Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Stay Well this Flu Season
Hand-washing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to cut your risk of getting sick and spreading illness. Here are the do’s and don’t of hand washing to keep you healthy this winter:
One of the most important reasons for hand washing is all the germs our hands come in contact with when we touch surfaces around us. Studies show that the average adult touches their face with their hands about 16 times per hour and 80% of infectious diseases are spread by touch. Frequent hand washing can cut your risk of colds by up to 50%.
Here are the latest tips from the Mayo Clinic:
Always wash your hands before:
- Preparing food or eating
- Treating wounds, giving medicine, or caring for a sick or injured person
- Inserting or removing contact lenses
Always wash your hands after:
- Preparing food, especially raw meat or poultry
- Using the toilet or changing a diaper
- Touching an animal or animal toys, leashes, or waste
- Blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing into your hands
- Treating wounds or caring for a sick or injured person
- Handling garbage, household or garden chemicals, or anything that could be contaminated — such as a cleaning cloth or soiled shoes
In addition, wash your hands whenever they look dirty (of course!).
How to wash your hands
It’s generally best to wash your hands with soap and water. Follow these simple steps:
- Wet your hands with running water.
- Apply liquid, bar or powder soap. ( Here at Alabu we prefer bar soap which is the most gentle for your skin)
- Lather well.
- Rub your hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds. Remember to scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.
- Rinse well.
- Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel or air dryer.
- If possible, use your towel to turn off the faucet.
How to use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer
It is always better to wash the contaminant off your hands than trying to kill them. Flu viruses seem to be more resistant to hand sanitizers than bacteria. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers, which don’t require water, are an acceptable alternative when soap and water aren’t available. If you choose to use a hand sanitizer, make sure the product contains at least 60 percent alcohol. Then follow these simple steps:
- Apply enough of the product to the palm of your hand to wet your hands completely.
- Rub your hands together, covering all surfaces, until your hands are dry.
Antimicrobial wipes or towelettes are another effective option. Again, look for a product that contains a high percentage of alcohol. If your hands are visibly dirty, wash with soap and water.
Keep in mind that antibacterial soap is no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap. Using antibacterial soap may even lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the product’s antimicrobial agents — making it harder to kill these germs in the future.
Help children stay healthy by encouraging them to wash their hands properly and frequently. Wash your hands with your child to show him or her how it’s done. To prevent rushing, suggest washing hands for as long as it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice. You might place hand-washing reminders at your child’s eye level, such as a chart by the bathroom sink that can be marked every time your child washes his or her hands. If your child can’t reach the sink on his or her own, keep a step stool handy.
Hand-washing is especially important for children in child care settings. Young children cared for in groups outside the home are at greater risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, which can easily spread to family members and other contacts. Be sure your child care provider promotes frequent hand-washing or use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers. Ask whether the children are required to wash their hands several times a day — not just before meals. Note, too, whether diapering areas are cleaned after each use and whether eating and diapering areas are well separated.
A simple way to stay healthy
Hand-washing doesn’t take much time or effort, but it offers great rewards in terms of preventing illness. Adopting this simple habit can play a major role in protecting your health.
Discuss SCA 2011!
The wonderful people over at Personal Care Truth have started a Facebook page dedicated to discussion of the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011. You can check it out right here: http://www.facebook.com/HR2359. Go ahead, get involved!
Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Support SCA 2011
Robert Tisserand at Personal Care Truth
The Environmental Working Group, who have given birth to this legislation, is an incompetent organization that does not understand the science of toxicology, does not understand natural products, and that takes a biased, negative view of safety, often seeing dangers that do not exist.
This is about the best summary I’ve heard of the Environmental Working Group. For those of you who don’t know, Robert Tisserand is considered by most people in our industry to be the world’s foremost expert on essential oils, and an expert aromatherapist. Generally when he speaks, I listen.
You can read the rest of his article right here.
Made-up Cosmetics Concerns
(Via Personal Care Truth or Scare)
A frustrated ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross wonders why such needless regulations are being written by a chemophobic activist group whose only expertise lies in scaring the public and manipulating consumer fears about chemicals. “They even have the temerity to actually take ‘credit’ for calling cosmetics harmful and laced with such ‘toxic contaminants’ as phthalates, formaldehyde, and metals,” he says. “These products have been in widespread — indeed, universal — use for decades, and now, according to the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (a creature of the Environmental Working Group) and its lackeys in Congress, they have suddenly become a health hazard?
Additionally, many of these “toxic” chemicals occur naturally in low doses in the foods we eat every day. Apples, for example, contain small amounts of formaldehyde—not from any human action, but they actually produce them as they grow. It’s small facts like this that can be used to make wild claims like “this lipstick contains cancer-causing formaldehyde”, when it could just be that it contains an apple extract. Groups like the Environmental Working Group aren’t generally interested in the truth, though. Just how they can present information in a way that fits their agenda.
Remember, any time a discussion about toxicity comes up, you can’t determine if something is toxic until you find out what kind of dosage you’re talking about. It’s the dose that makes the poison.
Where is the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011?
Via LMRodgers at Personal Care Truth
Now, is it me or is this beginning to feel like a huge PR move by Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Edward Markey (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) to build momentum and excitement for The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 so when the bill is finally made public, we will all be blinded by the warm fuzzies, and won’t bother to read what’s in it?
Unfortunately that doesn’t sound as crazy as it should.
I’m also wondering if the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the EWG don’t have a hand to play in this little game of cat and mouse. When you read all the posts and updates coming from their camp, it’s obvious they have a front row seat, and probably have a copy of the bill on a desk in their offices. They sure do have a great many aspects of the bill they are pointing out, and how great they will be for consumers. I’m pretty sure they have a copy of the bill because they are the driving force behind this proposed legislation. Do you think I’m too off the mark?
Nope. Let’s not forget the money trail for the EWG.
The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 is introduced today
Via HSMG
HR 2359 The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 is introduced today. Look for bill text later today on the HSMG Blog when it becomes available.
Oh boy. I can’t wait to see what’s in the bill this time around. Let’s hope all of our efforts last year didn’t fall on deaf ears!
Best Products for Sensitive Skin
Via Colin Sanders at Colin’s Beauty Pages
But based on my personal experience and a bit of understanding of the way the skin works, the advice I would be most inclined to give is to simply use as little of anything as you can get away with. Your skin is most likely to heal most quickly if you simply leave it to itself.
I have to say, this is great advice. Of course it’s immensely important what product you use, but in general, the less the better.
Update on The Safe Cosmetics Act
Kayla Fioravanti via Essential U
With your help we all made a lot of noise – enough to have earned open lines of communication that have allowed your voices to be heard behind the scenes. Leigh attended the June 10th meeting with the Soap Guild’s D.C. advocate Marry Anne Walsh of Roetzel and Andress.
I’d like to say thank you to all of our customers who signed the petition and showed support. It’s been a long tough battle, and this is good news.
We must stay vigilant in order to insure that the new language of the Safe Cosmetics act does not fall into the category of indefensible bureaucratic stuff.
Couldn’t agree more.
What is Lye Soap?
I recently received a question asking us to consider making “lye soap”. Since every bar of alabu® is actually lye soap, I thought I would take the opportunity to shed some light on this subject. First, I would like to say that nearly all bar soap is lye soap. However, that doesn’t mean when you buy a bar of big-brand x that it’s lye soap. So, what’s the difference? Read the rest of this entry »
What’s in a name?
Have you ever wondered what the name Alabu means? We get this question a lot so I thought I’d shed some light on it. It all started way back in the beginning of the year 2000 (that seems like so long ago). My mother had made soap for about three years at this point, and we were selling soap and candles online at a Read the rest of this entry »