Toxic effect of Fluoride in toothpaste and water

Scientific studies conducted in China, India, Mexico and Iran reveal that excessive fluoride intake reduces the IQ of children. It impairs memory and learning.

This and many more toxic effects of fluoride are listed on Fluoride Alert Website

Fluoride fights tooth decay only if applied on the outside. It is not meant to be swallowed or ingested.

According to Scientific American Editors, Higher level of fluoride in water (above 1 part per million) may lead to disorders of brain, teeth, thyroid (which regulates growth and metabolism). It also increases the risk of bone fracture in infants and elderly people.

View the YouTube video – The Dangers of Fluoride for more details of effects of excess fluoride intake.

Harmful Effect of Skin Whiteners

When you buy a skin whitener, make sure you read the ingredients and check them out on the Skin Deep website.

Many Skin whiteners contain Hydroquinone, which lightens the skin by reducing melanin pigment in the skin. This unfortunately makes the skin more susceptible to cancer.

Also Hydroquinone is toxic to the body. It has negative effects on the skin,the nervous system, the reproductive system as well as the entire immune system.

Higher dosage of Hydroquinone in skin whiteners peels off the skin and makes the skin progressively thinner. With repeated use over a number of years the skin becomes so thin that the veins can be seen. The peeling does not stop and the face looks a permanent unnatural white while the rest of the body may still look the original color (provided the whitener is not used on other parts of the body)

The You Tube Video embedded below is a 10 minute video that displays the devastating effect of Skin Whiteners on women in Jamaica and Senegal.

The hyperlink below, leads to another news video covered by AFP TV, France.   This You Tube video focuses on the harmful effects of Skin Whiteners in that are sold on the gray market in France.

The Dark side of Skin Whiteners

There may be safe Skin Whiteners available in the market.

Do exercise caution and do some research before you give in to the temptation of getting fairer !!

Dove Ad Campaigns – improving a woman’s self esteem

For a change,  have something positive to talk about the Cosmetics Industry.

Ogilvy created this Evolution Ad Campaign for Dove soap years ago.

Loved it then and still love it.

Well done Dove !!

Wish more cosmetics companies will take  Corporate Responsibilities seriously.

Women around the world, especially impressionable teens suffer from low self esteem when they see glamorous models and film stars. In their quest to look beautiful they try to emulate the looks of the models and stars. This Ad video embedded via You Tube effectively blows the lid off the secret behind their beauty.

This is yet another well conceived Ad campaign for Dove soap.

In terms of concept, this Ad is even better than the Evolution campaign.

The Onslaught Ad depicts how teens are targeted by the Cosmetics companies through different means and distorts their view of beauty.

They accept the unrealistic standards of beauty set by the industry as defacto beauty standards and take recourse to everything from cosmetic surgery to weight loss programs to look lean and curvy.

Have embedded the Ad, courtesy – You Tube.

Once again – good work Dove.

The Dove, Real Esteem Ad Video is even more direct in its approach. It highlights the concerns of young impressionable girls and talks about creating real awareness among women so that they not only understand what real beauty is but also feel it within themselves.

Enjoy the video, courtesy – You Tube.

Calcium Carbide ripened fruits pose health hazard

People eat fruits to remain healthy. However if the same fruits are ripened by Calcium carbide, the opposite becomes true.

Calcium carbide is an artificial fruit ripening agent. It is normally used to accelerate ripening of fruits like mango, banana, papaya etc.

The artificially ripened fruits show uniform and rich color which fools the buyers into believing that the fruit is of a superior quality and will be tasty.

However, the Calcium Carbide saga does not end at deceiving the customer to pay a bigger price. Fruits treated with Calcium carbide reacts violently when mixed with water and releases acetylene gas that explodes on contact with fire.

Acetylene is a nerve toxin. People who eat fruits ripened with Calcium carbide may suffer from headache, giddiness, memory loss and mental disturbances.

Other symptoms can include vomiting sensation, diarrhea and feeling of weakness.

Instead of helping people stay healthy and keep sickness at bay, Calcium carbide ripened fruits land up the poor victim in dispensary or hospital as a patient and the irony is that the poor person does not even know why.

The following YouTube video shows a papaya ripened with Calcium Carbide and explains the health hazards caused by Calcium Carbide.

The following YouTube video shows what happens when Calcium carbide is mixed with water.

Indian government have taken a serious note of the rampant Calcium carbide fruit ripening practices and are taking appropriate actions by conducting raids and destroying adulterated fruits.

Toxins in Cosmetics – video – Komo4news

Found this informative video report of Komo 4 news on Youtube.com.
It gives general information about hazards caused by ingredients like Parabens, Phthalates, Oxybenzone found in cosmetics.

It also talks about the Skin Deep website which provides an online cosmetic database.
It provides detailed information about a product, an ingredient or a company.
It provides a hazard score for a product on a scale of 0 – 10 where 0 – 2 is low hazard, 3- 6 is moderate hazard and a score of 7 – 10 means a high hazard product / ingredient.

It covers 55,000+ products, 9000+ ingredients, 2400+ brands and 1600+ companies.

Cosmeticsinfo.org website provides product and ingredient information from the cosmetic company perspective. It is sponsored by the Personal Care Products Council and provides information on ingredients used in cosmetics and personal care products in USA.

CNN coverage on Lead in Lipstick

Found an informative video on lead in lipstick on YouTube.

The lead in lipstick issue was taken up and covered by CNN.

The good news is that the video also says there are brands and products that do not contain lead.

Will focus on lead free lipsticks in detail in a later blog.

Detecting Adulterants in Food Products

Found a great video on YouTube that demonstrates simple as well as professional methods of detecting adulterants in food products.

It covers topics like:

1. Detecting adulteration of Argemone seeds in Mustard seeds
2. Detecting adulteration of Argemone oil in Mustard oil
3. Detecting Kesari Dal in Chana Dal or Arhar Dal
4. Detecting Papaya Seeds in Black Pepper
5. Adulteration of colors in Spices
6. Adulteration of Sugar in Honey
7. Adulteration of color in Tea

It covers everything from simple physical methods that can be used quickly by everyone  including housewives to professional detection methods that conclusively establishes the presence of adulterants.

Women’s view on Lead in Lipsticks

How do well educated, professionally successful women react when they come to know that a trusted beauty accessory like Lipstick is actually harmful to their health ? Do they feel furious, betrayed, indifferent ?

I showed the Times of India article on Lead in Lipsticks (about the CERS study) to a few beautiful ladies in the age group of 20 -30 and explained  the salient points of the study, the reaction obtained from them was quite interesting.

Can we avoid toxins & adulterations altogether?

Always thought presence of harmful chemicals in food and cosmetics was a hoax.

Why would respectable companies and brands resort to such a thing? After all it takes them years of R&D to design the right product mix and then spend big PR and marketing dollars  to build up the trust, good will and loyalty of their customers. Will anyone undergo so much trouble just to told one fine day that their product was and is harmful to their loyal customer base?

This exactly seems to be the case, when i read this article in the Times of India regarding High Lead content in Lipsticks