How To Make Your Medicine Cabinet Eco-FriendlyIt's no secret that changing your daily routine can benefit the Earth. Despite the difficulties of doing so, however, we seem to be willing to make the necessary sacrifices. A nationwide, online Harris poll of 2,600 people in May showed that more than half of U.S. adults have made changes in their lives that they believe will help sustain the environment, from recycling to paying bills online to installing energy-efficient appliances.
That eco-conscious attitude can extend to the products you use to support your own health. Experts say now may be the perfect time to examine some of the items in your medicine cabinet, given the growing array of environmentally friendly personal beauty and hygiene products.
"This sector is really exploding," says Jessica Jensen, co-founder of Low Impact Living, a Web site that helps consumers find the best green products, practices and service providers. "People are learning a lot more about the fact that many products are laden with toxins."
In fact, thanks to the popularity of the film An Inconvenient Truth and consumers who are increasingly green and health-aware, sales of natural and organic cosmetics are expected to pull in revenues approaching $7 billion this year in the U.S. That's a $1 billion jump over last year's numbers, according to the British consulting firm Organic Monitor.
Picking a nail polish or mascara that's good for you and the environment, however, involves a lot more than just searching out products with organic or natural labels and nixing those containing controversial ingredients such as petroleum, parabens and phthalates. There's also the product's packaging and the company's carbon footprint, among other things, to consider.
Luckily, Web sites such as the Environmental Working Group's cosmetic safety database Skin Deep and PristinePlanet.com have done much of the work for you. On Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group has compiled information on ingredients in thousands of personal-care products and matched them against data in more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. Based on the results, each product is given its own "hazard" score. Pristine Planet, which grew its traffic from 50,000 to 100,000 shoppers over the past year, lets consumers browse, compare and review sustainable companies' products, including price points, says Catherine Finn, owner and co-founder.
One smart environmentally friendly medicine-cabinet item you can find on PristinePlanet.com is the Preserve toothbrush. Its handle is made from recycled plastic, including Stonyfield Farm yogurt cups. When you want to replace it, Preserve provides a postage-paid label for you to mail away your old toothbrush so it can be reprocessed into plastic lumber for picnic tables and decks. The company makes eco-minded toothbrushes for children, as well as razors for adults.
Jensen also recommends sticking with a few brands known for their commitment to the environment, such as Burt's Bees, J.R. Watkins Apothecary Natural Personal Care and Aubrey Organics. Burt's Bees, for instance, is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and recently started using biodegradable labels on some of its new products.
Beyond beauty and hygiene products, there are also a few environmentally friendly steps you can take when it comes to your medications. If you're one of the millions of Americans who has an albuterol asthma inhaler that uses chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as a propellant, it's time to switch to one powered by hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs). CFCs are known to eat away at the ozone layer, causing more ultraviolet radiation to reach the Earth's surface and increasing the risk of skin cancer. There is little difference between the two inhalers other than the fact that the HFA version needs to be cleaned on a weekly basis to prevent clogs (The CFCs act as a cleaning agent). CFC inhalers will no longer be available after Dec. 31, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory.
What eco-friendly measures have you taken in your household? Share your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.
"This is really an environmentally driven pharmaceutical change," says Dr. Ira Finegold, chief of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. "And it's a great idea. We're saving a lot of people from getting cancer."
Given a recent Associated Press report that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and sex hormones, are present in our drinking water, it's also a good time to start paying attention to how you dispose of what's in your medicine cabinet. Instead of pouring an expired bottle of cough syrup down the drain or flushing unused pills, as was once advised, the FDA now asks people to mix drugs in a sealable bag with coffee grounds or kitty litter and then throw them out. (Some drugs still contain instructions advising people to flush unused portions in order to reduce the danger of unintentional use, overdose and illegal abuse.)
Of course, most of the medications in our waterways are being excreted from our bodies and flushed. While wastewater is treated before it's discharged into rivers and lakes and cleansed again at drinking-water treatment plants, most treatments can't remove all drug residue. But U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and health officials say proper medicine disposal may help reduce the environmental threat.
"It's another opportunity to be proactive," says Mitchel Rothholz, chief of staff of the American Pharmacists Association.
No comments:
Post a Comment