Storage and Sustainability

After calculating my Carbon Footprint from coolcalifornia.org I came to the conclusion that I use more than the earth can provide. This seems to be a common trend among the millions who consume the same if not more than me which may give reason as to why we’re in the hole we’re in. Sorry. The second calculation gave me a footprint of about 15 versus the 18 before and all I did was cut out some gas mileage and shopping expenditures. Seeing that I didn’t use the myfootprint.org I wasn’t sure how to calculate the “earth” unit but it would make sense that if I was using 503% of the worlds average I would need 5 earths to supply the amount of resources I’m currently depleting. Not sure on that one…

The other half of this post is in regards to how safe or what dangerous chemicals are in our daily hygiene regiment. Using cosmeticdatabase.com I researched some of the common products that I use on a regular basis such as shampoo, tooth paste, and mouthwash. The results showed that I was only getting a little bit of poisons. The products I researched head and shoulders, scope mouthwash, and crest tooth paste each had a mild score of about 5 out of 10 but the real point to notice is that the average has a few outlier. The head and shoulders had a number of variables that were all relatively low but there was at least one variable that was a big red 8 out of ten and on the side notes it added that this chemical has been known to cause “Developmental/reproductive toxicity,” which doesn’t sound like something I want on my head… or shoulders. The tooth paste and mouth wash also seemed to follow the same trend where the overall number was 5 out of ten but each of them had at least one chemical that received a 9 out of ten.

To be honest after researching cosmeticdatabase.com I wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. I shower everyday as do many people and the products that I use on a daily basis score relatively average but still my exposure to toxins is still there. It kind of goes against everything that I do, should I not brush my teeth? Where do I find shampoo that will not give me cancer?! I believe that toxins in these cosmetics have the ability to enter the body even at an insignificant amount but I still don’t want it. I guess looking into this exercise is to just give consumer/student a heads up and just to be aware of the chemicals and toxins that we may have not knowingly applied to our bodies.