Major Study Finds More

Dangers in Many Home Care Products

Watkins All-Natural Home Care Products are a Safe Alternative to chemicals that are dangerous to you, your family and the environment.

What's lurking in your household products? According to a recent study of more than 200 cleaning and personal care products, researchers have discovered estrogen-mimicking chemicals that can cause hormone disruption.

“These endocrine disruptors may disturb the way hormones work by mimicking estrogen, androgen or thyroid hormones, thereby stimulating or blocking production of these hormones when absorbed into the body,” according to Robin Dodson, a researcher at the Silent Spring Institute, who led the study. "This is the first large, peer-reviewed study that looked at hormone-disrupting and asthma-related chemicals in a wide range of consumer products," said Dodson. The results were published in a recent issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Some industry groups, such as the American Cleaning Institute, have raise issues with such reports, stating that they just “alarm consumers unnecessarily. " The study's authors, however, argue that they aren't instilling fear but raising awareness. “Something as simple as better labeling on products allow consumers to be more informed and make their own decisions,” believes Dodson.

J.R. Watkins is a shining example of such a practice. Way back in 2009, J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care product line received certification from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Designed for the Environment (DfE) program. Products meeting the DfE’s high standards are granted approval to display the seal on packaging. The DfE seal ensures consumers that cleaning products displaying the seal have been formulated using the safest ingredients for human and environmental health. By working closely with cleaning product manufactures, the DfE has diverted the use of more than a billion pounds of harmful “chemicals of concern.” in the last five years. Look for the DfE seal on J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care packaging.

Why are natural home care products important?

• Cleaning products are released into the environment inside your home and down the drain to the outdoors.

• 37% of Americans suffer from chemical sensitivities, skin rashes and allergies, many of them provoked by chemicals in cleaning products.

• Reactions can include; eyes watering, breakouts, skin rashes, coughing or sneezing uncontrollably.

• Asthma is the leading cause of emergency room visits and absenteeism in schools.

• Children breathe faster in proportion to their body weight than adults, making them more vulnerable to chemical exposure.

• Warm baths and showers open pores so that what we have cleaned with is more readily absorbed.

Clean out those harmful chemicals lurking in products under your kitchen and bathroom sink

For further information about all of Watkins All Natural Cleaning Products and how to order them in time for your spring cleaning ritual, click on the following link. It will take you into that section on the online catalog:

http://www.watkinsonline.com/productsgroup.cfm?Parent=6&family=250&gCatalogLocale=USA&ECredit=383372&group=616