What's That Smell???

Fragrance!  It’s everywhere and in everything.  I stopped going to Big Y because the chemical fragrance smell from their restroom air fresheners have saturated the store and is now embedded in the food.  When I raise a washed organic apple to my mouth, I do not want to smell bathroom air freshener and I do not want to taste it, either.  Defeats the purpose of purchasing organic.  I go to Whole Foods and their quality and variety of organics are better and the prices are actually cheaper.

Now I can almost hear some people say, what’s she complaining about now?  What could be wrong with a little perfume smell?  Plenty!  For starters, studies now show consumer scented products to be carcinogenic and known hormone disruptors, as sited by the President’s Cancer Panel headed by renowned Dr. Anne C. Steinemann, PhD, professor of civil and environmental engineering, professor of public affairs at the University of Washington; plus other studies too numerous to mention here.

I would hope we all know what carcinogenic means, the Big “C”, but let me explain a hormone disruptor.  A hormone disruptor is a chemical that enters the body and wreaks havoc with your endocrine system, causing diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, thyroid problems, insomnia, growth disorders and sexual dysfunction.  It also interferes with the way your heart beats, your bones grow, and the ability to make a baby.  

Fragrances are also neurotoxins, interfering with brain functions causing brain fog, inability to concentrate, irritability, tremors, headaches and in some people seizures.  “Fragrance” not only triggers asthma attacks but it is now on record as a known cause of asthma and breathing problems.  Scented products are responsible for overloading the body with toxins causing joint pain, muscle aches and spasms, skin disorders (rashes) and eye and vision problems.

Other complaints reported by breathing air filled with fragrance are exhaustion, weakness, hay fever symptoms, dizziness, confusion, swollen lymph glands, heart palpitations, nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting, neuromotor dysfunction, and even loss of consciousness. Babies and children are even more vulnerable to these negative health reactions than are adults. The elderly and people trying to recover from cancer and other serious illnesses are particularly at risk when exposed.

Right now it is calculated that 30% (95 Million adults and children), or more, of the population is adversely effected by coming into contact with fragrances.  Experts estimate this number to be higher as people and doctors are not linking the use of scented products to the illnesses being treated.  In other words, we are making ourselves sick by the products we buy and consume; because it’s trendy.  How nice to “belong” and “fit in”.

Unfortunately, if you choose not to use products with “fragrances”, you are not safe.  The problem arises when you come into contact with other people who smell like a walking toxic waste dump, spreading the deadly fumes into the air for others to breathe.  This selfish air pollution is such a major problem now that it has been given the status of “second hand fragrance pollution”.  If you live on a street where people use scented laundry detergent and dryer sheets that are vented outside, this is now being considered a public health crisis and responsible communities are outlawing the use of scented dryer sheets altogether.  But!...we live in a “hurray for me, the hell with you” society and in the words of an ignorant person…”why blame me because you are sick.” 

Now that people are becoming sick and have even died due to their exposure to “fragrance”, authorities are looking into this public health risk and conclude that fragrances in consumer products are toxic and harmful to EVERYONE!  So you see, we have been “played”, once again, by the Hegelian Diolectic….Problem, Reaction, Solution.  Create the problem; brainwash people into thinking they NEED hazardous chemicals in their consumer products “to be cool”.  Reaction; people getting sick and dying.  Solution; mandatory ban on these combinations of petro chemicals and coal tars and other carcinogenic chemicals that are protected by law from being listed on the label. 

Second hand “Fragrance Pollution” is now considered to be more harmful and deadly than breathing in second hand cigarette smoke.  And just like cigarette addiction, people are now considered “addicted” to using scented consumer products.  You see people, you have been “played”, all for the sake of the bottom line and monetary celebrations in the “board room”.  Talk about Human Sacrifice!  Are you feeling very “special” now?

In the words of my “Alter Ego”, Roxie Jones….”Don’t get mad, Don’t get even, Just Wait!.....and in the meantime, choose to live healthy chemical free…….

He Has Given Us Herbs For The Service of Man Psalm 104:14

Women’s Intuition is a powerful force.  The more you recognize it and use it, the stronger your intuition becomes.  After 3 months of suffering severe asthma attacks, my inner voice was instructing me to drink Sage tea. Why Sage Tea, I thought?  But I was not going to question or rationalize.  The last time I didn’t listen to my intuition, it turned out to be a disaster.

Winter months are not very kind to asthmatics. Just breathing in the cold air is enough for some people to suck on their “inhalers”.  Cold air causes bronchial constriction.  The airways narrow, causing breathing to become difficult to impossible. Overtime, it's "like trying to breathe through a straw stuffed with cotton," the AAFA states. 

Along with breathing in cold air, allergens in the air can restrict airways and trigger an asthma attack: allergens such as mold spores and pollen and particulates of all kinds.  But the most life threatening pollutant to asthmatics is wood smoke.  The EPA considers breathing in “wood smoke” to be more detrimental than breathing in cigarette smoke. 

Smoke is a huge “trigger” for my asthma, one that usually lands me in John Dempsey Hospital for lung treatments.  So since I was going to Vitamin Shoppe to get Mary’s Organic Sleepy Time Tea, I purchased a box of Organic Sage Tea for myself in hopes of getting my lungs to work again and avoid a trip to the hospital.  I am glad I did.  The aroma alone started to loosen up my stuffed sinuses and by the end of the day, after 3 cups of Sage tea, my airways opened just enough to allow a small stream of air in.  By the end of the week, my breathing was not back to normal but improved enough to forget about the trip to the hospital.

After researching the benefits of Sage, it was no surprise to me why my breathing had improved.  The oils in the sage leaves are beneficial to lung and respiratory problems.  The Georgetown University Medical Center has done extensive studies on sage and discovered it to be used worldwide, especially in indigenous areas as a cough suppressant and treatment for sore throats.

Sage is a known expectorant, expelling mucus from the sinuses and lungs and this is what I experienced as well.  I suffered a respiratory infection since the end of October due to inhaling smoke and after 3 weeks on sage tea my sinuses and lungs cleared up.  The EPA suggests asthmatics stay away from areas where wood smoke is airborne but when it invades one’s home, this remains a difficult task.  Coincidently, for the past week the air has been pretty much smoke free which also helped my lungs to clear.  Let’s pray it stays that way.

I used to grow my own Sage as a ground cover and it just flourished.  A Native American woman would pick it to use in her cooking and to sell in her gift shop.  She told me it is used in ceremonial rituals to cleanse away evil spirits and negative energy and as an insect repellent.  But I had no idea of Sage’s medicinal properties.  Going back to the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks as well as Native Americans, Sage was used for it’s healing properties in issues concerning digestion, heartburn, memory loss, colds, sore throat, rhinitis, cholesterol, and stress relief.  The Gypsies used Sage to restore hair color and they believed Sage to be a key to longevity.  The Arabs believed if one planted Sage and it flourished, that it was a sign of living a long life.  If this is true, I shall live many years.

Sage should only be taken short term, as needed.  It is not a tea to drink on a daily basis.  I stopped drinking it when my asthma symptoms subsided.  Sage should not be taken if you are on medication for blood pressure, diabetes, seizures and sedatives.  Sage should not be taken if you are pregnant, breast feeding or if you have hormone sensitive issues such as breast, ovarian and uterine cancer.

If you are currently seeing a doctor for asthmatic issues…..please, by all means, continue with your medical protocol.  If you would like to try Sage tea, talk it over with him or her first.  But by now, we all know…..I choose to live healthy chemical free…….

DANGER: Formaldehyde...Authorized Personnel Only

A few weeks ago I accompanied Mary to the hospital.  While we were escorted to a designated area, we passed a door with an ominous sign that read…”DANGER.  Formaldehyde.  Irritant and Potential Cancer Hazard.  Authorized Personnel Only”.  You needed to punch in a combination in order to open the door.  Plus, the door automatically closed and locked.  Hard…with an echo.  I thought I was at the CDC, Bio-safety Level-4.

I had to shake my head in amazement.  The hospital recognizes formaldehyde as being a carcinogen and at the same time they require their staff to use Purell practically every 5 minutes.  What do you think is in Purell, besides alcohol?  Formaldehyde.    Remember, your skin is porous, and what you put on your skin is absorbed into your blood stream, where it circulates throughout your body, building up in your tissues and you become “toxic”.  Plus, the makers of Purell recommend you use it only once a day, to be on the safe side.  I don’t use it.  I use Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap, Peppermint. Peppermint is a natural anti-bacterial and disinfectant.

Now, some people who read my articles think I am blowing smoke up a rope.  Well, one man, anyway.  I assure you, I do not make this stuff up out of thin air.  I do my research. And you can do your research as well.  So let’s see how the EPA feels about formaldehyde.  Not good.  The EPA considers Formaldehyde to be a skin, eyes, nose and throat irritant, breathing hazard, neurotoxin and a KNOWN carcinogen.  The National Cancer Institute considers formaldehyde to be a cancer causing agent.  So the caution sign on the hospital door is a little misleading.  Formaldehyde is not a “potential” carcinogen.  It is a KNOWN carcinogen.

And where do we find formaldehyde?  Just about everywhere.  In flooring, carpets, furniture, cabinets, shampoos and skin care products, baby products such as lotions and shampoos, soaps, cosmetics, sun screens, toothpaste, potpourri, fragrances, dryer sheets, laundry detergents, pesticides, herbicides, mulch, clothes, home cleaning products, paints, and the lists goes on.  Did I mention candles and scented air fresheners?  Also, wood-smoke and fuel burning appliances, medicines, paper products and cigarette smoke, especially from E-Cigarettes.

Besides poisoning yourself with formaldehyde by rubbing it on your skin, it can enter your system by breathing it in.  It off gasses and gets into the air and travels.  Now for those of you who refuse to believe me (one man, anyway), I took this information from the EPA website.  Look it up yourself.

It may come as a surprise to some of you, manufacturers are not honest.  They do not care about you.  They care about your money.  They want it.  They are realizing there are more people like me out there who read labels.  So instead of putting formaldehyde on the product list of ingredients, they call it by other names.  DMDM Hydantoin, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methenamine, Quaternium15, sodium hydroxyl methylylycinate, 2-bromo-20nitropropane-1,3-diol, Bromopol, Formalin, Methanal, Oxyethyline, 1,3-Dioxetane, Methylaidehyde, Methylene Oxide, Formic Aldehyde, Oxomethane Formalin and Phenol Formaldehyde.

Manufacturers will tell you there is such a small amount of it in the product, what can it hurt?  But it is in practically everything.  At the end of the day, you have absorbed a lot of formaldehyde and over a period of time you are setting yourself up for a problem.  The question should not be what can it hurt?  The question should be why is it in these products if it is known to cause cancer?  Very good question.  Why do you think that is?  Think!  Hard!  Why does our government allow companies to put cancer causing chemicals in the products you use and the food you eat?  Could it be we are being poisoned?  For Profit?

Then, if this is not bad enough, at the end of your days, the undertaker will drain your blood and fill you up with formaldehyde to preserve you so you will “look good”.  And charge you.  You pay for this.  You pay for purchasing the products containing formaldehyde, you pay to go to the doctor when you get sick.  Then you pay the undertaker to give you another blast of the stuff that probably killed you in the first place.  And some people are calling ME crazy.  I don’t think so.  Because you see…..I choose to live healthy chemical free…..