Pesticides and toxins in household products, even baby shampoo

I'm not exactly a "green" type.  Anyone who knows me would definitely not call me a tree hugger of any kind.  I'm the lady at the grocery store who requests plastic bags.  And every week, everyone glares at me and I want to yell, "Sorry!  I forgot my green bags, okay?  The kids are dressed and wearing matching shoes and that's as much as I can remember!"

The point is, I'm usually very ANTI-organic, natural, blah blah.  However, I recently got to listen to someone talk about toxins in our household products.  Even though I can be a bit stubborn about green products, she told me one thing that really shocked and angered me.  Did you know there is formaldehyde in Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo?  I had no idea.  Formaldehyde can cause cancer and I hate the idea that I've been washing my kids' naked little bodies in formaldehyde all this time.  Apparently the FDA regulates food but not personal products. 

As a result of this lack of governmental oversight, there is actually a lot of bad stuff in the products we use every day.  When you think about pesticides, you probably think of fruits and veggies.  However, 80% of the pesticides we ingest are actually found in our homes and in all kinds of cleaning products, NOT fruits and veggies.  Since since this strange trend began of using pesticides in cleaning products, childhood cancer has increased by 28% and there is research out there linking pesticides to childhood cancer!   Bleach is a really bad one.  Did you know that it can cause childhood asthma?   Some schools have even banned the use of bleach.  Even though I think green products are often just a big racket and a waste of money, if I could do something to prevent the kids from getting asthma I definitely would.

So, my friend introduced me to this company, http://www.melaluca.com/ .  They make products that don't have pesticides.  They have a cleaning solution that is a good alternative to a 401-type spray that has been shown to kill all the bad bugs, even H1N1, flu, etc.  However, it doesn't have bleach so it won't cause asthma!  They have baby shampoo and soap that doesn't contain formaldehyde.  Even though I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing, I'm definitely going to try it because:

1.  I really trust my friend and she's a big believer in this
2.  It's actually cheaper than the stuff you would get at Target.  I have no idea how, but I compared the prices
3.  I feel like I owe it to my kids to at least try to prevent cancer and asthma.  I have to buy shampoo, cleaners, vitamins, anyway.  Why not buy them without pesticides??

This company is kind of like Costco in that you do have to belong to buy the products.  Yes, I joined.  I still wouldn't call myself a tree hugger, but you can now picture me in an akward half-hug with a tree.  It's definitely the hips out, one-armed hug that makes you cringe, but a hug nonetheless.

If you're interested, you can contact me and I'll get in touch with my friend.  Keep in mind I get NO compensation from this at all.  I just really do think it's worth trying. 
PS...let me know what you think of this!  Are you surprised by this or do you think it's all hooey??

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