smells really good and has "fragrance" on the label... you need to AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE. Companies hide dangerous chemicals behind that label bc there is NO regulation on this in our country. #RIDICULOUS
GUYS... these chemicals are killing us. They are messing with our reproductive systems, our children's hormones, and most of them are also CARCINOGENIC. Ummm, SCARY. This is not something to mess around with. Many ingredients in "Fragrances" are KNOWN carcinogens as well as endocrine and reproductive disrupters (decreased sperm counts, birth defects, hormone disruption) and these 'fragrances' may also contribute to kidney and liver damage. Oh, and are you or your child an asthma sufferer? You just might wanna google the link between asthma and synthetic fragrance.
Check out the documentary STINK (trailer here:https://youtu.be/15cMNneeF_w ) if you wonder why you should care about this topic. Then watch the full documentary itself. Knowledge is power and when you know better, you can do better.
And then check out The Human Experiment (trailer here: https://youtu.be/XHcoYtoOFXI) about how humans have been affected by chemical exposure over the decades.
We all just want the best for our families, and this kind of deception makes me so sad for the millions of men and women (and I was one of them!) who think they are buying safe "clean" products and emptying their pockets to do so.
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We ditched the candles + synthetic filled products 4 years ago and haven’t looked back. Now, when we walk through the aisles of candles, cleaning products, smelly stuff in Target - we sneeze. (Grey too!) and I get an instant headache. My body is literally saying WTF is this crap.
We have used essential oils and our diffuser for years now, and we are healthier than ever. AND MY HOUSE SMELLS LIKE A FREAKING MAGICAL WINTER WONDERLAND.
Without the toxic side effects.
BOOM. Mission accomplished.