How to Be an Earthwise Consumer

Our product choices can help save the environment and protect our health in the bargain, says consumer activist Debra Lynn Dadd

Ten years ago, Debra Lynn Dadd went through a spring-cleaning more thorough than most of us have even imagined. She began by throwing out every chemical in her home, from household cleansers to aerosol sprays. She tore up her carpet and took down everything from her walls. She shut off all her gas appliances, put a water filter on her shower, and got rid of her perfumed soaps, shampoos, and any foods that contained additives. The measures Dadd took to purge her environment of everything artificial or chemical may seem extreme to us. But for her it was a first step toward saving her life.

From childhood through her early 20s, Dadd suffered from headaches, swollen eyes, sore throats, fatigue, and constant depression.

Most nights she slept very little because of chronic insomnia Ü insomnia, she later discovered was caused by the formaldehyde in her permanent press sheets. She would often faint in the shower, which she later learned was a reaction to chloroform generated by the chlorine in the water supply. Periodically her symptoms would become so extreme that she could not leave her bed.

Until she created a new life-style that replaced toxic products with more natural ones, Dadd never knew what it was like to feel well. At 23, her symptoms had become so severe that, on the advice of her father, she visited a clinical ecologist. With his help she discovered that her illness was caused by an extreme sensitivity to common chemicals most of us breathe, eat, touch, or are otherwise exposed to every day. A low tolerance for these toxic chemicals, exacerbated by stress, had caused a breakdown in her immune system, which in turn made her even more chemically sensitive.

Dadd is not the only person whose surroundings have made her ill. The affliction variously known as environmental illness, multiple chemical sensitivities, chemical hypersensitivity syndrome, and total allergy syndrome affects a growing segment of the population. A 1985 study done for the EPA points to heightened chemical sensitivity as a possible consequence of chronic exposure to common indoor toxics. The five-year study found indoor air two to five times more polluted than outdoor air, and the researchers determined that common activities like using gas appliances, showering, and wearing dry-cleaned clothes can contribute to dangerous levels of indoor pollution. The Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Research Council has estimated that 15 percent of the population is hypersensitive to chemicals found in common household products. For these people, exposure to various chemicals may result in tension, memory loss, fatigue, sleeplessness, headaches, confusion, and depression, as well as gastrointestinal and respiratory problems and allergy-like symptoms such as sinus infections, dizziness, earaches, and watery eyes.

For Dadd, the diagnosis of environmental illness was the first step toward regaining her health. Little by little, through a process involving extensive research as well as common sense and guesswork, Dadd rid her home and her life of the chemicals that were making her sick. Her immune system grew stronger, and her health gradually returned.

It was also the first step toward a career as an environmental activist and one of the country's foremost experts on nontoxic consumer goods. Her first two books, Nontoxic & Natural and The Nontoxic Home, grew out of her own process of self-education and self-healing. In them, she focuses on the steps individuals can take to protect themselves from the toxic substances around them. She provides detailed lists of products and substances that may be unhealthful to individuals, from household cleaning products to carpets and tap water, and suggests safer alternatives.

Much of the information Dadd shares in her books stems from the investigations she made while trying to overcome her own illness. Indeed, her extreme sensitivity to toxic chemicals has made her body a kind of early warning system for the rest of us, and the research she has done as a result has significance for all of us who live in a toxic world. For years she tracked down information about the causes of her symptoms in toxicology books, government documents, and poison control centers. She learned that although she was unusually sensitive to toxins, many of the chemicals to which she was reacting could also have damaging effects on people with stronger immune systems. "The products we all use in our homes every day have a wide range of toxic effects," she explains. "Our bodies aren't used to these chemicals; we have no way of processing them." Long-term exposure to many household chemicals can cause cancer or lead to birth defects, according to Dadd.

For example, Dadd discovered firsthand that permanent-press sheets contain some unhealthy substance. "The first night I slept on untreated cotton sheets was the first time I slept," she says. Then she discovered in a book on dermatitis that permanent-press sheets are treated with formaldehyde, which can cause insomnia. This might explain why so many Americans need to take pills to help them fall asleep, she points out.

Similarly, Dadd began researching the toxic effects of carpeting after she discovered that her own wall-to-wall carpets were making her sick. In researching Nontoxic & Natural in 1984, Dadd learned that most wall-to-wall carpeting contains formaldehyde, pesticides, pentachlorophenol, and other toxic substances. At that time she could find no studies to back up her claim that the presence of these substances was harmful to our health, but the evidence of her own experience was convincing enough. Now, several years later, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Product Safety Commission are studying the relationship between carpeting and indoor pollution. Dadd, who has firsthand experience of this relationship, offers readers of her newsletter, The Earthwise Consumer, practical tips for sealing carpets to block toxic fumes, as well as suggesting alternatives to toxic carpets.

Once Dadd had solved the mystery of her own illness, she began to ponder what it meant to live in a world that was capable of making her so sick in the first place. She came to believe that it is not enough simply to protect ourselves from a world that is becoming increasingly poisonous, but that we must begin to heal the Earth itself if we want to be truly well.

As a result of this realization, Dadd has gone beyond the concept of self-preservation and forged a commitment to espousing fundamental changes that will protect both her own delicate immune system and the Earth's fragile ecosystem. Her newest book, Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise, reflects this shift. Although Dadd's work still focuses on specific consumer issues, she consistently insists upon the connection between the decisions we make as consumers and the way we feel about the world. This message is particularly relevant in the post-Earth Day marketplace, where more and more Americans are considering the effects of their purchases on the world outside their homes and are expressing their concern about the environment with their pocketbooks.

In her early work, Dadd writes in the preface to Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise, "I was assuming that the world was toxic and that I and others needed to somehow protect ourselves from it. This view was concerned only with what went on with in the four walls that defined my home; now I saw that what goes on within those four walls always has an effect on what happens beyond them. To take actions which destroy the ability of the Earth to provide its abundant natural gifts of nourishment for us and then try to protect ourselves from our own destructive actions and make an artificial life ultimately doesn't work."

Although Dadd remained committed to her work as a researcher and consumer advocate, she broadened the criteria by which she evaluated products to include safety for the environment as well as safety for individuals. Like her previous two books, Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise consists mainly of lists of safe substitutes for toxic products, but her new definition of "ecotoxicity" includes products that are safe for human use but nonetheless damage the ecosystem in their manufacture, use, or disposal. Biodegradable detergents, for example, are not harmful to humans, but when the molecules break down in water, they produce a substance that can kill fish.

Dadd provides consumers who wish to make the transition to a more harmonious way of living with a detailed set of criteria for evaluating products in terms of ingredients, packaging, energy use, compassion to animals, and social responsibility. Taken together, these factors determine the rating a product will get. Products are broken down into three categories: nontoxic, natural and earthwise. A nontoxic product is a least-of-all-evils alternative, generally made from non-renewable petrochemicals but not actually dangerous to humans and often somewhat better for the environment than other available alternatives. A natural product is made from renewable natural ingredients but not necessarily in a nonpolluting way that sustains the local ecosystem. An earthwise product is made from natural materials with a renewable energy source that does not pollute; it is biodegradable, has not been tested on animals, and is manufactured by a company that does not exploit its workers. The principles on which Dadd bases her system may be simple, but the standards an earthwise product must meet are extremely rigorous. To evaluate a product thoroughly, we must look at its impact on us and the environment at every step of the way„from production through consumption and disposal.

Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise continues the work Dadd has been pursuing for the past year with her newsletter, The Earthwise Consumer. Published eight times a year, the newsletter is printed with soy-based ink on recycled, chemical-free paper and includes product and book reviews, consumer-oriented news briefs from around the world, letters and tips from readers, a column celebrating the changing seasons, and advertisements from companies that manufacture and sell earthwise products. With 2,000 subscribers, the newsletter connects Dadd with a community of people who share her concerns and allows her to keep abreast of a constantly changing consumer marketplace. For its readers, its serves as a guide to making choices that will benefit both themselves and the environment.

Dadd makes her own choices, she says, by starting with one fundamental question: "Knowing that the Earth is wise, how would the Earth like us to live on it?" The Earth, for example, recycles completely, as organic matter decomposes and becomes part of the ecosystem again. Dadd believes that we should try to follow this example ourselves and not create any forms of waste that cannot return to the ecosystem. Standards like this are stringent and difficult to live up to, but Dadd believes that we will not preserve the natural world by "trying to inch away from the problem." It vexes her that people tend to ask questions like, "How can we handle garbage better, given that people are going to produce the same amount of garbage?" Or, "How can we take this toxic thing and make it less toxic? Instead," she says, "we should make a commitment to rid our lives and our environment of unhealthy substances altogether."

Because Dadd's standards are so rigorous, becoming an earthwise consumer may seem like an overwhelming task. But though the problems are indeed complex, the solutions are often simplicity itself. Household cleaning products, for example, can be dangerous on a number of levels, and many of their effects have still not been tested. Many of these products can damage us as we use them, causing anything from rashes to accidental death if swallowed, and they can also damage the environment when poured down drains and into the ecosystem. Once these chemicals make their way into landfills and water supplies, their effects are often impossible to chart.

Dadd's solution to this complicated problem has simply been to get rid of the stuff altogether, protecting her own health and that of the environment at the same time. "With homemade cleaners you don't have to pay for advertising, add another plastic bottle to the landfill, or buy a different product for every cleaning need," she writes in Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise. She says she keeps her own home clean using only three things: a reusable plastic squirt bottle of vinegar and water, a soap-based cleanser, and a can of Bon Ami polishing cleanser. Soap, she points out, has been used for thousands of years with no known environmental danger.

In fact, being earthwise does not necessarily mean inventing new ways of doing things, but often entails a return to centuries-old wisdom. Through reading about indigenous peoples and ancient civilizations, Dadd learned that "there was a time in history when people lived with respect for the Earth." She keeps readers of The Earthwise Consumer in touch with ancient traditions through the Seasonings column, where she has described festivals as diverse as Wuwuchim, a Hopi ceremony marking the dawn of Creation, and Candlemas, a Christian holiday that marks the advent of spring. Celebrations like these serve to reconnect us with nature, Dadd believes, a connection we also express through our daily choices of what to buy, use and discard.

Dadd believes that consumers need to make their own choices about what to buy and use, rather than mechanically following the standards she sets out. Both Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise and The Earthwise Consumer feature products that meet Dadd's criteria, but she also urges that we as consumers learn to evaluate products ourselves. "We don't have to be exposed to toxics. It's a matter of choice," she says. Since labeling laws are rarely strict or comprehensive enough, she points out, "Consumers need to be educated, to know toxic products from safe ones and be able to choose wisely. The idea that if a product is on the shelf it's safe is a total misconception."

Another such misconception is what Dadd calls the "false sense in the general public that we can continue to live our life style of heavy consumption and still save the environment." The strict standards Dadd uses to evaluate earthwise products serve to remind consumers that it is not always good enough to do a little less harm than before. "People think that if they go to the supermarket and choose paper bags over plastic, they're saving the Earth," she laments. What we really should be using to carry our groceries home, says Dadd, is reusable, organically grown cotton bags.

In the 10 years Dadd has been researching the health and environmental effects of consumer goods, media attention to environmental issues has skyrocketed, and Dadd is concerned that many manufacturers are now marketing dubious products with catch phrases like environmentally safe. "Companies know the environment is a hot topic, and they are looking for products they can bring out to tap that market," she explains. After spending two years investigating what makes a product environmentally safe, Dadd is suspicious of manufacturers who are quick to make claims for products they have not thoroughly tested.

One of her favorite targets is the new "biodegradable" trash bag that can now be found on most supermarket shelves. These actually break down into smaller, and possibly more dangerous, bits of plastic, she warns, and produce toxic waste in their manufacture. For a similar example of untruth in advertising, Dadd points to Wal-Mark, a chain of drugstores that has taken to putting up shelf-markers to designate products they claim are good for the environment. But this claim often has little or no basis in fact, according to Dadd. When a representative of a company that manufactures a genuinely earthwise cleaning product went to Wal-Mart and suggested they stock the product as part of their new environmental campaign, the representative was told that the chain preferred to put new signs on its old line of products.

As the enemy of products that are mislabeled nontoxic, Dadd also champions those she believes are genuinely earthwise. The Earthwise Consumer is full of information about unusual products like Cedar Mountain Mist, a highly concentrated cedar oil that can be used as an air freshener and insect repellent. This product is earthwise because it is healthful for both the consumer and the environment: The people who make it trim the cedars in a way that enhances the growth of the tree, and the product they end up with provides a healthful alternative to an aerosol can of petrochemical-based artificial fragrance.

Obviously, switching to a better brand of air freshener will not repair the damage most of us have done to ourselves and the Earth. But a product like Cedar Mountain Mist is a step in the right direction. With each purchase, Dadd says, we need to start asking the question "What do we need, and how can we obtain it in the most Earth-enhancing, health-enhancing, human-enhancing way?"

Dadd plans to continue helping people ask and answer this question. In addition to writing more books, she hopes to see The Earthwise Consumer grow and thrive. She also has fantasies of creating an earthwise bed and breakfast where people can discover what it feels like to sleep in a nontoxic room and wake up to an organically grown meal.

Although living a nontoxic, earthwise life takes time and effort, Dadd is convinced that if more people were exposed to its pleasures and benefits, more people would choose it. In order to make that choice, we as consumers need more information about the effects of the things we buy and use, and about what our alternatives are Ü information Dadd continues to provide. With a little education, she shows us, we can all begin a spring cleaning--of our homes and our planet.

The Earthwise Consumer, P.O. Box 1506, Mill Valley, Ca 94942

The Nontoxic Home Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Everyday Toxics and Health Hazards by Debra Lynn Dadd (J. P. Tarcher, 1984)

Nontoxic, Natural & Earthwise: How to Protect Yourself and Your Family from Harmful Products and Live in Harmony with the Earth by Debra Lynn Dadd (J. P. Tarcher, 1990; available through YJ's Book & Tape Source on page 78.)

Healthful Houses: How to Design and Build Your Own by Clink Good with Debra Lynn Dadd (Guaranty Press, 1988)

The Natural House Book: Creating a Healthy, Harmonious, and Ecologically Sound Home Environment by David Pearson with contributions by Debra Lynn Dadd (Simon & Schuster, 1989)

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