After a rigorous approval process Lilou Organics is proud to announce our membership has been approved by Co-Op America!

Co-op America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982.

Co-op America's mission is to harness economic power - the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

Co-op America works for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the bounty of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.

What makes Co-Op America Unique?

• Co-op America focuses on economic strategies - economic action to solve social and environmental problems.
• Co-op America mobilizes people in their economic roles - as consumers, investors, workers, business leaders.
• Co-op America empowers people to take personal and collective action.
• Co-op America works on issues of social justice and environmental responsibility. We see these issues as completely linked in the quest for a sustainable world. It's what we mean when we say "green".
• Co-op America works to stop abusive practices and to create healthy, just and sustainable practices.

Lilou Organics is proud to be a member of Co-Op America and we encourage you to visit the Co-Op America website: www.coopamerica.org

What's in mainstream baby-care products?

• a variety of harmful ingredients; used by large manufacturers because they are inexpensive and will yield the highest profit margin.
• according the the American Enviromental Protection Agency, standard chemicals are ten times more toxic to children than to adults, and children receive 50% of their lifetime cancer risks in the first two years of life (see complete article on our website).

Common ingredients to avoid:

Although there are a number of harmful ingredients found in just about all personal-care products, these are some of the most common offenders:

Check out the ingredients on the skin-care products you use in your household!

What to look for in baby products:

Try to avoid any of the above ingredients, but most importantly – don't get fooled by labels! Many so-called natural baby-care (or adult) products claim to be organic or natural but still contain a number of toxic ingredients. Either learn your ingredients and learn to read labels carefully, or buy your products from a trusted store that only sells products which are organic and non-toxic (like us! We’ve yet to find a reliable store... that's why we started our company).

Where to get more information:

There are a number of excellent websites and books in the market; however, if you're looking for a summarized version (but longer than this!) than check out our website and read the link at the top of the homepage titled "Why Use Organic", and the link at the bottom of the homepage titled Interesting Reading.

The Environmental Working Group encourages people to sign their letter to Wal-mart to stop distributing the unsafe practice of using fluoridaed water in baby products. The following is background information on the petition and links for you to use. The Environmental Working Group writes:

In a little-noticed but dramatic turnaround, the nation's leading fluoride advocate, The American Dental Association (ADA), issued an alert on November 9th urging parents to avoid fluoridated water when reconstituting infant formula.

The dentists are worried that fluoride exposure at this age will permanently damage teeth, not protect them. A growing body of research also links fluoride to weakened bones, reduced thyroid activity, and possibly bone cancer in boys.

The advice, however, has gone largely unheeded. Nursery Water, the nation's leading fluoridated water for babies still markets its product nationwide at Wal-Mart and other major retailers.

If you want to learn more about this topic, read the American Dental Association Advisory on Infant Formula and Fluoride article from November 9, 2006

Visit the Environmental Working Group website to sign the petition.

We recently found a fantastic article one one of our favorite websites called www.thegreenguide.com called Preserving Your Health by Emily Main. We wanted to share some of the article with you:

Cosmetic preservatives are second only to fragrances as the most common cause of skin reactions, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. But preservatives are necessary components of most personal-care products, says Zoe Diana Draelos, M.D., clinical associate professor of dermatology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. "Preservatives are there not only to keep the makeup fresh on the shelf, but also to prevent you from contaminating the product," Draelos says.

Some preservatives, however, present unnecessary health risks. When shopping, look on labels for the following:

Common Preservatives to Avoid

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires listing most ingredients on labels but does not conduct safety tests. While some of the chemicals below have been tested and deemed "generally recognized as safe" by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR), an industry-funded organization, other, independent studies have raised cause for concern.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA): Used mainly in lipsticks and eye makeup, BHA is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen," according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2005 11th Report on Carcinogens. It's also been found to trigger contact dermatitis.

"Formaldehyde" Preservatives (diazolidinyl urea, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, quaternium-15 and bronopol) (sometimes listed as 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol): These preservatives either contain, release or break down into formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen and neurotoxin as well as skin irritant. Bronopol, when combined with other ingredients such as triethanolamine (TEA), diethanolamine (DEA) or the sunscreen chemical PABA, can contribute to the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines, according to the FDA.

Grapefruit seed extract (GSE): While consumers may think they're purchasing a "natural" product, seven out of nine samples of GSE preservatives contained either benzethonium chloride, a suspected hormone disruptor, or benzalkonium chloride, a skin and eye irritant, a May 2006 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found.

Kathon CG (sometimes listed as methylchloroisothiazolinone): Highly irritating to skin.

Mercury (thimerosal): The FDA has allowed neurotoxic mercury to be used as a preservative only in eye makeup at concentrations no higher than 65 parts per million (ppm), "provided no other effective and safe preservative is available for use." Yet the federal government has established a maximum consumption level for mercury of one ppm. Mercury is readily absorbed through the skin.

Parabens (methyl-, propyl-, butyl- and isobutyl): In addition to being suspected hormone disruptors, these chemicals have been shown to cause chronic dermatitis and are irritating to the eyes.

Safer Alternatives

The chemicals below have shown no deleterious health effects in non-CIR studies thus far, and the CIR has published its safety data on these ingredients in peer-reviewed journals.

Sorbic acid/Potassium Sorbate: While potentially irritating, especially in eye makeup, these preservatives have demonstrated no other detrimental human health effects.

Tocopherols (vitamin E): CIR found that these preservatives have very little potential to irritate skin and posed no additional health threats.

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) compounds (L-Ascorbic Acid, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Sodium Ascorbate and Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate): These have shown little risk of skin sensitization and no toxic effects.

Essential oils: Many companies are using essential oils with inherent antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, such as lavender, rosemary, rose, thyme and tea tree oils, to preserve cosmetics. A study in July's Science News found estrogenic properties in tea tree and lavender oils, and both were linked to enlarged breasts in young boys. Parents should avoid these ingredients in children's personal care products. Other essential oils haven't been independently tested for safety or efficacy, therefore it's important to follow expiration dates or the time guidelines listed below.

What You Can Do

*Take The Green Guide's Smart Shoppers' Dirty Dozen card with you for vetting ingredients. Download at www.thegreenguide.com/doc.mhtml?i=100&s=10uglies.

*Be vigilant about following expiration dates and throw out cosmetics when they get old. Some general guidelines:

Foundations and lipsticks = one year
Mascaras and eye makeup = three to four months
Powders = two years

*Choose products with a lower oil content, which generally require fewer preservatives. Some products, such as raw shea butter, require no preservatives at all.

Lilou Organics is a responsible retailer of organic and natural make-up products:

Click here to read more of the article.

Lilou Organics recently found an online article about organic oral care on thegreenguide.com by Danielle Masterson. We'd like to share with you exerpts of her informative article titled "Take Care of Your Teeth Without Chemicals":

Supermarket shelves abound with toothbrushes, toothpastes, dental floss and mouthwashes claiming to be the "latest and greatest" in oral care. From tartar control and fresher breath to whiter smiles and fewer cavities, the choices can be dizzying.

Like any other personal care product, those meant for oral hygiene can be laden with unnecessary chemicals, some of which can adversely affect our health due to carcinogenic, tumor enhancing and skin damaging properties. However, there are a few key ingredients to avoid and alternatives to be found when browsing the shelves.

Toothpastes

Toothpastes play a leading role in our daily routines. We brush our teeth to ward off plaque, gingivitis and bad breath. And the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends that we brush twice daily for good oral health. Yet in the process, could we also be exposing our teeth and gums to unnecessary chemicals? The answer depends on the product you use.

Toothpastes often contain a number of chemicals, cleansers and sweeteners, many of which can be found on the Green Guide's "Dirty Dozen" list. Common chemicals to be on the look out for include sodium lauryl sulfates (SLS), which may damage the skin and gums; hormone-disrupting parabens, which may be linked to the development of breast cancer; and other synthetics such as artificial sweeteners.

A number of natural toothpastes can be found in either your local grocery store or co-op. These products are free from potentially harmful additives, have met federal safety requirements and still taste great and leave your mouth fresh and clean. With a variety of purposes and flavors, your choices are anything but limited.

Before you commit to a new toothpaste, you might want to consider whether fluoride is a necessary part of your oral care routine. For more information on the pros and cons of fluoride, read "Protecting Your Kids This Fall: Fluoride, Ozone and Mercury."

Click the picture to purchase a non-floride toothpaste today:

Click here to read the entire article.

We read an interesting article on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) website titled "Tell FDA: No nanotech until we know it is safe".

Lilou Organics also received a newsletter from EWG about Nanotech in Body Products so we've included it below for you to read:

While industry and government officials debate the safety of nanotech, EWG analysts have already moved forward to identify 256 popular products where nanomaterials are listed as ingredients. Products include eye liner, moisturizer, bronzer, lip balm and sunscreen.

You can sign onto our letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to request that nanomaterials be clearly identified and assessed for safety before they are used in personal care products.

Why should you care? Nanomaterials are super-tiny manmade chemicals that may pose extraordinary and unpredictable risks to public health. FDA is concerned about these micro-sized ingredients because their toxicity may be very different, and potentially more severe than normal-sized chemical ingredients.

Industry is slowly adding more nanomaterials to personal care products, even though none of the nanomaterials found on product labels in Skin Deep have been assessed for safety.

Chemicals in your cosmetics = chemicals in you

Are you curious about the chemicals in your body? EWG, in partnership with Stanford University, is conducting a scientific study to test young women age 14-19 for chemicals found in many cosmetics and personal care products. If you're interested in participating, or know someone who might be, contact Becky Sutton at 866-222-7059 x304 to find out more about this study.

Vote for Us with Working Assets!

Are you a Working Assets customer? Then vote for EWG today!

Each year, Working Assets selects 50 groups to receive portions of their year-end donations. EWG's on the list, and we need your vote. It costs you nothing. Vote Now!

Earth Mama Angel Baby has been working for a long time, sorting through red tape and endless forms and it's now all been worth the effort! In October, Earth Mama Angel Baby proudly announced the birth of their brand spankin' new organic certification from www.QAI-inc.com.

Now seven of the Earth Mama Angel Baby 100% organic herbal tea blends will now sport the USDA Organic Seal on their labels. Stay tuned... soon the rest will have their "Organic" or "Made With Organic Ingredients" certification too.

Buy Certified Organic Earth Mama Angel Baby products from Lilou Organics Today:

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