In my final post about the book, Not Just a Pretty Face, I would like to leave you with some thoughts that came to mind when I was reading the book. Points that I will be pondering as I shop for shampoo, face cream, cosmetics or any other personal care product.

I came away with a few things to think about….

1. Cosmetic companies say that the minute traces of harmful chemicals that they use are not concentrated enough to cause harm. However, add up the number of products you use on a regular basis. Now imagine each one of those has trace amounts of chemicals that cause cancer and other long-term health issues. Now started adding them up. Now what about the other places where you might be exposed to those same chemicals: in your food packaging, in your food, in your furniture, that new car. It starts to add up.
2. Each chemical/product is tested independently. They don’t test how a combination of chemicals, based on the combination of products you use, affects your health.
3. All of these chemicals have more profound effects on our youngsters. Girls are trying out make up, nail polish and hair products at an earlier age. Many of the chemicals affect developing girls far more than they do fully developed adults.
4. Companies that put millions of dollars into public relations campaigns to help find the cure for cancer are making that plus millions more selling the products that may be the cause of the rising cancer rates.
5. The beauty industry tells us that if we are fair skinned we should be using products that give us that healthy tan look, while if we are dark skinned we should be using skin-lightening creams. Both types of products are extremely toxic.
6. The beauty industry pays for image manipulation to create images of women that are unattainable, and then sell you products that they ’suggest’ will help you attain the unattainable. Do they have your best interests at heart?
7. A small group of high school students in California played a large part in enacting legislation that forces cosmetics companies to disclose to the state if their products contain ingredients linked to cancer or birth defects. They were up against a billion dollar industry.

If you would like to talk more about the book, join us at Chapters-Indigo Ethical Consumer Book Club and join in the discussion.

“I was watching that movie Mad Max, you know that movie where gas is so precious that people are killing each other for a few gallons. It was set in the future — I believe it was August.” –Jay Leno

I hear panic in their voices, blame of other nations, doom and gloom about the future. I hear about the price of gas, the cost to fill up the gas tank to get my neighbour from home to work and back again. But it is about more than just our gas tanks; it is far more involved than that.

It is about the cost of fuel to bring our cheap goods from overseas and our exotic fruits from southern gardens. The cost of a barrel of oil affects the cost of the fertilizer we spread in our gardens, the cosmetics we use, the plastic bags we get at the grocery store, the heat for many of our homes, and the list goes on.

So we can panic, blame, whine or we can figure out what power we have, what we can control and use that power. I am not going to suggest that farmers should take their goods to market in a wheelbarrow or that travelling health care workers should take the bus from client to client.

I am suggesting that each and every one of us can decide how we are going to react to the changing market conditions. No matter whether you believe that the market will adjust itself and all will be well by October or whether you believe we are heading for a huge depression that will start with another black October Monday, we can make a difference.

We as consumers make choices everyday. We can choose where to shop, how much to spend, which companies and products to support. We can

• Rethink our lifestyles,
• Refuse to be part of the problem,
• Reduce our consumption,
• Reuse what we already have, and
• Recycle where possible.

Call me an optimist, but even in the movie, Mad Max, the sun was still shining.

To read the details…Oil hits record $142 US

If you live in B.C. you probably received a cheque for $100.00 (or more) in the mail this week. This cheque is the government’s climate action dividend and is really meant to offset the first ever revenue-neutral carbon tax slated to come into effect July 1st (Happy Birthday Canada!) and to be collected at the pump.

Gas is slated to increase by 2.4 cents per litre because of the tax and apart from the other latest price increases related to the cost of a barrel. Here are some other numbers to put it into perspective.

According to an Angus Reid poll taken in March 2007

• 19% of Canadians drive 25,000 km or more in one year,
• 45% of Canadians drive between 10,000 and 25,000 km in one year,
• 35% of Canadians drive less than 10,000 km per year.

So if the average British Columbian drives between 10,000 and 25,000 km a year it will take the average driver two years to use the climate action dividend to offset the new tax. This is based on a mid-sized car that consumes 11 litres per 100km of city driving. To be clear, if that were your car, you could drive about 37,800 kms or about 18,900 km each year for two years before you started paying your 2.4 cents per litre at the pump.

What are British Columbians really going to do with that cash? Here are some other suggestions…

According to the BC Government you could choose to buy energy-efficient light bulbs, shop locally for produce, or purchase eco-friendly upgrades in your home. No matter what you do, they suggest your decision can make a big difference.

The Tyee has started a Green Your Campbell Cash campaign. As they point out B.C. now has a collective $440 million to do with what they wish. The Tyee has made it possible for people to commit their $100.00 to a good cause, submit worthy projects and vote on their favourites. As stated on the site, it “is intended to showcase B.C.-based climate change projects.”

The provincial NDP suggests you give it to them. Why? To fight the carbon tax slated to start July 1st. They have launched an axe the tax campaign.

How are you going to use your cold hard green cash? No matter what you do with it - refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle before you consume. B.C. enjoy your green.

After reading the book, I had a lot to think about and had some questions for Stacy Malkan, the book’s author. Stacy graciously took the time to answer my questions, and here they are…

EC: How did you go from newspaper publisher to founder of Campaign for Safe Cosmetics? Was there an ‘aha’ moment in your life or was it a slow transition?

Stacy Malkan: For four years, I published the Summit Free Press, a monthly alternative newspaper covering politics and the environment in the Colorado Rockies. Then, in the year 2000, I moved to Washington DC to work as assistant press secretary for Ralph Nader’s presidential campaign. What an experience that was! (A story for another time.) After the campaign, I stayed in DC to work on environmental issues, and was hired as communications director of the international network Health Care Without Harm. It was the best job in the world for me. For seven years, I got to work with and learn from many of the leading researchers, scientists and activists in the field of environmental health. We launched the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics during that time. In the book, I describe what we learned about the toxic chemicals in everyday products, and share stories about the inspiring people I met along the campaign trail.

EC: Why did you publish the book in Canada with a Canadian publisher? This is definitely an American book with very little reference to Canada?

Stacy Malkan: Canadian publisher – New Society Publishers has been around for 25 years printing books to build a sustainable, healthy society. I share their vision. They also have an excellent reputation so I trusted them to do a top-quality job with my book, while allowing me to have editorial control. I was especially happy with their design — the book cover is quite striking! I’m convinced that cover is a big part of why the book has been so popular.

EC: Did you come across information about Canada? Or consider discussing Canada in your book?

Stacy Malkan: While the book is based on stories that were unfolding in the United States, the topic is relevant to a global audience and includes perspectives from women around the world. Canada faces many of the same problems as the US with chemical safety, given the lack of regulation in both countries over cosmetics and chemicals, although Canada is ahead of the US in some respects.

EC: 4. How did this book contribute to the change that you work so hard to bring about? Here’s my story…
My 12 year old daughter wants to wear make up and read those magazines I avoid. I read her excerpts of the book and from there we looked at before and after images of models and actresses. She still wants to wear make up but has changed from wearing anything to reading labels and choosing products that do no harm. She also knows that every time she looks at a photo of a model, that it is fantasy and not reality. Thank you.

Stacy Malkan: Your story makes me so happy! Tell your daughter bravo, she is already way ahead of the game, because she is learning to question things for herself, to do her own research, and to think about the kind of economy she wants to support with her money. In my talks, I often point out that the $50-billion beauty industry has so much power over our lives – over our minds, our sense of selves, and even over our health. But the real story is, we have the power – we get to decide which products we put on our bodies, which companies we support with our money, and which stories we believe. My hope is that young girls everywhere will learn to see past the airbrushed illusions of the beauty industry, and learn to find their true beautiful selves, and that we work together collectively to create new economic systems that are healthy for people and the planet. I believe women are going to be the ones to bring about this change, so it is critically important for women to reclaim our power, our bodies and our health.

I’d like to thank Stacy for taking the time to give me her thoughts. Do you have a story to tell? We’d love to hear it.

June is Bike Month - hurrah! Truth be told, I haven’t been doing my Bianchi Milano cruiser much justice lately. I make excuses about being busy but spending some quality time on my bike has been weighing heavily on my mind. As we contemplate Bike Month, we must also contemplate the real reason for our celebration of the bicycle: the car.

Relationships with cars have grown increasingly love-hate; we know their effects and resource intensive nature are detrimental yet their ubiquity makes it difficult to imagine life without them. Even further, many of our North American communities have been built with cars implicitly in mind and enable them as our main form of transportation. It is difficult to change a multitude of overarching structures overnight but the process has to start somewhere. Bike Month is a good time to re-evaluate if owning a car is necessary or if it is just another corporatized way of making life easier and worry-free…in the short-term.

Any car owner has probably mulled over the costs of owning a car vs. permanently parking it at the curb to determine what they would be saving if they theoretically bid their fair automobiles farewell and traded them in for an emissions-friendly option, like a bike. There is a website that can tell you just that - http://www.bikesatwork.com/carfree/cost-of-car-ownership.htm. It is American but with the help of a little currency conversion you should get a pretty good estimate of how much cash owning a car is actually costing. Sure, the site’s design is a little bland and the colour scheme isn’t particularly remarkable but this is about numbers here!

If you own a car, go ahead and plug in some expenditures - you’ll quickly see how yearly payments add up and what you would have for retirement, college savings, or the mortgage on your home instead. An average of 17% of family household income was spent on car ownership and operating expenses in 2004, and that number has most likely climbed even higher given rising fuel costs and an uncertain energy sector. As Bill McKibben wrote, “There’s no filter you can stick on a car that will stop it from emitting carbon dioxide. What you need is, for instance, a train. Or a bicycle.” Time to go dust off my Bianchi.

Anyone want to share any shocking car/bike revelations???

Sixteen lakes in Canada are being considered for toxic dumpsites for mines. These lakes have fish, wildlife drink from these lakes, these lakes channel into other lakes and so on.

Let’s look at one example. According to the CBC online article Lakes across Canada face being turned into mine dump sites, “In northern B.C., Imperial Metals plans to enclose a remote watershed valley to hold tailings from a gold and copper mine.”

Who are the parties and what position do they take?

Imperial Metals, represented by Steve Robertson, exploration manager….His position:

• The economic benefits of the mine will be enormous.
• The project can bring a lot of good jobs.
• The environment will be carefully managed.

The Tahltan people, represented by, James Dennis, elder…His position

• They live 18 kilometres from the mine site.
• The animals will be drinking that water and will suffer.
• When the mining company is done, they’ll leave a legacy of pollution that his grandchildren will have to live with.

James Dennis doesn’t mention anything about economic benefits or a lot of good jobs and his people aren’t asking the large mining companies to come in and help them. He can see past that into the future and his vision is to keep that future possible through sustainable choices

Is it necessary to dump tailings into a lake, riverbed or other living ecosystem? No, there are other alternatives but they would cost the mining companies, money that they are not interested in investing in the future of Canada.

Gordon Peeling, president of the Mining Association of Canada came into the picture in another CBC article on June 17^th, Dumping mining waste into water ‘more responsible’: fisheries minister.

“The preferred solution is obviously a man-made structure, but when topography does not allow that, or when in actual fact a surface structure might be more risky … it may not be possible to find an appropriate level area that would allow that to be done,” Peeling told CBC News.

I find it intriguing that they can use explosives to dig deep into the earth, set up underground work stations for employees to mine for minerals well below the surface, but do not have the technical know-how to build appropriate containment ponds because of the topography. Even more intriguing is that the fisheries minister agrees.

I have been reading a lot about Bill C-61 the new copyright law and there is a lot to read. It has taken me a long time to get through the material, and not being a lawyer, even longer to figure out what it all means to me, the consumer.

As I just said, I am not a lawyer so this is just my point of view. That said, I find a few of the changes unacceptable. I’d like to share these with you in hopes of inspiring you to get involved.

First off, this is a Bill not a law. It has NOT taken effect yet. There is time to show Bill the door.

5 reasons to show Bill (C-61) the door…

1. You will be able to transfer one copy of music legally obtained (i.e. paid for, not borrowed from the library or a friend) to each of your devices. So one to your computer, one to your iPOD, cell phone, MP3 player and so on. Unless there is a lock on the CD in which case it would be illegal to break the lock and you would not be able to transfer the music to any of your devices since breaking that lock would then be illegal.
2. You would not be able to transfer any of your DVDs to your IPOD touch since they have locks on them and it will be illegal to break that lock for your own personal use.
3. If you buy a cell phone for $300.00 and then decide you want to change providers you will have to buy another cell phone since it will be illegal to break the lock on the cell phone in order to change providers. I guess cell phone companies could give the consumer permission to do so, but you can bet that will come at a price.
4. Students and teachers will be able to use copyrighted materials on the Internet unless those materials are “restricted by a digital lock or prohibited by a clearly visible notice” (Copyright Reform Process, Fact Sheets, Education and Research Amendments) and the student and teacher must use the material from a source that has the right to post the material in the first place. This burden of proof on teachers and students is unreasonable.
5. I kept seeing that the most a consumer could be sued for was $500.00 until I read the section on hacking a digital lock which allows for damages up to $20,000.00 per work in statutory damages. These figures do not include punitive damages a judge may decide to award.

There’s more, but these are the five that stood out to me as enough reason to see this Bill to the door. To read more about the effects of Bill C-61, go to

Copyright law could result in police state: critics on the CBC.

To find out what you can do, go to

Join Michael Geist and his 30 Things You Can Do initiative and protect your rights.

I was afraid when I picked up this book. I wasn’t sure I was ready for the truth about my bad habits, especially in June when I am getting ready for a summer at the beach. But I knew I needed to learn the truth and this book delivers.

The first sentence of the prologue got me off to a good start as Stacy starts with, “I confess: I’ve always been obsessed with cosmetics.” I immediately knew I was in the right place. I found some of the statistics and stories hard to read, but Stacy’s intent is not to scare or judge, but rather to inform and inspire us to make changes.

Inform and inspire it does. I read some passages to my daughter who is now starting to experiment with make up. We went a little further and looked at some before and after shots of models. My daughter is now only using make up that will not harm her (yes, it exists!) and isn’t aiming for the unrealistic in body image.

The prologue ends with, “This is a story about creating the world we want to live in. It’s a story about champions…who are working toward a vision of a new green economy that is healthy for people and for the environment.” This quote sums up the book beautifully. Not Just a Pretty Face is about

* Harmful chemicals found in personal care products.
* Real people and their part in this vision of a new green economy,
* Organizations that are working hard for change,
* Beauty myths that we have bought into and the financial, emotional and physical ramifications of those choices,
* Companies that lead the ‘fight’ against cancer while selling products that may be contributing to the growing numbers,
* Companies that are pioneering a return to true beauty, and
* The triumph of some of the youngest activist working to change the industry.

This book is educational, inspiring, and hopeful. The last chapter gives us information about what we can do, from monumental tasks such as organizing with others, to small personal contributions such as making better purchasing decisions.

For more information www.notjustaprettyface.org

If you haven’t read it yet, read it soon…

So you are heading out to the beach and can’t decide whether to slather on some lotion before you head out the door. It can be difficult to figure out all those bottles on the drugstore shelves.

So here’s the question…

When out in the sun and you want to protect your skin, you should choose

* Sunscreen
* Sun block
* A lotion with both
* Not on my skin!
* What’s the difference?

What’s the difference? Good question. Although the words are often used interchangeably, there is a difference.

Sunscreen is a chemical formulation that absorbs the sun’s rays, protecting you from UVB rays. Sunscreens are classified as drugs in Canada and must adhere to the requirements as set out in Canada’s Food and Drugs Act. Different sunscreens may have different classifications based on their active ingredients. Sunscreens do let some rays in.

Sun block contains physical ingredients that reflect the sun’s rays rather than absorbing them. The two most common ingredients are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Sun block tends to reflect both UVA and UVB rays.

Most commercial brands are a combination of sunscreen and sun block. The advantage of this may be better sun protection today, but in the long run using sunscreen may put you at risk of long-term health issues.

When trying to sort through all this information I turned to the people in the know to find out what they do. Alain, from the Green Beaver Company, only uses sun block as the effects of the various active ingredients in sunscreens concern him. Karen, from Bare Organics, makes her own sun block with zinc oxide as a base.

If you are like me and won’t be making your own, try Mexitan a more natural alternative that can be found at the following retailers…

Ethical Consumer: Sun Care

No matter what product you use

* Cover up
* Avoid the sun during peak hours, 11AM to 3PM
* Wear a hat with a brim
* Use sunglasses

And enjoy the summer!

I have to admit that I like a good cut, soft shiny hair, and yummy smelling shampoo and conditioner. It’s the yummy smelling shampoo that tends to get me into trouble, as it’s the fragrance of a product that is often the reason we are at risk of long-term health problems.

In fact, there is so much to avoid that that Health Canada has a 22 page document listing chemicals that are either restricted or prohibited.

Although the Canadian government requires ingredient labeling, in which ingredients must be labeled in “descending order of predominance” there are some exceptions to that. Colouring agents, fragrance and flavour or aroma do not follow these guidelines. Colouring agents can be listed in random order at the end of the list no matter their concentration. Ingredients that either add or mask scent do not need to be listed as long as the word fragrance is listed.
So what? It smells pretty

The ingredients hidden behind the word ‘fragrance’ may be causing long-term health problems such as cancer. However, under our current system ingredients are acceptable as long as they have not been proven to cause problems. So until they are proven harmful they will continue to find their way into the 10 or so personal care products that you use everyday.

Unfortunately, testing focuses mostly on short term issues such as skin irritation or harm to the eyes. While this is important, we should also be looking at the long-term effects of some of these ingredients. The big one you hear a lot about these days is phthalates, which is used to prolong the life of scent and colour in personal care products. In studies in animals, it has been shown to cause birth defects in the male reproductive system.

However, in Canada, phthalates can still be used in personal care products because there is no definitive scientific proof that phthalates affect the human male reproductive system. In Europe on the other hand, the EU works on the precautionary principle, which states that if there is some evidence of harm, then an ingredient should not be used. Phthalates have been removed and products have been reformulated to use safer alternatives.
What to buy?

First of all, if you can’t pronounce it, that is a problem. Look for companies that list ingredients that you can pronounce and understand. Phthalates is pronounced THA-lates.

Secondly, do they use words such as fragrance, perfum, or aroma in the ingredients? If they do, that is a warning sign to stay away.

Finally, is the company willing to put their ingredients on their website or send them along in an email. Do they have a page that helps you understand what ingredients they use and why? Or do you have to stand in the aisle with your arm outstretched trying to read the fine print ingredients?

Here is a link to the beauty and cosmetics companies listed in Ethical Consumer.

Ethical Consumer Beauty and Cosmetics