The sour smell of perfume
http://news.in.msn.com/columns/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1351555
If you are serious about saving the world , remember that more than half of it is being destroyed for products we do not need. Let me show you some killers used by the perfume industry.
Ambergris, a much prized ingredient from whale intestines, is used as a fixative in perfumes because it is the slowest of all perfume materials to evaporate. It is actually bile secreted by sperm whales to help them digest food. A substance that looks like dung, perfume companies claim that it is vomited out and floats on water until it is either pulled in by fishermen or washed up on land. That is completely untrue. No one running a perfume industry that needs tonnes of the stuff is going to wait till bits of whale vomit are found by lucky beachcombers.
In actual fact it is obtained by killing sperm whales – something forbidden by the entire world since 1977 but still done by Norway and Japan. While the French may condemn whaling by these countries, France has the only facility in the world that processes ambergris and they buy it from are these two countries.
4 tonnes per year is the demand,. Ambergris is banned for trading in America and Australia but European perfume makers escape by pretending that either the ambergris is very old ( when I banned ivory trading in India many ivory merchants claimed they were selling the tusks of mammoths who had died 2 million years ago and whose tusks, strangely enough,had been dug up in Siberia.) or it has been found on the beach of faraway islands like Vanuatu or Falkland islands. In fact 96% of traded ambergris came from sperm whales and only 4% from shore wash-ups.
There are French companies that trade in ambergris all over the world even though trading in this animal product is strictly forbidden . It is listed in Appendix 1 of CITES which specifically excludes trade for commercial purposes in parts or products derived from the wild for. So even if someone found ambergris on the beach they would be unable to legally sell it. The sperm whale was declared an endangered species in 1970.
In the US the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 consolidated protection for the Sperm whale and its products.The Act states that it is unlawful to possess, sell, deliver, carry, transport, or ship by any means whatsoever any parts or products of an endangered species within the United States. This means that perfume companies in the United States are not allowed to buy or sell it or perfumes containing it. Australia has also banned it. Since 1981, importation of sperm oil and other sperm whale products has been banned by the European Union.
However companies that sell "natural perfumes" and "essential oils" even in the US however continue to use ambergris and internet websites sell it openly. They ignore the argument that the demand for this commodity means that unscrupulous hunting countries kill more whales. It is estimated that there are now only 360,000 sperm whales remaining, compared with a Greenpeace estimate of 1,500,000 in 1978.
Castor or castoreum is a creamy substance with a strong odour found in two sacs between the anus and external genitals of the beaver, a playful creature found in streams in Europe and North America. These "pods" are used as a fixative in perfume. The odour is used by male and female beavers to mark their territories but has become a single main reason for their genocide. In fact the word castrate comes from the Greek word of beaver, Kastor.
There are only two species of beaver left , both being hunted extensively for these anal sacs. They are dried, ground and put into alcohol to obtain the Castoreum perfume. Even though they are illegal they are advertised openly on the net.
Hyraceum comes from the Hyrax, an extraordinary animal who resembles an over-grown guinea-pig and is the closest living relative to the elephant. A hyrax’s brain is like an elephant’s, while its stomach is like a horse’s. The skeleton, is akin to a rhinoceros’s. The hind feet are like a tapir’s.
The upper incisors from rodents’ teeth, upper cheek teeth from rhino’s and the lower cheek teeth like a hippo’s. They even have two teeth in their upper jaw that resemble elephant tusks.
Hyraceum is formed from the urine of a Hyrax. The urine is not fluid, more like a jelly like substance. Hyraceum is the crystalised form of Hyrax urine and the animals are kept in cages till they die. The tincture is obtained by infusing the powdered raw material into alcohol for a few weeks.
The Musk Deer is another severely endangered victim of the perfume trade. At the rate it is being poached, that should be about 5 years from now. It is a small deer without antlers, large rounded ears and protruding canine teeth. Male deer have a scent sac which becomes active when they are about two years old. This sac secretes a substance known as musk which the stag uses it to mark his territory and to attract females. Each musk pod or kasturi weighs about 15 gm. This tiny pod is what the perfume trade wants.
About 4,000 adult male deer are killed annually. The French perfume industry alone used 15% of the world’s musk. All musk deer species have been protected by the International CITES pact since 1979. In spite of that all Asian wild populations are down by 80% in the last 10 years.
In India there were 30,000 in 1986 , there are less than 3000 today. Three to five musk deer are trapped and killed for every male deer. Since an average of 40 male deer with sufficiently large glands are necessary to produce each kilogram of musk, this means the killing of about 160 deer.
Poachers use steel wire snares to trap musk deer. These kill musk deer of all gender and age as well as other species. They cut open the live animal, take the sac and leave it to die in agony.
Hundreds of snares lie scattered over the Himalayas .As the population dwindles, the poaching increases, Since almost all the older males have been killed, the size of the pods is getting smaller and smaller as younger males are being killed. Which means more males have to be killed for the same weight.
Cites also bans i.e. the scraping the glands of civet cats to produce civet etc. But perfume companies couldn’t care less. Another fixative used is the excretion of the civet or pole cat found in Africa and Southeast Asia, a relation of the mongoose with a spotted body and a ringed tail. The excretion comes from the perineal glands, next to the civet’s anus. It is taken by either killing the animal and removing the glands, or by scraping the secretions from the glands of a live animal. The latter is the preferred method today.
According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals which has investigated civet harvesting for perfume in Ethiopia, the animals are kept in tiny cages for years. Every few days the keepers scrape the civet out of the anal sacs using a small horn spoon or spatula, a painful procedure. The belief that an angry animal secretes more persists and civets are tied by their legs to the bars of the cage and teased and irritated in the hope of increasing the yield.. Chanel (specially Chanel No 5), Cartier, and Lancome have all admitted to using civet in their products.
The muskrat is an aquatic rodent which resembles a large house rat with its tail flattened on either side and webbed hind feet. It lives in reed huts built cleverly in marshy shallows with underwater entrance tunnels. It is killed and its anal glands are used in making perfume.
Even when these species are not used, an average perfume uses pig and other animal fat. In Grasse, the largest manufacturing centre of perfume in France , the flowers are spread on glass sheets coated with animal grease. The flowers are changed until the grease has absorbed their fragrance. The grease and fats are dissolved in alcohol to obtain the essential oils. It is the ratio of alcohol to oil that determines perfume, eau de toilette, and cologne.
Synthetic oils are freely available eliminating the need to extract oils from animals. But the perfume industry is not going to change unless you force them to do so. I have never used perfume. Do you need to?
-By Maneka Gandhi
May 15, 2002, La Crosse Tribune
By REID MAGNEY
Of the Tribune staff
A thick, weed-free lawn is the vision of outdoor perfection for many Americans.
To get that perfect emerald turf carpet, Americans will spend lots of green — more than $4 billion annually on lawn care products. And to wage war on dandelions and crabgrass, 26 million households hired lawn care services in 2000.
But is there a greater cost?
Studies by researchers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are raising questions about health and environmental problems caused by spraying and spreading chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Government is taking notice. The U.S. Environ mental Protection Agency has recently banned home use of some common pesticides like Dursban and Diazanon, though existing stocks are still available in some stores. Canada’s highest court has upheld the right of cities to ban the use of pesticides and fertilizers on public and private land.
“We just don’t need it,’’ said Barbara Frank of La Crosse, who chairs the Sierra Club’s Midwest Regional Conservation Committee. “It’s better to live with a few weeds in a more natural lawn than to run the risk from pesticide exposure.’’
“I’m a breast cancer survivor, and I get nervous about being exposed to pesticides and herbicides,’’ Frank said.
Joe Bilskemper of Onalaska, owner of Lawn Care Specialists Inc., said proper application is critical. He said the pesticides and fertilizers used by his lawn care company and others are the same products sold retail to the public.
“People are better off hiring a professional’’ than running the risk of applying the products themselves,’’ Bilskemper said. “There’s very little risk when products are applied according to the label directions.’’
But professor Warren Porter, chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, said there is growing evidence that lawn chemical mixtures can be dangerous to human and animal health, even when used according to label directions.
Porter’s previous studies have shown that a common mix of agricultural insecticide, herbicide and fertilizer found in drinking water altered the thyroid hormones of young mice, changing their aggressive ness and suppressing their immune systems.
Porter said he will publish a study in July about “one of the most common lawn chemical mixes,’’ that looks at biological effects at ultra-low doses. Porter said he can’t identify the mixture until after the study is published but noted it is one in products commonly applied by both homeowners and professionals in this part of the country.
“The key thing that people need to understand is why it is all these pesticides molecules are biologically active,’’ Porter said. “They have a way to get through the cell wall, or any waxy surface — first your skin and then the cells that make up your body.’’
Once inside the body, Porter said, “the opportunities for effects are really enormous.’’
“If you look at the Materials Safety Data Sheets for these lawn herbicides — and this is what got me looking at lawn chemicals — they are rated as either immediate or long-term, or both, health hazards,’’ Porter said.
A 1996 study done by the EPA and the University of Minnesota has shown that children of pesticide applicators have significantly higher rates of birth defects than the general population. The study by Dr. Vincent Garry, professor and director of the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Pathology, looked at more than 200,000 children born in Minnesota between 1989 and 1992. Porter said the study found a significantly higher birth-defect rate in regions of high pesticide usage.
The lawn care industry admits that pesticide use carries a risk.
“Homeowners should be aware that the use of pesticides does pose some risk, and their use cannot be made completely safe,’’ according to an information pamphlet supplied to consumers by the Professional Lawn Care Association of America. “Improper or inappropriate use of pesticides and other lawn care products by either the homeowner or the lawn care professional can increase the level of exposure, which in turn increases the level of risk posed to human health and the environment.’’ Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center, said new research has shown pesticides are even more harmful when they are used in combination with other chemicals, like DEET, a mosquito repellent. The combination “impedes the body’s ability to get rid of the chemicals,’’ he said.
“If you have to use it, use the least amount that you can get by with,’’ said Abou-Donia, who recently presented papers on pesticides at a Seattle conference. “This is the first rule. The second rule is try not to combine it with other chemicals.’’
Notification list
Homeowners can choose to avoid chemicals on their yards, but what about the neighbors’ yards?
Joyce Arthur of La Crosse is one of 18 La Crosse County families that asked to be on the state’s Landscape Application Registry, so she will be notified at least 12 hours before a neighbor’s lawn gets sprayed. “I wanted to know when they would be spraying so I could stay in the house and not breathe the pesticides,’’ Arthur said.
But staying inside is no guarantee against lawn pesticide exposure, according to a 2001 study by the EPA and Battelle Memorial Institute. The study measured levels of the herbicide 2,4-D in 13 homes before and after lawn application. The herbicide, carried in by pets or homeowners, was detected inside in all the homes.
The study estimated post-application pesticide exposures to children at 10 times higher than pre-application exposures. That’s a concern, Porter said, because fetuses and children do not have defensive enzymes that adults develop to help detoxify the body.
Janet Horihan of West Salem also is on the notification registry so she can close up her house before her neighbors’ houses get sprayed. “I have respiratory problems. My eyes and throat burn,’’ she said. “I have two children at home. When they were younger, one had to go to the hospital regularly every time they sprayed.’’
Ask questions
Consumers should ask tough questions about any pesticide that a lawn service wants to spray on their property, said Stephen Tvedten, a nationally known expert on integrated pest management and the author of the book “The Bug Stops Here!’’
Integrated Pest Management — IPM for short — can have different definitions. Tom Delaney, executive vice president of the Professional Lawn Care Association of America, said IPM practices can include proper mowing, regular watering, aeration, seeding and pH balancing.
To Tvedten, IPM is finding least-poisonous methods of controlling bugs and weeds. “Everything is common sense. My mother taught me IPM when I was about 4 years old in Marsh field, Wis. She said, ’Stephen, shut the door. You’re letting in flies.’’’
Pesticides also make for an unhealthy lawn, Tvedten said. “Because of all the synthetic pesticide poisons and fertilizers, our top layer of soil is virtually dead,’’ he said. “Soil must be alive, teaming with microorganisms or the lawn and/or plants will not be healthy.
If you feel you must kill dandelions and other weeds, there are many safer and inexpensive alter natives to chemicals, Tvedten said.
“Safe alternatives actually work far better, are safer, and more economical than the poisons to begin with,’’ Tvedten said. “For every pest that you can name, I can give you a handful, or more, of alter natives on how to address the issue.’’
Tvedten suggests spraying weeds in cement cracks and along fences with vine gar, or even undiluted Coca-Cola. “Always do this on a hot, sunny day, as this will help kill the weeds,’’ he said.
“There are many, many, many solutions if you just think. You have a brain that is 200,000 times bigger than your insect pests. If you use it, you’ll win. If you use pesticides, you’ll lose.’’ To get a free copy of Stephen Tvedten’s book, “The Bug Stops Here!’’ go to http://www.thebestcontrol.com
Lawn flags
State-required white flags notify people that pesticide has been applied to a lawn in La Crosse. “People have a right to know,’’ said lawn care company owner Joe Bilskemper, who helped write the state rules on notification. “It’s caused an awareness out there, and that’s good.’’
The rules on notification
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has a program for notifying residents before a lawn care company applies pesticides to neighboring lawns, trees and shrubs.
Under the Landscape Pesticide Application Advance Notice Registry program, the company must contact a resident on the “notify’’ list at least 12 hours before applying pesticides to certain designated properties. It’s too late to get on the notification list for this year, but applications for next year can be obtained by calling (608) 224-5296 or writing to registry coordinator, DATCP, P.O. Box 8911, Madison, WI 53708-8911. A form also can be requested by e-mail at: agriculture@datcp.state.wi.us, or go to the Web site at datcp.state.wi.us/arm/agriculture/ pest-fert/pesticides/lndscp_reg.html.
The annual deadline is Feb. 1, which gives the department time to assemble the names into a booklet and distribute it to lawn care and landscaping companies.
Missed the deadline this year? Consider asking the lawn care company for notification. They’re not under legal obligation, but most companies will honor requests.
