Well, we all know that we don’t want to give our kids another pile of plastic for Christmas this year, but be careful with those stocking stuffers too. Little girls love lip gloss, lotion and bath gel, and with every teen superstar fronting a beauty brand, who could blame them. They can wear Hannah Montana lip gloss and Gabriella body glitter. But how harmful are these seemingly innocent products?

Most of these mass produced glamour girl products are made as cheaply as possible, which means petrolatum. That’s right, the ubiquitous petroleum so many cosmetics manufacturers love so well. Petrolatum is a known human carcinogen and should not even be a choice for manufacturers but, unfortunately still is at this time. Products containing this harmful ingredient often list Mineral Oil on the label.

Let’s move on to color. Those tantalizing shades of hot pink and grapey purple that no little girl can resist, especially when they are loaded with synthetic glitter, are as un-natural as their color. D&C RED, FD&C YELLOW AND FD&C BLUE are developmental and reproductive toxins, as well as neurotoxins and harmful to our organ system, as stated by The Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Database.

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The European Union has introduced a new logo for organic food. The new logo will be obligatory in 2009 for all organic products sold within the European Union member states. But you can already see the new labelling on organic products.

It’s up to individual EU countries to decide if the new logo will be accompanied by national organic logos, such as the Swedish organic labelling KRAV.

Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Agriculture Commissioner, said that “this is an excellent agreement which will help consumers to recognize organic products throughout the EU more easily and give them assurances of precisely what they are buying.”

As a person and consumer you have the power to do something about climate change. Never forget or think otherwise. Sure you may wonder how much you’ll actually help by replacing your CFLs, recycling etc but in the end all small things path up to something bigger and more meaningful, especially when many join in.

This is part one of a series of posts explaining and giving advice on what you can do to combat climate change from your home, in the store, when you travel and on your spare time. All the things listed are easy to do, some things will take a little longer, but most of them will help save you money (besides all the positive effects on our earth).

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