Question from Rose

Hi,

I’m making the switch to non toxic products and I am trying to find styling products for curly hair. Has anyone found products they like?

Thanks

Debra’s Answer

Readers?

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Question from Carol

Is it harmful in any way to wear watches that use batteries? It’s extremely difficult to find wind-up watches.

Debra’s Answer

I don’t have any information on the possible health effects of watch batteries. I’m assuming they would have a very low EMF field.

If you want an EMF-free watch, see the No-EMF Watch at lessemf.com, which has a

“reliable time keeping Citizen Miyota NO EMF automatic movement that never needs winding or batteries”

Anyone know about health effects of watch batteries?

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Question from DB

Has anyone had experience with furniture by Natural Lee ? They have a line of furniture using organic fabrics & soy foam, which I’ve never heard of before. I understand from a friend that they’re vague about whether their furniture is treated with flame retardants, an important consideration for sensitive people. As many of us are, we’re looking for affordable, comfy, healthy furniture. Thanks for any feedback on this. Dorothy, MA

Debra’s Answer

I went and looked at their website, and it is a bit confusing.

First, the fact that they use the word “natural” in their name is somewhat misleading. Though all the materials have some environmental benefit, some are recycled plastics. While recycled plastics are better for the environment, they aren’t natural by any stretch of the imagination, and I they still outgas like virgin plastic so I wouldn’t call them healthy either.

Still, there are environmental benefits to this line of furniture, which could be appropriate for some people. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with MCS.

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Question from teresa

Hi – I guess I’m new to all of this – what is wrong with sugar (not referring to diabetes). Thanks!

Debra’s Answer

I’ve answered this at Sweet-Savvy: Sweeteners to Avoid: Refined White Sugar.

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Question from Jerri Jetter

Debra,

Does your book Home Safe Home include natural products I can use to bleach or dye my hair? I am a 52 year old natural blond whose hair has darkened and begun to gray. Consequently, I get my hair highlighted and colored every 8 weeks to lighten & brighten the color. But I want to stop putting chemicals in my body this way! Any suggestions or resources would be appreciated.

Jerri Jetter

jjetter@cox.net

Debra’s Answer

My book Home Safe Home has some do-it-yourself natural formulas for hair coloring, but I would suggest checking our the Natural Hair Dye website. They carry all the safer hair colors and can advise you on choosing one. All they do is nontoxic and natural hair color.

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Question from mary leduc-suruma

Twelve years ago I found that Mother Nature had blessed my six acres in West Virginia with the healingist herb on the planet, Agrimony/Agrimonia (and many other names around the world). The ancient Greeks were the first to write about it’s healing powers and now you can find dozens of research abstracts about them on www.pubmed.gov. The most important of these studies demonstrate that Agrimony repairs and generates new immune system cells and modulates immune system reactions to pathogens while correcting autoimmune system disorders. This ability to enhance immune system responses answers the centuries old question, how does it heal eye infections, liver disease, sinus infections, soar throats, ear aches, topical wounds, rashes, Herpes blisters, etc., etc.

Debra’s Answer

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Question from BB

I am curious about how to avoid plastic packaging in the supermarket. Almost all meats are and many fruits are packaged in number 6 plastic, which is supposed to leach some kind of toxin. I hear it is one of the “bad ones” along with numbers 3 and 7. Does anyone know who might use the new bioplastics?

Debra’s Answer

I personally make a point to not purchase foods packaged in plastic. For meats, I go to a butcher at a natural foods store or a local natural meat butcher, both of whom wrrap my meat in paper.

FYI, bioplastics would not be used for food wrap as they don’t hold up well against moisture.

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Question from joan coppinger

I use a large sugar shaker to wash fruits like plums, apples, etc. but what homemade recipe can I use on small fruits and vegetables without buying those fruit/vegetable sprays?

Debra’s Answer

There are some suggestions at Q&A: Produce Wash.

Readers, any other ideas?

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Question from J.K.

Hi Debra,

Thank you for all the work you do figuring all this out. I’ve seen a lot of things on plastics, but one thing I’m not sure of is; how safe is it to freeze plastic containers? I make broth and like to freeze it and have always done so in glass containers, but as you know, they can crack while unthawing. I tried freezing in some of my old washed sour cream containers that are plastic, but I ended up tossing them for fear of the plastic leaching. What about making homemade popsicles in those plastic containers, or even ice cubes? If #’s 1, 2, 4, & 5 are safe, are they safe to freeze in as well?

Thanks again for your help.

God Bless!

J.K.

Debra’s Answer

I found a webpage called Freezing Plastic Water Bottles that addressed a rumor going around that one should not freeze water in plastic bottles because it releases carcinogenic dioxin. This had been attributed to Johns Hopkins University.

The author of this webpage did some research and found…

This sounds right to me because I know that heat increases outgassing and cold inhibits outgassing. So I would say the SAFEST place to use plastic is in the freezer.

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Question from Deb H.

Debra,

We have a whole house water filter.

After reading your Home Safe Home book on plastics, I’m concerned about the plastic hoses on our hand-held shower handles.

I prefer the hand held shower handles because we can rinse the shower/bathtub walls easily and completely after cleaning them with AFM’s safety bathroom cleaner. Our current shower handles do not have any kind of filter on them.

Are the plastizers, etc leaching into the water that I’m showering in? If I replace them, do you know of a hand held shower handle that does not use a leaching plastic hose? If I buy a hand held shower handle with a filter on it, will the filter filter out the leaching plastics?

I’ll swith back to the old standard shower heads if need be but I sure hate to lose the convenience of the hose type for cleaning.

Debra’s Answer

I think most hand-held shower handles have plastic hoses, but I don’t know what type of plastic is used. If you can call the manufacturer of the brand you have, I can better answer your question.

Without testing the water that comes through, here’s my logic. Since I know heat makes plastic outgas, a lot of the plasticizers that may be present probably have already been released because of the heat of the water. So it would be better to keep using your old one than to get a new one.

If the shower handle had a filter in it, and I think some of them do, I think it would be such a small amount of filter medium that it would do very little. However, since you have a whole-house filter and the filter in the shower handle wouldn’t have to remove other pollutants, it may remove whatever plasticizers may be present.

It’s really really important to remember with plastics that there is a wide wide variety of plastics with very different levels of toxicity. So it’s really important to identify the type of plastic and not assume a danger where there may be none.

Find out the type of plastic and I’ll help you sort this out.

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