Newsletters: May - June 2008
Shamp-ew
Natural Times-May/June2008
By Paul Rutkovsky
Recently I was browsing around the shampoo section at New Leaf Market and heard a mother talking to her six or seven-year old child. The mother was asking her daughter what kind of shampoo or conditioner she wanted and said something like, “this is a healthy product, it’s organic, do you want this one?” I turned to see what she was pointing to and it was a shampoo that had the word “organics” printed just below the well known logo. I wanted to tell her that the shampoo wasn’t certified organic. Actually, according to the new study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association, this shampoo product had traces of the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane. Because the product was not certified organic, the company did not have to list 1,4-Dioxane as an ingredient on the container. I should have told the mother about the latest testing of 100 personal care products and the deceptive misbranding as organic by many well known companies, including Giovanni, Natures Gate and JASON.
Consumer advocate David Steinman (author of the Safe Shopper’s Bible) performed the study with an independent laboratory. To help remove some of the misleading organic labeling, Organic Consumers Association and Dr. Bronner’s filed cease and desist letters to many of the bogus “organic” brands who utilize conventional and/or petrochemical material instead of organic material in making cleansing ingredients, some of which even tested positive for the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane in the study.
We all should be aware of other weak organic standards under which a product can become “certified,” that do not allow ethoxylation and 1,4-Dioxane, but include hydrogenation and sulfation of conventional, not organic material, to make cleansing ingredients preserved with synthetic preservatives.
Surveys have shown that many of us are willing to pay more for a product that labels itself as “organic.” But is it organic? Two certifying companies that promulgate weak standards are Ecocert and OASIS. Ecocert allows certain petrochemicals in cleansing ingredients. The new Organic and Sustainable Industry Standard (OASIS)—a standard developed by certain members of the industry with no consumer input—permits certification of products outright as “Organic” (rather than as “Made with Organic” ingredients) even if such products contain hydrogenated and sulfated cleansing ingredients. Sodium lauryl sulfate, a common cleansing ingredient, is made from conventional agricultural material grown with synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, and preserved with synthetic petrochemical preservatives such as Ethylhexylglycerin and Phenoxyethanol. [Reference: OASIS Standard section 6.2 and Anti-Microbial List] ,/p>
Unfortunately using the word organic without being certified is now becoming a marketing strategy and many companies seem not to care what we put in, and on, our bodies. It’s becoming more complicated to sort out what’s safe for you and your children. Part of the marketing strategy is aimed at making you frustrated and overwhelmed by too many detailed standards and so-called certifying companies. For instance, the OASIS standard is not merely useless but deliberately misleading to organic consumers looking for a reliable indicator of true “organic” product integrity in personal care.
Ask questions. New Leaf Market wellness employees keep up with the barrage of information and are very willing to assist you. To read more about organic body care visit: www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm
