NIX/R&C
Both are classic head lice treatments of the “pour pesticides on those buggers” variety. But they rely on chemicals to which lice have grown resistant, and that’s spawned super-lice. Over-the-counter Nix uses synthetic permethrin (highly toxic to cats, bees and fish) in a blend that contains parabens. R&C contains the “natural” version of permethrin. Both are banned for use on lawns but are somehow okay for your kid’s head. They also come with a “Do not inhale” warning. Nix $19.99/R&C $11.99
Score: N
HOLISTA TEA TREE OIL AND SHAMPOO KIT
Wish I could tell you tea tree oil is a super-effective remedy. Alas, it’s just so-so – plus it can trigger rashes and aggravate chronic skin conditions when you douse skin directly. FYI, the oil in this kit is “100 per cent pure” tea tree, but I can’t say as much for the shampoo. It’s got a couple of ethoxylated ingredients (-eths) often tainted with carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane and is preserved with formaldehyde-releasing DMDM hydantoin. Not so holista. $18.99
Score: NN
RESULTZ
Instead of using pesticides with which lice have grown bored, this drugstore remedy works by dissolving the wax on the bugs’ exoskeleton, dehydrating them to death. The active ingredient, isopropyl myristate, is partly fossil-fuel-derived but otherwise harmless to humans. Clinically shown to cure over 80 per cent of patients within seven days. Can be pretty drying to the skin, which may be why it’s paired 50/50 with smoothing cyclomethicone, which unfortunately happens to be toxic to aquatic life. $20.99
Score: NNN
ZAP
This one has a big “natural” label with a green leaf on the front and a little seal that says it’s insecticide-free. And, surprise, that’s pretty true! The main ingredient is star anise oil, and it’s mixed with fractionated coconut oil, rubbing alcohol (which is fossil-fuel-derived but otherwise benign) and ylang-ylang oil, and that’s it. It’s been clinically tested by universities in Miami, Jerusalem and Paris small trials found it has a 92 per cent efficacy rate. Best with Licemaster comb. Available at drugstores. $26.99
Score: NNNN
NIT PICKERS SHAMPOO KIT BY LICE SQUAD
Lice Squad rock because they’ll do the nit-picking for you. Their nit comb is considered excellent, and they offer an enzyme-based shampoo to kill critters without building their resistance. (It has a little ethoxylated ingredient but is otherwise clean). Lots of kits are available online, including this one with Nit Pickers Secret Enzyme Shampoo, lice sticks and the Louse Trap comb. Locally made. From Big Carrot and licesquad.com for $48.50.
Score: NNNNN
Nature Notes
NEW NANO GUIDE
Funny how something can be quite pervasive yet utterly invisible. There’s no better example than nano-particles. At a width of 1/100,000th of a hair follicle, these often dodgy particles (many linked to health and enviro concerns) are unseeable and everywhere, according to a new listing of nanotechnology-based consumer products put out by Virginia Tech and the Wilson Center last month. It so far catalogues over 1,600 consumer items, from makeup to socks, but it’s a “living inventory,” meaning if you spot more nanos on shelves, you can register to add them and tell the world about them. Check out nanotechproject.org/cpi.
Greenwash Of The Week
BABY LIFE NATURALS ULTRA SOFT BABY WIPES
Glad to hear these Shoppers Drug Mart brand wipes are free of fragrance, parabens and alcohol. The packaging talks up the fact that they are made with organic cotton (though not sure how much) “and other naturally derived fibres.” (By the way, most wipes are made with naturally derived wood pulp that’s been dissolved in a polluting chemical soup, aka rayon.) But oddly, the first ingredient, besides water, is not so natural: propylene glycol (from fossil fuels), linked to contact dermatitis. The product also contains more worrisome formaldehyde-releasing 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, the stuff Ecover was shamed into taking out of its dish soap.
HANDS OFF MY HORMONES
Campaign targets endocrine disruptors
“Hands off my hormones,” the message put out by Breast Cancer Action Montreal last month, is being echoed by a number of major consumer and cancer groups on both sides of the border as campaigns against hormone-disrupting chemicals ramp up.
With corporate-pinkwash-tainted Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the rear-view mirror, maybe there’s more air in the room to talk about some of the hidden compounds linked to the rise of hormone-related cancers.
“It’s our alternative to the pink campaign,” says Breast Cancer Action Montreal’s website. Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) are so diverse and widespread, Patricia Kearns of BCAM says, that the campaign is really about the fundamentals: “getting people to understand what EDCs are and how dangerous to our health they can be.” Especially, she adds, in light of the UN’s declaring EDCs “a global threat” to human health and wildlife earlier this year.
Right on cue, DC-based Environmental Working Group and Keep A Breast Foundation just released a guide to some of “the most problematic” hormone disruptors we’re routinely exposed to. Known for their popular Dirty Dozen list of pesticide-laced produce, EWG is hoping this new Dirty Dozen list of endocrine disruptors becomes equally embedded in our collective consciousness. It includes big baddies phthalates (in scented and vinyl products), flame retardants, non-stick PFCs, organophosphate pesticides and BPA.
Speaking of which, a U.S.-based Breast Cancer Research report out earlier this fall says that although it’s great that we’ve banned BPA from baby bottles and formula, “a closer look at the science reveals that this focus on babies may be missing a fundamental and urgent issue: fetal exposure to BPA is of even greater concern than childhood exposure.
“While it’s important to limit children’s consumption of canned food, the science is telling us that we need to pay much more attention to protecting women who are pregnant or may become pregnant.”
Renée Sharp, EWG’s director of research, says of hormone disruptors in general that “it’s important to do what we can to avoid them, but at the same time we can’t shop our way out of the problem. We need real chemical policy reform.”
While Europe’s proposing a holistic approach to tackling EDCs as a whole and Canada stays stuck in the muck, U.S. retailers, at least, are offering some sort of progress on the North American chemical front.
Last month, mega-retailer Target announced it would start scoring 7,500 household and beauty products on eco and health factors, rewarding products that avoid a list of 2,000 carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and developmental toxins, but stopping short of barring those chems from shelves. This on the heels of Walmart’s September announcement that it would be phasing out about 10 toxins from cleaners and cosmetics.
Perhaps our Big Biz-friendly government will take some cues from corporate America, which at least on the chemical front is actually starting to listen to the people who keep it in business.
