Several weeks ago I gave a lecture at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills entitled Facial care, Beauty, and Environmental medicine. I was very honored to share the stage with Ken Cook, the president of the Environmental Working Group. Ken gave a beautiful lecture on "10 Americans" that the Environmental Working Group has studied.

We were there on behalf of Tata Harper who sponsored the event. Her facial care products are totally pure and contain no harmful chemicals.

Studies show that when the average American woman walks out of her house in the morning, she has already applied over 120 chemicals to her body, in the form of moisturizers, lipsticks, makeup, shampoo, and conditioner. The major class of chemical in these products is called phthalates, and these chemicals are associated with everything from childhood behavioral disorders to breast cancer.

European countries which are quite aware of this, have banned over 1000 chemicals in personal care products. In the United States only nine chemicals have been banned.

The connection of these chemicals with human health is profound and I plan to discuss this in future articles on my blog. Information on these chemicals is coming out in the medical literature at a rapid pace. All of us need to pay attention to the personal care products that we use. We all need to try to avoid chemical products, and instead use products made with natural ingredients.

I can recommend two books will which help you understand how these chemicals cause health problems.

The first is No More Dirty Looks in which the authors Siobhan O'Connor and Alexandra Spunt review the categories of chemicals we all get in our personal care products and what diseases are associated with these chemicals. They then recommend healthy brands of products that do NOT contain any chemicals.

The other book I recommend is Slow Death by Rubber Duck written by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. In this book they discuss the chemicals in our products and what they can do to us.

The event was video taped and I expect to make my talk available for you to see.

Let me know what you are doing to avoid phthalates and keep yourself and your family healthy.

Here is a photo of me with Tata and Ken: