Fabric Softener, Killing Us Softly Part 2

Fabric Softener, Killing Us Softly Part 2
Last week was a real wake up call for me and I bet for you, too. Did it concern you to learn that the everyday items like fabric softener we have used for years is partly responsible for the disease epidemic today? Well, part one of the story about fabric softeners was pretty scary wouldn’t you say? Today I want to pre-warn you…this information will rock your world to the very core.
The real lesson I’ve learned in the past few weeks is simpler is better. We’ve allowed ourselves to get all wrapped up in pretty advertising; the packaging, the fragrance, the cutesy commercials leading us by the nose to our slaughter. Maybe the baby-boomers of yesterday knew a thing or two after all.
Remember, last week we discovered what ingredients are in the great smelling, silky soft liquid or slick dryer sheets. Now let’s take a look at what those big words mean. Are you ready for the real story about how fabric softener is killing us softly?
Tell me what those ingredients are
  • Diethyl Ester Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride – Yet another ingredient in laundry detergents (DEEDMAC). It is a fabric softener. It works by reducing the friction between fibers, and between fibers and the skin. Hair conditioners use this trick also. You can think of a hair conditioner as fabric softener for your head.

What confused me was the claim to it being an ingredient in detergent. Didn’t the history of fabric softener tell us that it wasn’t compatible? Yet, now here it is one ingredient in the product itself that is not compatible with the very idea of the softener. Hmmm, I smell a rat, don’t you?

  • Ammonium Chloride: Ammonium chloride is used in and to work on oil wells with clay swelling problems. It is also used as electrolyte in zinc–carbon batteries. Other uses include in hair shampoo, in the glue that bonds plywood, and in cleaning products. In hair shampoo, it is used as a thickening agent in ammonium-based surfactant systems, such as ammonium lauryl sulfate. Ammonium chloride is used in the textile and leather industry in dyeing, tanning, textile printing and to luster cotton.
  • Calcium Chloride: Calcium chloride can act as an irritant by drying out moist skin. Solid calcium chloride dissolves, changes chemically when heated, and burns can result in the mouth and esophagus if it is ingested. Ingestion of concentrated solutions or solid products may cause gastrointestinal irritation or ulceration
  • Formic Acid: Formic acid has low toxicity (hence its use as a food additive). The concentrated acid is, however, corrosive to the skin. Formic acid is readily metabolized and eliminated by the body. Nonetheless, it has specific toxic effects; the formic acid and formaldehyde produced as metabolites of methanol are responsible for the optic nerve damage, causing blindness seen in methanol poisoning. Some chronic effects of formic acid exposure have been documented. Some experiments on bacterial species have demonstrated it to be a mutagen. Chronic exposure to humans may cause kidney damage. Another effect of chronic exposure is development of a skin allergy that manifests upon re-exposure to the chemical.
  • Polydimethylsiloxane: Many people are indirectly familiar with PDMS because it is an important component in Silly Putty, to which PDMS imparts its characteristic resistant stretch properties. The rubbery, vinegary-smelling silicone caulks, adhesives, and aquarium sealants are also well-known. PDMS is also used as a component in silicone grease and other silicone based lubricants, as well as in defoaming agents, mold release agents, damping fluids, heat transfer fluids, polishes, cosmetics, hair conditioners and other applications. PDMS has also been used as a filler fluid in breast implants, although this practice has decreased somewhat, due to safety concerns.
  • Dimethicone is also the active silicone fluid in automotive viscous limited slip differentials and couplings.
  • Activated dimethicone, a mixture of polydimethylsiloxanes and silicon dioxide (sometimes called simethicone), is used in over-the-counter drug as an anti-foaming agent and red coloring. This silicone can be found in many processed foods and fast food items such as McDonald's Chicken McNuggets and Wendy's French fries.
Okay, I’ve had enough! Now the chemicals that are being slathered onto our skin are being used in the foods that we eat, too? I had to use the dictionary to look up many of the descriptive words just to understand the explanations! Did you catch that some of these ingredients are used in the automotive industry for our cars and machinery as lubricants? Come on, when are we going to wake up? Who do you know that needs to read this? If you love your children and grandchildren the way I do mine that answer is loud and clear…EVERYONE!
For all my friends out there that think they’ve got the tiger by the tail because they’ve gone “green”. I’m here to tell you…you’ve been lied to as well. Check out this next ingredient and stop believing what they tell us about natural, green, environmentally friendly products for our families.
  • Liquitint: I’ll let you see this with your own two eyeballs. Oh my word…click here
  • Benzisothiazolinone has a microbicide and a fungicide mode of action. It is used as a preservative in emulsion paints, varnishes, adhesives, washing agents, fuels and in the paper-making process. It is a known human immune system toxicant, and also is classified as irritant for skin, eyes and lungs. It is widely used as active ingredient of many home cleaning products.
  • Diethylenetriamine Pentaacetate: a calcium or zinc salt that is used to perform medical imaging of the brain, kidneys, and lungs. It is can also be used to remove certain radioactive materials, except uranium or neptunium, from a person’s body. DTPA is capable of binding to certain radioactive materials and speed up the release of these materials in the urine, thus reducing the amount of internal contamination. DTPA does not build up in the body or cause long-term health effects. People who are given repeat does of Ca-DTPA within a short period of time may have some of the side effects which include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, fever, itching skin, and muscle cramps, but these symptoms decrease between treatments. Ca-DTPA is safe for most adults, but people who have kidney disease or bone marrow depression, pregnant women or children younger than 18 years of age should not take it. Children and pregnant women under a doctor’s can take Zn-DTPA in small doses.
As if that list alone isn’t enough…there’s more.
 
Here is a list of SOME MORE toxic chemicals found in commercial fabric softeners:
  • Alpha Terpineol: can cause central nervous damage and respiratory problems
  • Camphor: causes central nervous disorders, is easily absorbed through skin
  • Chloroform: a carcinogenic neurotoxin preferred by Ted Bundy
  • Benzyl Acetate: linked to pancreatic cancer
  • Benyl Alcohol: respiratory tract irritant
  • Ethanol: on the EPA’s “hazardous waste” list, can cause central nervous system disorders
  • Ethyl Acetate: a narcotic on the EPA’s “hazardous waste” list
  • Limonene: a known carcinogen that irritates eyes and skin
  • Linalool: causes central nervous system disorders and depresses heart activity
Using a liquid fabric softener? You are pouring these toxic chemicals into the ocean every time you use it. Even worse than liquid fabric softeners are dryer sheets, whose chemicals are heated and then shot into the air for you to breathe into your lungs. That “fresh-from-the-dryer” smells that fabric softeners impart to your clean load of laundry? Don’t breathe it in, if you like your lungs to function. That super floral smell is masking a seriously unhealthy chemical stench.
The bottom line? You don’t need fabric softener. Why use a product that has been linked to various forms of cancer, brain damage and respiratory distress?
I looked at dryer balls but found there was an issue with them, too. They are made with a PVC core that when heated emits toxic fumes. So, the only safe alternative I found is to add a quarter-cup of baking soda or vinegar to your wash cycle and you will never have to use chemical fabric softener again.
I don’t know about you, but this fiery grandma has about had it with all the lies. I'm sick and tired of watching family and friends writhe in bed sick with aches, pains, diseases and infirmities only to be told by the doctor there's nothing he or she can do. It’s time we stopped settling for easy, accepting the marketers lies about the convenience of the products that are killing you and me, every time we blindly reach for those products that even our grandmothers used for years.
Let’s make a difference. Let’s take our health back into our own hands, protect our DNA, and give our children and grandchildren the guidance and the truth about softening their clothes without washing in toxic chemicals disguised as fresh-from-the-dryer soft.
Please, share this with every man, woman and child that does the laundry. There are affordable alternatives. Choose wisely and your pocketbook will fatten up as you become healthier each day.

 

 

Carla Gardiner is known as “THE Fiery Grandma” because she found new energy, endurance and youth. Her passion and purpose lies with baby boomer trends, the people she works with daily; aging men, women, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas who want to feel better, have more energy and have fun like they did when they were twenty-something. Join her for more energy, fun and profits.