Question from Jason

Hi Debra,

I was wondering is clothing with recycled nylon in it such as Tracksuits,outwear jackets &etc are they safe to wear? Reason i ask is i am intrested in buying this Rain jacket https://www.patagonia.com/product/mens-torrentshell-rain-jacket/83802.html.

Thanks.

Debra’s Answer

Here’s a page from Patagonia about their recycled nylon.

Nylon is made from petroleum but it not a major chemical of concern. So I wouldn’t call this fabric “toxic” but it may not be suitable for some people sensitive to petroleum.

My greater concern for a product such as this is waterproofing. Patagonia is a very conscious and responsible company that is working hard to eliminate toxics in an industry where waterproofing has historically been very toxic.

The description says they use ” H2No® Performance Standard ”

You can go to this page to see all their materials and this page to see H2No® Performance Standard specifically. It has a lot of data about how they test for waterproofness but doesn’t say anything about the chemicals, nor does it claim to not be toxic,

I think I’ll give Patagonia a call and see how far I can get with them about full disclosure or materials.

I’ll report back next week.

For now, recycled nylon OK, waterproofing UNKNOWN.

UPDATE 12 March 2019

As promised above, I did call Patagonia customer service at 800) 638-6464.

I have not recommended Patagonia clothing in the past because of their use of toxic waterproofing. While Patagonia has taken many steps to improve the environmental impacts of their products, human health does not seem to be as much a priority.

If you do want to purchases a Patagonia product, please call customer service and find out what type of waterproofing is used on the product, which is NOT clearly disclosed even on website descriptions.

So this particular jacket description says that it has a DWR (durable water repellant) finish. Sounds like it will keep you nice and dry, but what they don’t tell you is that DWR waterepellants are made from fluorinated chemicals (think Teflon).

I went to their Durable Water Repellant page . It says, “Patagonia has long relied on a DWR with perfluorinated compound (PFC) but we have been searching diligently for an alternative because of its harmful environmental impacts.” No mention of health effects to their customers.

Then later on the page they say “And for the Fall 2019 season, we are pleased to introduce our first products that use PFC-free chemistries.”

Customer service told me the above statement applies to only a few products, and this jacket in question is NOT one of them. So it has PFC waterproofing.

READ MORE ABOUT PERFLUORINATED CHEMICALS (PFCs) ON ZERO TOXICS KNOWLEDGE BASE.

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Question from Andie

Hi Debra,

So grateful for you and loving your new website! Congrats!

My question: we desperately need a new oven and don’t know what to do!

Is it safer for us to purchase a floor model, that’s been sitting in an open room for a time? Or will it still outgas when it’s home and used for the first time(s)?

Really do not know what to do about ovens and this issue. Thank you!

Debra’s Answer

I wish I could just tell you to go purchase a certain brand but haven’t found one yet that has been designed to be toxic-free. This is one of those items where I need to educate the industry. That’s part of why I’m establishing my Zero Toxics website.

The last time I purchased a stove, I purchased a floor model at Lowe’s. And it was fine.

The last time I purchased a refrigerator was at a Sears Appliance Outlet. Just type that into your favorite search engine and your local outlet will come up. Also try Sears Scratch and Dent Appliances.

These appliances have been returned or refurbished or scratched during shipping. They all work just fine but have minor imperfections. I bought my last washer/dryer at a Sear Appliance Outlet store too.

So that would be the first place I would go.

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Question from LM

Hi Debra,

I buy organic produce but I still feel like I have to wash it. Are the “non-toxic” fruit and vegetable washes safe? I’m reading the ingredients for a popular one by ECOS that sells at my local food co-op and the ingredients are:

• Water
• Alcohol Denatured. (corn-derived solvent)\
• Decyl Glucoside (plant-powered surfactant)
• Potassium Sorbate (food grade preservative)
• Citric Acid (plant-powered pH adjuster)

Comments? Thanks Debra!

Debra’s Answer

I can’t make a case for this product being “toxic.” It certainly doesn’t contain any of the major chemicals of concern. So in that sense I would have to call it toxic-free.

But here’s my concern. It’s basically an industrial product made from industrial ingredients. Yes the source material for these ingredients are plants, and they appear to be organic (at least there is an organic logo on the label, though nothing says “organic” in the ingredients list.

So these plants are put into a factory and broken down in some way into industrial ingredients that are then combined in a factory into a wash that you are going to push on your organic vegetables and fruits.

Just look at this for a moment. You’ve purchase organic produce. Now you are going to clean it with industrial ingredients. The first ingredient is water. Hmmmm. What kind of water. Probably tap water. If you are buying organic produce you probably are using filtered water. We don’t know what their water is. They are not telling us.

Is this really a necessary product? What is it that you want to remove from your organic produce with this product?

I just rinse my organic produce with filtered water. I’ve never used produce washes and don’t find them necessary.

UPDATE 3/17/19

I just found a very long list of certified biobasaed fruit and vegetable washes.

If this is a product you are interested in, this list would be a good place to compare what percentage of their ingredients are not petroleum.

In 2015 I was invited to speak at a summit called Self-Love Revolution. Of course, I spoke on the subject of Toxic Free Living as an Act of Love.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day this week, I thought I would offer you the giveaway as a Valentine’s gift.

I hadn’t read it since then, but I loved reading it just now. It warmed my heart and I want to share it with you.

Here is an excerpt from the ebook.

DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOK HERE

What Self-Love Means to Me

I want to tell you a story about something that laid the foundation for me about what love is. It happened many years ago, in 1985, when I was 29 years old. It was one year after my first book about toxics in consumer products was published—actually it was the first book about consumer products ever published.

Now I have to correct this story. I told it one way in the Self Love Revolution Summit interview, but as I am working on this giveaway, I am realizing some of the detailed were incorrect in my memory that day.

I was living in San Francisco at the time, not Marin County, and I decided to go for a drive. Some days, you know, you just feel like you just have to take the day off. And I got into my sporty little Volkswagon GTI and I just started driving.

I drove north over the Golden Gate Bridge and just started driving the backroads up into Sonoma County where they all have the vineyards, and I ended up in a little bookstore. As I was looking at books in the bookstore, a book fell off the shelf into my hand. It fell off the shelf into my hand, honestly.

The book was The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. And I bought it. I thought, “If the book is going to fall off the shelf into my hand, I better buy it and I better read it.”

I just want to share a little portion of the book to you because it touched my heart. And here it is:

When we love something, it is of value to us. And when something is a value to us, we spend time with it, time enjoying it and time taking care of it.”

Observe a teenager in love with his car and note the time he would spend admiring it, polishing it, repairing it, tuning it. Or an older person with a beloved rose garden and the time spent pruning and mulching and fertilizing and studying it.”

When we love, our love becomes demonstrable or real only through our exertion, through the fact that for that loved one, we take an extra step or walk an extra mile.”

Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful.

I have probably read this a hundred times in my life. I always come back to this. The book is still available. It’s such a beloved book. It’s a classic book.

I had never heard anything like this before. I always thought love was romantic. It’s what you see in the movies and it happens between a man and a woman or a mother and a child or something. But this was such a universal definition that it’s like . . . when you really love, when you truly, deeply love, it sparks you to want to care for that which you love.

And so if you don’t love yourself, you won’t take care of yourself. It’s really love that is the motivating thing within you that makes you want to be the best that you can be, to make you want to take care of your body, to make you want to do all those self-exploration things, to find out who you are and how you can be a better person. It comes from love. And we all have that. And so health comes from loving yourself and taking care of yourself is the result.

You feel better and then you get reinforced and you want to continue to do the actions once you start taking them.

DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOK HERE

It turns out that love has many health benefits, including:

* longer life
* fewer colds & flu
* better blood pressure
* healthier eating habits
* better stress management
* less depression
* less pain
* faster healing

And more…

Here are some articles with more information on love and health:

THE GOOD INSIDE: 5 Surprising Health Benefits of Love

WEB MD: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Love

NATURAL HEALERS: 11 Unexpected Health Benefits of Love

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A new study is looking to survey about six hundred women across California about their use of consumer products “to better learn the types of products women use, how often women use them, and how women choose the products they use. This information will help us understand exposures to chemicals in consumer products.

Responses will be used to help the State of California learn how to protect people’s health.

If you live in California and would like to participate in the survey, click here.

I just took it myself. Just taking the survey actually made me more aware of what I use and don’t use. They also ask question about things like what you look for in making your product choices, which gives you an opportunity to look at that too. They included “scent” as a reason you would purchase but not “unscented.” I typed in unscented because I think they will consider “scent” to mean because you want scent, not scent/unscented as an issue. Ah later they ask if the personal care products you use are scented, fragrance-free, or not sure.

They also ask where you purchase your products (natural food store wasn’t included but there was a space where I could type it in).

Doing this survey really showed me how few products I actually use and also showed me how many products-of-concern there are.

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