Day 31

I am learning all kinds of lessons on this journey. Last week Karen sent me a note from India saying that the fragrance in fabric softener and dryer sheets can cause cancer and many other health problems. I took a mental note of it and decided that when I get home I will change the products that I use.

 Tom and Karen only use safe, bio-degradable household products including their laundry products. After I had been here for a couple of weeks, I was impressed how clean my clothes were and asked what they used. It is just an ordinary natural, bio-degradable soap, but it seems to work better than the name brands at home.

This week, two of the staff that help run the house were out on vacation so the one remaining person had more than they were capable of doing alone. Tom and I took some of the chores and we decided to send the laundry "out" to have it done. The laundry came back yesterday and when I opened the bag with my clothes in it, I jerked my head back because the smell of fragrance was so powerful it burned my nose. The maid put some newly washed sheets on my bed that had the same odor. I figured they would air-out soon enough and turned the fan on to blow across my bed. An hour after going to bed I was still awake.  When I rolled into my normal sleeping position on my side, my nose was right next to the pillow and the smell was over-powering. I could feel myself getting a headache. I eventually took the pillow case off and rinsed it out in the sink and was able to go to sleep without it.

This morning I remembered Karen's e-mail from last week and went back and read it again. I then "Googled" the words "fabric softeners cause cancer".  A long list of websites came up on the subject. Karen was right. This is nasty stuff. There are even studies that show a link between these products and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. This stuff is designed to stay in the fabric. We then wear our toxic clothing next to our skin, rub ourselves with toxic towels and sleep in toxic sheets. Think about how a smoking patch or a birth control patch works. What are we doing to ourselves?

After reading multiple articles, I settled on the one below to share with you. But do your own research...there is a lot out there on the subject. There are also some suggested safe alternatives such as baking soda and white vinegar. Maybe we should take a look at what else we are using in our houses that might be toxic.

http://www.ourlittleplace.com/notice.html

Sorry, this was kind of a downer message. Do you sometimes feel like our health is under attack on every front? If we want change, we need to voice it and vote with our dollars.