Resources and Support for Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Environmental Illness, and Chemical Injuries in Canada

Chemicals in Common Household, Cleaning and Personal Care Products

Chemical Body Burden Before we are even born, synthetic chemicals and heavy metals of all kinds begin building up in our bodies. This chemical "body burden" is the focus of the information you will find on this web site. The information on this site has been developed through the collaboration of health professionals, scientists, citizens groups and environmental organizations concerned about the chemical body burden we all carry and its health effects - known and unknown.

Household Products Database Health & Safety Information: What's under your kitchen sink, in your garage, in your bathroom, and on the shelves in your laundry room? Learn more about what's in these products, about potential health effects, and about safety and handling. Information in the Household Products Database is taken from a variety of publicly available sources, including brand-specific labels and Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) prepared by manufacturers. From National Library of Medicine.

Women and Their Toxic World [In September, 2006] ... Women in Europe for a Common Future released a report discussing hazardous chemicals in women's lives, titled "Women and their Toxic World". The brochure is a comprehensive publication written by women for women discussing the issue of hazardous chemicals in consumer products, how they threaten women's health and that of future generations, how such chemicals are regulated (in Europe) and what women can do to protect themselves from exposure to hazardous chemicals.

Greenbook "Greenbook® takes pesticide product labels, supplemental labels and MSDSs provided by the companies that market them and compiles them for our users in an unbiased presentation, adding many features to help you find exactly what you need to know." This database is searchable by product and by ingredient.

Poisoned Cosmetics, Not Too Pretty Phthalates in Cosmetics.

CSPI's Guide to Food Additives

Cabinet Confidential: Toxic Products in the Home National Environmental Trust. Researchers tested 40 products from lipstick to all-purpose cleaners and found that 34 of them contained highly dangerous toxins that were not listed on their labels ... laboratory results showed that 34 of the products, a stunning 85%, contained ether glycols, organic solvents, or phthalates even though no mention of any of these poisons was made on any of the products’ labels. The toxins found can affect human health in a variety of ways. Glycol ethers, for example, can cause liver and kidney damage, as well as nervous disorders. Many organic solvents are severe eye, skin, and mucous membrane irritants, and can damage the neurological system, liver, blood, lungs, and kidneys. For their part, phthalates have been linked to everything from reproductive and developmental disorders to cancer. All three kinds of chemicals can produce negative health effects at low levels, especially if exposure to them is chronic, meaning it occurs repeatedly over time.

Greenpeace: The Chemical Home UK content site Information on chemicals in body and household, including science reports and an opportunity to get active re a campaign to have Disney remove toxic chemical from children's pyjamas.

Guide to Less Toxic Products Canadian content site Nova Scotia Allergy and Environmental Health Association. Guide to identify less toxic alternatives for personal care, household cleaning, baby care, and household pest control. NOTE: This is an excellent resource, however, they suggest ammonia as a cleaning agent and it is not a safe one to use for most with MCS, so beware of that.

Health & Safety in the Arts A Searchable Database of Health & Safety Information for Artists.

Skin Deep A safety assessment of ingredients in personal care products by Environmental Working Group (EWG). EWG's Searchable Product Guide lets you see what's known about the potential health risks from the personal care products you use every day.

What price beauty? Canadian content site Ottawa Citizen, Special Report. April, 2005. This is a great series of articles on chemicals in cosmetics, baby care and personal care products.

Incense: Survey and emissions substances from incense  Adobe pdf (Denmark, 2004.) NOTE: This is a large file, at 136 pages.

INFORMED CHOICE: Vaccine Ingredients

Indoor Air Chemistry: Cleaning Agents, Ozone and Toxic Air Contaminants California Air Resources Board. When cleaning products and air fresheners are used indoors, occupants are exposed to airborne chemicals, potentially leading to health risks. Indoor air pollutant exposures owing to cleaning product and air freshener use depend on emissions from products, dynamic behavior of chemical species, and human factors. A series of experiments was conducted to investigate volatile organic compound emissions, concentrations, and reactive chemistry associated with the household use of cleaning products and air fresheners. Research focused on two common classes of ingredients in cleaning products and air fresheners: ethylene-based glycol ethers, which are classified as toxic air contaminants, and terpenes, which react rapidly with ozone. A shelf-survey of retail outlets led to the selection of 21 products whose chemical composition was characterized ... The results of this study provide important information for understanding the inhalation exposures to certain air pollutants that can result from the use of common household products.

No CCA Wood Canadian content site Information about CCA "pressure treated" wood. True Cost Clearinghouse Here you will find articles and reports documenting the economic, health, and social costs of pollution, worker exposures, and resource exploitation, as well as the underreported benefits of remediation and precautionary policies. Both quantitative economic analyses and qualitative value analyses are included.




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