My Search for a Safe(r) Deodorant

Deodorant. Anti-perspirant. Roll-on. Spray on. Solid. Gel. So many choices, and so many pitfalls. It has taken me three years to recover from my first foray into the world of "green" deodorants, but I am giving it another try.

Here's what happened the first time around. I was pregnant. I didn't know it yet, and the husband and I were taking a road trip with our neighbors. I had been using a new greener deodorant for a few days, and it seemed to be working okay. (Unfortunately, I can't recall the product name—I think I blocked it out of my memory.) Once I got in the backseat of the car, however, my new product stopped working altogether. Perhaps it was all the sweating from being nauseated the entire trip. Or perhaps it was hormone-related. My husband swears he didn't smell anything, but my unknowingly pregnant nose was telling me that I smelled BAD. And I was afraid I was going to have to burn the shirt I was wearing. Needless to say: FAIL. I threw that product out and resigned myself to wearing toxic deodorants forever.

Obviously I changed my mind about the forever part. I recently went on the hunt for an aluminum-free deodorant that would work at least as well as my old standby, Secret Platinum soft solid (which I have been wearing for over 10 years). I found Dry by Nature Deodorant by Desert Essence at my organic grocery store and started using it a few weeks ago. At first, I only used it on days I wouldn't be leaving the house or doing anything stressful. And I worked my way up to wearing it to an Arbonne presentation I was giving (stressful). I was delighted to find that Dry by Nature works better than my old deodorant. Finally, I thought I had found my new "secret" to staying dry and odor-free.

Then I started researching this article.

The truth is that my aluminum-free product still contains one of the dirty dozen (cocamide diethanolamine), as well as propylene glycol and sodium borate. Propylene glycol, according to Skin Deep, is practically non-toxic when added to food, but it has been found to provoke skin irritation and sensitization in humans with concentrations as low as 2%. So far, I haven't had any negative reactions. Sodium borate, also known as Borax, is not safe to use on injured or damaged skin (so probably not good for freshly shaven armpits). Therefore, I can't in good conscience recommend this product to others.

What I can do is share with you the ingredients you want to avoid, and point you to some alternatives.

Ingredients to avoid in deodorants

• Parabens. See the dirty dozen.
  
• Aluminum. Has been connected to Alzheimer’s disease. Look for aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly (the main ingredient in Secret Platinum, and the culprit of those yellow stains on the armpits of my shirts).
• Triclosan. See the dirty dozen.
• Talc. Often contaminated with asbestos.
  
• Propelyn glycol: See above.

Alternatives to wearing deodorant

• Here's a list (from Skin Deep) of 100 of the least harmful deodorant alternatives/natural deodorants you can try.
• You can also make your own, like this blogger did.
• You can grow out your armpit hair and skip the deodorant. Hair wicks moisture away from your skin naturally, helping to prevent or diminish bacterial colonization. The hair is less susceptible to bacterial growth and therefore is ideal for preventing the bacterial odor that causes us to hold our noses. Interesting aside: Actors Julia Roberts and Matthew McConaughey do not wear deodorant at all.
  

Personally, I'm not quite ready to go au naturale—I don't have the looks of Julia or Matthew to overcome people's reaction to body odor. So I'm going to finish up my Dry by Nature and try again to find something innocuous with which to adorn my armpits. Stay tuned for an update in a few months.

Dying Green

As an atheist, the only afterlife I anticipate is what happens to my physical body after I die. I want to dissolve back into the earth where my particles can mingle with the soil and nourish the microorganisms there. My ego likes to think that maybe some part of me will live on in the plants that grow in that soil and in the animals that breathe the oxygen those plants produce. In any case, the best way for this poetic "dust to dust" circle of life to take place is with a green burial.

Green burial makes sense to me from an environmental perspective as well. After a lifetime of avoiding preservatives in my food and trying to limit the damage I do to the earth, why would I want my body pumped full of embalming chemicals and placed in a nearly impermeable coffin?

According to Greensprings Natural Cemetery's website, each year in the U.S. we bury:

• 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid
• 90,272 tons of steel (caskets)
• 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets)
• 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults)
• 14,000 tons of steel (vaults)
• 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods (much tropical; caskets)

And that's not even counting all the pesticides and fertilizers conventional cemeteries use to keep their grounds unnaturally manicured.

Green burials, on the other hand, can actually preserve land from development. Trust for Natural Legacies, Inc., a non-profit land trust, explains: "Natural lands owned by the government can always be sold. Tools utilized by the conservation community, such as easements, are relatively untested. There is no guarantee that a group may exist in 100 years to enforce an easement. Cemetery lands, however, are protected against disturbing activities by State law. What's more, if a cemetery organization no longer exists, the local government is often required to take over and protect the cemetery. Because these cemeteries are also public green spaces, it's a win-win situation for everyone."

How does the cost compare? A conventional funeral—including the embalming process and a metal casket—can average $6,500, plus another $2,000 for cemetery charges. In contrast, at Ramsey Creek Preserve in Westminster, South Carolina, prices range from $250 for a scattering of ashes to $1,950 for a body burial.

Speaking of ashes, I used to think that I wanted to be cremated. I found out that the cremation process releases dioxin, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and possibly mercury from amalgam dental fillings back into the air and ground. Greenspring's website claims that you could drive about 4,800 miles on the energy equivalent it takes to cremate someone—and to the moon and back 83 times on the energy from all cremations in one year in the U.S.

If I meet my demise in Maryland, there are no green cemeteries inside state lines. Here's a list of the green cemeteries I discovered in the US:

• GreenSprings Natural Cemetery - 93 acres in New York, opened in 2006
• Forever Fernwood - 32 acres in California, opened in 2004
• Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 350 acres in Florida. Opened in 2002 .
  
• Ramsey Creek Preserve - Memorial Ecosystems has 32 acres in South Carolina. Opened in 1996.
  
• White Eagle Memorial Preserve - 20 acre cemetery is set within 1300 wild acres.
  
• Foxfield Preserve - 43 acres in Ohio
  
• Honey Creek Woodlands - Georgia
  
• Eternal Rest Memories Park - Florida
  
• Cedarbrook Burial Ground - Maine
• Steelmantown Cemetery - New Jersey
• Praire Wilderness Cemetery - Colorado (under construction)
• Ethician Family Cemetery - Huntsville, Texas

I'd like this blog entry to act as an official notification to my family of what I want done with my remains when the time comes: I direct that my remains be buried in a "green cemetery" according to the standard practices associated with "green burial," including burial in a natural setting without embalming, in a simple pine coffin or a biodegradable shroud. If it sounds primitive, well, that's kind of the point. You can see what a green burial can look like on this YouTube clip from HBO's Six Feet Under (includes adult language and situations, so beware).

Thanks for being my witnesses,
Jenny