A new report from Greenpeace has found that many of the world’s best-selling perfumes contain hazardous levels of certain dangerous chemicals. The organization had the Dutch chemistry lab TNO Environment and Geosciences analyze 36 randomly selected perfumes for the presence of two known toxic hazards: phthalates and synthetic musks, and discovered that both types of chemical were present in the vast majority of samples.
Thirty-four of the tested perfumes were found to contain diethyl phthalate (DEP). The highest levels were found in Calvin Klein’s Eternity for Women, which contained DEP levels of 2.2% by weight. Other heavy hitters included Melvita’s Iris Blue (1.1% by weight) and Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Le Male(just under 1% by weight).
Synthetic musks were found in 21 of the tested samples. The highest total quantities of these synthetic musks were found in the Body Shop’s White Musk (9.4% of total volume by weight), Gaultier’s Le Male (6.4% by weight), and Cartier’s Le Baiser Du Dragon (4.5% by weight).
Both phthalates and synthetic musks are hazardous to human health. Phthalates are solvents added to perfume formulas because they have an ability to easily evaporate at room temperature. This makes them ideal carriers for perfume fragrances. With phthalates added to its formula, a perfume becomes more "smellable" as evaporating phthalate molecules carry the scent with them into the air. Unfortunately, this ability to enter the air means that phthalates can also easily enter the lungs and the body, where they cause all kinds of havoc. Emerging evidence has linked exposure to phthalates to reproductive and developmental disorders, cancer, organ damage, childhood asthma, and allergies.
Reported in the latest paper on Recognition of MCS, the commissioner of Social Security Administration said on Oct. 31 2007 that SSA recognized MCS a medical determinable impairment. He said this in a legal memo submitted to a federal court that had demanded a clear statement of SSA's position on the subject.
For a copy of the legal memo, send a SASE to MCS R&R.
To order the whole recognition paper (now 23 pages) call: Albert Donnay, MHS, Exec. Director, MCS Referral & Resources, Inc.
508 Westgate Road, Baltimore MD 21229-2343. Phone:410-362-6400, Fax:410- 362-6401, e-mail:donnaya@rtk.net
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- Disability and Fragrance in the Workplace. "The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued an administrative decision . . . that upholds MCS as a disability and states that a fragrance free workplace is not an accommodation that can be simply dismissed as unreasonable." Our Toxic Times, Volume 12, Number 5 Issue Number 131, May 2001. Chemical Injury Information Network Newsletter. http://www.ciin.org
When you use "perfume" you are using powerful chemicals regulated by the industry that sells them. They may not affect you now, but it doesn’t mean they won’t affect someone next to you. The chemicals go directly into the blood stream when applied to the skin, and absorbed into the skin from clothing. Inhaled chemical fumes go straight to our brains where they can do major harm, and many of these chemical fumes have a “narcotic” effect.
Contact Dr. Raymond Singer, Ph.D.
Symptoms of neurotoxicity: Toxic chemicals can damage the nervous system and brain. Such chemicals are neurotoxic. A person may or may not be aware of neurotoxic damage when it occurs.
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An Overview of MCS by Cynthia Wilson
Our mission:To provide the highest quality clinical and forensic services for the evaluation and diagnoses of neurobehavioral, neuropsychological and neurotoxic illness from chemicals, injuries and drugs.
Our experience: Evaluating neurobehavioral function and the effects of toxic chemicals, drugs and substances (neurotoxic agents) on the nervous system since 1979; serving the Courts (federal, state and administrative) as a forensic expert witness in both civil and criminal matters since 1983.
Back when doctors believed their patients and before psychosomatic illness and stress became a catch-all for illnesses doctors couldn't diagnose, there is evidence to suggest that doctors were diagnosing chemical sensitivities as vapors. Vapors were described as an exhalation of bodily organs held to affect the physical and/or mental condition or as a depressed or hysterical nervous condition. Then in the early 1950's, Theron Randolph, M.D., recognized that people were getting sick from their environment, hence the original name Environmental Illness. Read at ciin.org
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Wednesday 2 April 2008
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1 comment:
Although the information is compacted, it definately makes an impression. It really makes one think about even the most mundane things we do everyday that could be contaminating us.
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