Cinco Vidas

What do you think would happen if you got a wild hair and decided to spend a week slathering yourself with shampoos, soaps, deodorants, and perfumes? Most of us do a little of this every day, but let’s say you were curious and upped the ante a little, took a few more showers, and used a few more products. Would you end up carrying around more chemicals?

Those of us concerned about toxic ingredients in our everyday products work hard to get the message out. Some of us go a little crazy in the effort. Take two environmental advocates from Canada—Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. Fed up with the lack of regulatory response to toxic concerns, they decided to be guinea pigs in their own chemical experiment. They spent a week in a condo, surrounded with typical sources of contaminants, like personal-care products, canned foods, and stain-resistant clothing and furniture. (more…)