Photo courtesy of FemmeToxic.

Many of the popular resources available on cosmetic products and toxic ingredients come from the United States. They include some useful databases and backgrounders, but their conclusions seem at times periphery to us Canadians. Up here, we regulate our cosmetics differently!

You may be happy to then know that FemmeToxic, a Montreal-based campaign for safe cosmetics, launched last summer. Its goal: to inform Canadian girls and young women about the chemicals found in cosmetic ingredients.

FemmeToxic is hosted by Breast Cancer Action Montreal, a cancer prevention organization. The Girls Action Foundation also partners the project, and operates to promote girls “to speak out, build skills, and create action on issues that are important and real to them.”

“Youth specifically are more susceptible to toxins in the environment, at that stage in development, so they decided to launch this project,” Angela Day said, the safe cosmetics campaign assistant.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

Sometimes trying to figure out how to find safe personal care products and what ingredients to avoid can be overwhelming. Depending on where you look, you might even find conflicting information that will only aggravate the headache you’ve developed in the process of your search. Below, I’ve provided a list of helpful resources that break down the details for us in a palatable way.

Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety website on Cosmetics and Personal Care. This website is crucial if you want to know how cosmetics are classified and regulated in Canada. It also provides a “Hotlist” of ingredients banned from use.

Guide to Less Toxic Products developed by the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia.
This site compiles an extensive list of common hazardous chemicals found in beauty products and explains why they are problematic. It also ranks and recommends a wide range of natural product brands for eye and face make-up, hair care, feminine hygiene and much more.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

This Saturday, March 27 at 8:30pm (local time), people around the world will be turning off their lights for one hour in support of climate change awareness.

But that’s just the beginning. Every hour, Canadians are taking small steps to lessen their impact on the environment. From hanging your clothes to dry to taking transit to work, those small steps add up to huge changes for the better.
– Earth Hour 2010 Canada

What do you think about Earth Hour? Will you be participating? Is this an effective form of action, or it is an excuse to pay attention for one hour per year and then ignore the problems? What else do you do to lessen your impact on the environment?

What’s in your make-up kit? And how many of those beauty products do you use in a day? Give or take a few products, my usual morning regime involves body lotion, tinted moisturizer, mascara, hair mold, and sometimes bronzer or eyeliner if I’m feeling so inclined. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of other women, particularly young women, also reach my daily average.

What concerns me is that most beauty products contain parabens, a type of preservative used to extend the shelf life of cosmetics and prevent them from developing mold. But, what concerns me more are recent studies suggesting parabens may pose human health risks.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

Picture from flickr user kuuipo1207

The living’s green and pretty in Vancouver, again named “the most liveable city in the world.” Just about every cosmetic product comes in a greenwashed or health-friendly option: there’s paraben-free lotion, deodorant without aluminum, and nail polish sans formaldehyde! I’ve spent a year trying to pick safe, personal care products that work, and I’m still confused about which ones I should avoid.

Sarah Dickson, the body care buyer at Capers Whole Foods Market in Kitsilano, puts it to me simply, “I’d like to be able to eat all my make-up if I had to.” Our bodies absorb most of what we put on our skin, and we can’t always break down that material she explains. If it’s not safe to eat, don’t put it on you is the idea.

The problem is many people don’t understand the meaning of the often hard to pronounce substances found on long ingredients lists, let alone their potentially harmful effects.

Originally posted on TheThunderbird.ca. Read the rest here.

Writers and aspiring playwrights take note: NOW!, the by-youth for-youth sustainability organization, is hosting a national playwriting competition for youth. From the NOW! newsletter:

Are you an innovator passionate about the environment? Do you want a challenge? Do you love writing? Enter the Act NOW! National Playwriting Competition!

Who? Dreamers and change-makers (Ages 14-26, divided into junior and senior categories)
What? The Act NOW! Playwriting Competition! Write a short play on sustainability.
When? Deadline: March 31st 2010 (At the end of this month!)
Where? All across Canada.
Why? Make a difference and push your creative boundaries.

Plus, cash prizes ($500 for each winner), and the opportunity for your play to be performed all over Canada and filmed and aired by Sustainability TV, to an estimated audience of 10,000 people! Quality plays will be published in a free online sustainability play database for change-makers to ripple sustainability innovations.

Check out the NOW! website for more information and to enter.

* image courtesy of The Muppets.

Kermit the Frog may be famous for singing “It’s Not Easy Being Green”, but in this fun little video from back in the ‘80s, Kermit explains how simple it is to be ‘green’… in the eco-friendly sense.

Check out Kermit and Fozzie chillin’ and talkin’ about the importance of respecting our world’s water. There is no embed code to add the video into this post, so click here to watch it on the GreenTV website.

And how could I possibly write a post about The Muppets and not include anything about Miss Piggy? Click here for some eco tips from the divine diva swine.

Julia Schopick from The Keeper, Inc. was awesome enough to leave us a comment in a recent Shameless Women post to let us know that they’ve put together a page on their site to show the average environmental and financial cost of using tampons.

“It gives a terrific visual representation of the amount of WASTE that is created by ONE WOMAN’S disposable menstrual products in one month, one year, 10 years, and 40 years (the menstruating lifetime of the average woman)!

Please take a look. I think you’ll agree that these photos are real eye-openers. If only more women would realize how much waste they are foisting on the environment when they use disposable tampons and pads.”

Check out how much waste is produced in just one year:

courtesy of The Keeper, Inc.

Think that’s a lot? You won’t believe how much waste is produced in 10 years … OR 40! Make sure to check out the comparison pics (with info) here.

For an alternative to tampons, you can find out more about the awesome products that The Keeper, Inc. has to offer that are “economical, efficient, comfortable, and environment-friendly”.

Thanks for the tip, Julia!

It looks like someone’s cycles are in sync!

First (thanks for the alert Cate!) gURL.com posts an historical overview of menstrual products. Then Grist posts about our contemporary options from an environmental perspective.

The two-part series contains irreverent product reviews from staffers. They test both outerwear and innerwear.

I appreciate that they report on the bunching factor. Um, and Anna? You’ll be glad to see they assess each product’s odor as well.

It’s awesome how 300 years later, homemade cloth pads are back in style. Oh, who am I kidding? As if they ever left!