The best ideas are the simplest ones

Anne-Sophie Bertrand (annesophie@rede-verde.org)

05/2010

Keywords: conservation, community-based, Foz do Iguaçu, water, pollution, human health, chemicals

Rede Verde wants to share an inspiring true story with you!

We are starting in Foz do Iguaçu a participative initiative that will benefit both the people and Nature,
especially the waters and soils. It is a community-based approach to conservation where we aim at
linking the health of ecosystems to the health of communities. We consider the Iguaçu region in southern
Brazil a perfect site for the pilot phase of this work.

What is it exactly?

We conducted capacity-building seminars with poor communities and we are now providing stores and
houses with natural, biodegradable cleaning products. Those products are made as our Grand-Mass used
to do, using white vinegar, baking soda, home-made surfactant-free soap, essential oil, water... Natural
ingredients with no side effects! Google “natural cleaning products”: you will find dozens of websites with
different formulas you can use, all of them are valid. They preserve the skin and the health in general of
who makes them and who uses them and also: they do not kill the fish! When Allison Rich and Brian
Yates, two students from the States, came over for a 1-month internship last November, they looked in
the scientific literature for the most components found in the chemical cleaning products sold in the
store, the ones most of us buy to “clean” our homes. Their findings were astonishing and scary. The
worst part was to discover that this wasn’t news at all: most of the papers they found were published in
the early 80s! They found out that surfactants – used to dissolve fat and grease – contain a carcinogen1
that create asthma2, irritate the eyes and the skin3,4. Biocide, another component is used - as its name
suggest it- to kill living organisms. Biocides induce allergies and skin inflammation 5, and they are toxic to
neurons6. Sequestrate is another component you will find in every store-bought product, it is used to
preserve the smell and the color of whatever contains it (food, hygienic or cleaning products). Well, did
you know sequestrates cause the total loss of sperm mobility in men 7? But it is not all, sequestrates
cause chronic skin rashes, and eye inflammation8. Tested on rats, which I’d like to remember are
mammals, like us, at a foetus stage of development, you wouldn’t tell the difference between the two
species, results were harrowing: pregnant mice had foetuses with extra limbs9. And the chemical cleaning
product the most universally looked at as the mighty one is bleach, isn’t it? When you want to deep clean
something or somewhere, use bleach, isn’t it what we all came to think at one point? Well, Brian and
Allison double-checked in the literature, and they found out that in 1982, scientists published evidence
that bleach caused respiratory track irritation, inflammation of lung tissue10, loss of hair11 and fingernails,
burns skin, and ruptures blood clots12.

Once you know all this, you start thinking: how can this be? Where did we lose sight of the logic?
Common sense would tell us that what has been scientifically proved to jeopardize our integrity and our
health should be discarded. Was there another reason then for using these chemical components? Of
course, there is, let us face it. Profit has gained the upper hand over the common sense or welfare. And

Rede Verde Conservation Network Inc. BN: 845495613NP0001

York street, 8 - 1st floor Moncton, NB E1C2X9 Canada
URL : www.rede-verde.org Email: info@rede-verde.org
we are not out of this disgraceful era yet. But we are getting there, whether we want it or not, it is not as
if we had the choice!

And you want to know something even sadder? Brian and Allison checked also the impact those
components had on water ecosystems.

This is the part where you re-discover that what is not good for you will likely be not good either for
other living forms. Earth is a dynamic inter-related unique system. All parts are needed. If one part is
impaired, others will suffer consequences. It is just a matter of time. Surfactants, biocides, sequestrates
and bleach are all highly toxic to life forms, either they prevent nutrient ingestion13, or they create strains
of mutant bacterias14, or have their growth crippled15, when it is not just eliminated from the aquatic
environment16. How are we supposed to get fresh water for our daily use if we eradicate aquatic life
forms (=responsible for most cleaning and filtering) while keep pouring tons of chemicals in our streams
and rivers?

Okay, this is what Science says, but what are the

facts? We decided to go check the rivers and
streams of the study area, the Iguaçu National Park
and surroundings. The park is a 2,000 km2
conservation unit in southern Brazil, at the border
with Argentina and Paraguay. A 10 km stretch all
around the park benefits – theoretically – from a
special legal protection, it is called the buffer zone,
as it is supposed to buffer human-caused habitat
alterations before it reaches the National Park, it is
like a shield. Just by looking at the water or the
context it was inserted into, we were gapping (see
pictures).

So if you consider our example here, only 42% of the city of Foz do Iguaçu benefit from water treatment
(which remains rudimentary), we would be better off stopping the pollution from the source: US!

By this little habit shift (it all comes down to switching bottles
really); people are invited to make a big difference. Stop buying
chemicals that will kill you and the water you rely on (we are
made mostly out of water, we all know this by now), switch to
natural cleaning products, they do the same, except they don’t
irritate your skin or worse (and this is the part you can see). We
all can do something at our level. Brian has published an article on
cheap natural, biodegradable detergent recipe (see RVCN archives
in the database). Since she’s back home, Allison has been very
active too: she organized workshops to teach the people how to
make those natural products, make this little change happen at a
big scale.

Do it for yourself! We are all one. What is good for you is

good for me and good for the Earth; it is a win-win situation.
Rede Verde is doing it at the region level here in Iguaçu.
Stay tuned for more news soon.

Rede Verde Conservation Network Inc. BN: 845495613NP0001

York street, 8 - 1st floor Moncton, NB E1C2X9 Canada
URL : www.rede-verde.org Email: info@rede-verde.org
CITED LITERATURE

1
Roderick E. Black, Fred J. Hurley, Donald C. Havery. (2001) Occurrence of 1,4-Dioxane in Cosmetic Raw
Materials and Finished Cosmetic Products. Journal of AOAC International 84(3):666-670.

2
Rumack B. H. (2010) POISINDEX(R) Information System Micromedex, Inc., Englewood, CO, CCIS
Volume 143. Hall AH & Rumack BH (Eds): TOMES(R) Information System Micromedex, Inc., Englewood,
CO.

3
Agner T. (1991) Susceptibility of atopic dermatitis patients to irritant dermatitis caused by sodium lauryl
sulphate. Acta Derm Venereol. 71(4):296-300.

4
Nassif A., Chan S. C., Storrs F. J., Hanifin J. M. (1994) Abstract: Abnormal skin irritancy in atopic
dermatitis and in atopy without dermatitis. Arch Dermatol. 130(11):1402.

5
Schnuch A., Geier J., Utur W., Frosch P. J. (1998). Patch testing with preservatives, antimicrobials and
industrial biocides: results from a multicentre study. British Journal of Dermatology 137(3), 467-476.

6
Du S., Mclaughlin B., Pal S., Aizenman E. (2002). In vitro neurotoxicity of methylisothiazolinone, a
commonly used industrial and household biocide, proceeds via a zinc and extracellular signal-regulated
kinase mitogen-activated protein kinase-dependent pathway. Journal of Neuroscience 22(17): 7408-7416.

7
Lee C. H., Anderson M., Chien Y. W. (1996) Characterization of in vitro spermicidal effect of chelating
agent against human sperm. J Pharm Sci 85(6): 649-54

8
Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) - Advisory Committee on Existing Chemicals of Environmental
Relevance (1997), p. 223. Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, 250 pp.

9
Shepard T.H. (1986) Catalog of Teratogenic Agents. 5th ed. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 227 pp.

10
Gosselin R.E., Smith R.P., Hodge H.C. (1984) Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed.
Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, p. III-204.

11
Stuttgen G. Haas N., Mittelbach F., Zesch A. (1982) Acute, toxic, reversible hair loss through drain and
sanitary cleansing vapors containing sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide. Wien. Klin.
Wochenschr. 94(18): 479-84.

12
Reynolds J.E.F., Prasad A.B. (Eds.) (1982) Martindale – the extra pharmacopoeia. 28th ed. London: the
Pharmaceutical Press, 574 pp.

13
Leung S.W., Lai J.C.K. (2005) Differential effects of surfactants on enzyme activity and transport across
a semipermeable cell. Nanotech 2005 Vol. 1. Tech. Proc. Of the 2005 NSTI Nanotech. Conference and
Trade Show, Volume 1. Chapter 5: Bio Nano Analysis and Characterization.

14
Levy S.B. (Ed) (1994). Drug resistance: the new apocalypse (special issue). Trends in Microbiology 2:
341–425.

Rede Verde Conservation Network Inc. BN: 845495613NP0001

York street, 8 - 1st floor Moncton, NB E1C2X9 Canada
URL : www.rede-verde.org Email: info@rede-verde.org
15
Roderër G. (1983) On the toxic effects of tetraethyl lead and its derivatives on the chrysophyte
Poterioochromonas malhamensis. IV. Influence of lead antidotes and related agents. Chem. Biol. Interact
46(2): 257-254

16
Muchmore D., Epel D. (1973) The effects of chlorination of wastewater on fertilization in some marine
invertebrates. Marine Biology 19 : 93-95.

Rede Verde Conservation Network Inc. BN: 845495613NP0001

York street, 8 - 1st floor Moncton, NB E1C2X9 Canada
URL : www.rede-verde.org Email: info@rede-verde.org