Environmentally friendly products can benefit the body and the pocketbook
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Allison Ottersbach says about 10 years ago, she had four or five migraine headaches each week.
Now she has about one migraine a month. She credits the use of eco-friendly products and the removal of toxins from her life.
 Jacob Croft Botter/News-Journal Photo | ||
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"These products sometimes cost a little more, but the health benefits are amazing," said Ottersbach of Gilmer.
Ottersbach described her migraines as debilitating.
"When I was around rubber, plastics, cigarette smoke, or even an ashtray, I would react," she said.
Ottersbach kept a journal, writing when the headaches would begin. She said she noticed a pattern of migraines starting after she had been near certain products, such as rubber or plastic.
After doing research, Ottersbach made gradual changes to remove those products from her life.
She says she was worried about the legitimacy of green products when she first switched to them.
"These products really work, and there are more and more out there all the time," she said.
Consumers who switch to eco-friendly products will see a difference in their lives, and the first place may be their pocketbooks, said Paul McRandle, deputy editor of the The Green Guide, an online environmental magazine.
"The area where consumers will see biggest change will be in their bills," McRandle said. "One of the main reasons people go for efficient light bulbs and appliances is because they want to save money and reduce emissions. You don't have to go into this with a mindset of making 'green' your top priority. Going green will also be a way to save gas."
While some eco-friendly products cost more, some cost about the same. Green cleaning products cost roughly the same as regular products, but without the toxins.
"People are more concerned about the quality of the air in their home and how clean they get things. You can make cleaning products that will clean as well as more industrial items. Simple vinegar and water will both clean and disinfect," McRandle said. "You get that advantage without the disadvantage of harming your skin, drying out hands or having reactions to ammonia. It's an immediate benefit."
While there also are health benefits to switching to nontoxic products, the changes are not linked directly to improving allergies, said Steven L. Cole, a doctor of osteopathy at the Park Lane Allergy and Asthma Center at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
"There's not a whole lot of evidence to support using all natural products over the regular products that you would find at a local supermarket to clear up allergies," Cole said. "What you do see is those patients who are sensitive to any sort of fragrances. Fragrances that will trigger the same sort of symptoms as when a person has allergies. It's more of an irritant than an allergy."
Dr. Todd Holman, a Longview allergist, agreed there is no evidence to support eco-friendly products clearing up allergies. He added that people can mistake allergies with irritation.
"It very difficult to tell the difference between an irritant response and an allergic response," Holman said. "Your nose is like a baby, it only has a few things that it knows to do. It drains. It itches. It stops up. Irritant responses look a lot like allergic responses, but immunologically they are completely different."
Holman added that 10 or 20 years from now doctors may have a different understanding of how green products can relate to allergies.
When searching for green products, McRandle said consumers should look for two things: certification and ingredients.
For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has an organic label for foods that are certified as organic. Green Seal is a nonprofit organization that certifies products, such as household cleaners.
"Those certifications are a way to be confident that producers have met base-level criteria for being green," McRandle said.
He said consumers also need to familiarize themselves with reading labels and checking ingredients.
"If a brand won't tell what is in the product, look at the product next to it. A lot of times cleaning companies want to keep secrets, but they should tell you the ingredients," he said.
The Internet and local health food stores in Longview, such as The Granary and Jack's Natural Foods, are places for people to start switching to organic, eco-friendly products.
"When you start getting into healthier community, you start to network," Ottersbach said. "People have books and recommendations."
Ottersbach and her family, which includes six children, use nontoxic cleaning products and natural hygiene products. Their home is an older house with laminate wood floors.
"We bought an older home instead of a newer house because modern building materials are often more toxic. For example, particle boards have a lot more formaldehydes," she said.
The Ottersbachs replaced carpets with laminate wood floors because when carpet is wet from being cleaned, the glue emits gases. She said vinyl flooring also emits a gas.
When painting the house, they used low-emission paints that are nontoxic. Ottersbach says she uses mostly green products to clean her home.
"It's becoming more common to find products that are not phosphorus and contain no bleach," Ottersbach said.
Ottersbach says she was not always as concerned as she is now with what she eats, drinks and the cleaning or hygiene products she uses. Now she can tell a difference in her health and says she will continue using eco-friendly products.
"I don't think this is a fad. I think people are looking for answers to why they are sick and why they have allergies," she said. "I think the environment that we live in is so important. I look now at everything that we do and everything that we buy."
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Local green
Local stores, such as the Denim Lounge and Jack's Natural Foods, offer organic products that are environmentally friendly.
- At Denim Lounge, consumers will find clothing such as Zooey T-shirts and Christopher Blue jeans that are made with organic cotton, bamboo and eco-friendly dyes.
- Jack's Natural Foods carries many products that bear the USDA organic seal. Products include organic chicken, fruit bars, crackers, cookies, apple cider, tortillas, flour, cereals and oatmeal.
Other national stores also carry green products.
- Wal-Mart offers several eco-friendly cleaning products, makeup and shoes.
- J.C. Penney carries a line of eco-friendly bedding.
- Target sell T-shirts made with 100 percent recycled cotton.
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Green sales
The popularity of green products has increased in the past 10 years. According to a study by Consumer Reports, organic sales increased 20 percent between 1997 and 2006.
IN 2007
- 9 percent of shoppers had shopped in the past 30 days at a specialty organic store, a 1 percent increase from 2006.
- 17 percent of shoppers said organic was an important factor in shopping for groceries, while 6 percent said it was an overriding factor.
- 80 percent of stores offered natural and organic food, a 7 percent increase from 2005.
Source: Food Marketing Institute's U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2007 report
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