On Fri, 2 Aug 2002 16:51:42 -0400, Kathryn Rosenthal <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> When I think of what women in my home town need to defend
>themselves against it is mind boggling:  contaminated food, polluted air
and
>water, lawn chemicals, dry cleaning chemicals, carcinogenic cleaning
>products, makeup and body lotions, chlorininated water, carcinogenic
treated
>wood, fabric, etc.

It's quite often that I hear a more pessimistic point of view on pollution,
toxins etc..
I think we shouldn't be too pessimistic. The medias have a tendency to
outline every possible problem as big as possible.
And there's quite a lot what you can do.
I'd like to provide a few thoughts I've implemented so far:
>lawn chemicals, dry cleaning chemicals, carcinogenic cleaning
>products,

Some years ago I realized that many cleaning prodicts, particularly whashing
agents could have a big impact on us (me). Clothes you wear many hours on
your skin.
My method is so far: bedclothes and underwear and most leisure time shirts.
t-shirts etc I always wash with a simple soap-only washing agent.
It requires higher temperatures (about 60 deg C) and takes a little longer.
It doesn't radically clean away very nasty blotches.
But so what? blotches can be handeled individually or soaked and what
happens to underwear ab bedclothes is easily washed away.
From time to time I use a   bleach (oxygen bleach).
The advantage: no optical brightener to brighten my skin.
No defatting of my skin by radical clensing agents. With the soap you
actually have no agent residues at all in the clothes. The hard water
(calcium) disables all soap residues.
No perfumes no superfloous enzymes and nasty chemicals.
White busines skirts I do wash from time to time with optical brightener
containing agents.
I think this all greately enhanced my skin condition.

>dry cleaning chemicals,
are unnecessary, useless. (if you choose the right clothes)

>lawn chemicals,
you can avoid them and just use untreated things

>carcinogenic treated wood,
just don't paint your wood with poison.
Things which are *built* well dont need it anyway.
You can find wood houses which are hundreds of years old -- with few signs
of damage. They didn't have wood painting toxins for all the  thousands of
years - they are unnecessary

>makeup and body lotions,
I think it's wise to avoid the preserved creams.
I use a little skin oil in the morning and it works perfect for me.
Against UV radiation and air pollution toxins on the skin the a pure
vitamin-E containing oil offers protection. I use a product I make myself of
red palm oil - it has the most efficient tocotrienols.
I call it Cutrienol. It doesn't need preservation.

>chlorininated water,
good water isn't available anywhere. I have good water in the tubes.
Otherwise I drink bottled water

>contaminated food,
There are *many* evil things that may come into food.
Intentionally or environmentionally. Even ordinary chemical fertilizer which
is used everywhere in non-organic farming contains radioactivity
(calium-40).

You can buy organic. Be shure or not - so you have the best chance.
You can buy at a farmer you know (things that keep longer like carrots,
unyuns, many vegetables)
With meat I have no experience of course, but I think here the need to buy
organic or wild or at least healthy-fed items is even more important than
with plants because animals accumulate many of the toxins of the plants they
eat.

food... and of course: you can avoid all ready made food items.
With all the preservatives, hardened fats all the additions.
With a little experience it's easy to cook efficientely (with little time)
from fresh items. Hellps to avio a lot of bad stuff.

>polluted air
It's your decision to live in a polluted area.
I go everyday into a "bigger" city - to work there.
I decided to sleep outside, where the air is great.

I think most of the dangers and toxins so many people speak so much about
*are* possible to escape from. Just don't go into every modern trend.

With a little caring about rough topics as I've described here I think you
can live comfortably and easy without having worries.
I don't think much about toxins etc..
Think once, arranging some things, relax and enjoy life.

regards

Amadeus S.