To be honest, I have never used an “organic” cosmetic, skincare or haircare product before mainly because I always thought that the ‘chemicals’ were not as strong as brand name products. I have used all the example of product that Annie Leonard has mentioned: Pantene Pro V, Herbal Essence, Estee Lauder products. I found it really shocking that these products contain cancer-related toxins because they’re very good quality.
When choosing a product in the supermarket, I noticed most of them claim that they did no animal testing. Seriously, I still have no idea how companies would sample cosmetics on animals, also how does animal skin relate to human skin?? But I do know they would’ve tested it on women. I’d be more interested in how many had bad reactions to it and what the other women thought of it. The ingredients list also annoy me a lot, I don’t even know 95% of it besides ‘water’! So I never bother reading the ingredients when I choose beauty products.
Annie Leonard said that industries are making their own safety standards; I do notice that some products claim it has been approved by the FDA. Sure it does make the product sound safe to use, but who bothers checking the standards?? I don’t. So nobody really knows what the safety standards are since they don’t explain which parts of their product qualify the FDA.
Tresemme Nourishing hair care line has been the latest fad because it claims to have ‘lower sulfates’ and even on reviews people have supported this newest and first ever ‘natural’ Tresemme hair wash. I wanted to purchase it since so many people and skincare bloggers claim it’s safe to use. Unfortunately my sister beat me to buying it, and we have a rule that we can’t use each other’s things. Now I have to find another organic hair wash which is typically twice the cost of it drugstore hair wash. (Why do I have to pay more to be organic?)
The design solution for this is simple, packaging designers should include information every day consumers would want to know. If they pass ‘their safety standards’ then the product will be purchased, if it doesn’t, well the companies will have to reformulate their products.
Fiji bottled water was my favourite bottled water until Annie Leonard ruined it for me. I remember as a young child, there use to be so many news reports about tap water being unclean and at times contaminated. At that time, my mum stopped me from drinking water from the school bubblers and from then on, she kept buying bottled water for me every day till this very day. We have a monthly supply of inexpensive bottled water at home. We take one every time we go out and bring it home unfinished and are thrown away straight away. My family and I am the biggest contributor to plastic bottle wastes seriously. I wish I had seen this video earlier! I did some research and apparently you can re-use a water bottle for a maximum of 28 days before it starts to mould/grow bacteria.
I personally do not care about if its tap water, spring water or even ‘purified water’ from bottles. I’m now more concerned about the waste now. I’m not sure if restaurants are serving tap water to customers because of the environmental issue or they just don’t want to pay extra money.
Our university also turned ‘green’ by using tap water bubblers for people to refill their water bottles and for quick refreshment. I am not sure if the design department decided to add this to the campus but this is a very simple and effective little instalment. Every time I walk past it, there is always a person using the bubblers. Designers should really come up with something similar by producing one product that could be shared by thousands of people.
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Throw away your bottled waters and start drinking tap water!
Alicia has mentioned in the comment below that there is a major health issue with children drinking from bottled water and not tap water which already has fluoride in it. The United Press International reported that bottled water isn't causing tooth decay, fluoride is added to our tap water system to slow down the rate of tooth decay. When we drink tap water, the element binds to other minerals in the tooth enamel to prevent the demineralization and promote remineralization of the enamel. However only some countries have adopted the fluoride tap water system.
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Throw away your bottled waters and start drinking tap water!
Alicia has mentioned in the comment below that there is a major health issue with children drinking from bottled water and not tap water which already has fluoride in it. The United Press International reported that bottled water isn't causing tooth decay, fluoride is added to our tap water system to slow down the rate of tooth decay. When we drink tap water, the element binds to other minerals in the tooth enamel to prevent the demineralization and promote remineralization of the enamel. However only some countries have adopted the fluoride tap water system.
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Picture above:Tooth Decay Trends (12 year olds) in Fluoridated vs. Unfluoridated Countries |
Another thing to look at is if bottles should only be used for around a month, maybe the bottle material is all wrong. There are bio plastics being used by some companies, such as Charlie's.
ReplyDeleteAs another point of interest, tooth decay is a major health problem due to children drinking bottled water rather than tap water which usually has fluoride added
Wow tooth decay, I'll look further into that. Thanks Alicia!
ReplyDelete