Rule #4: Hair/beauty products from the natural foods co-op and only those that pass the test

The main point of this year-long experiment is seeing what it is like to only shop locally: what are the challenges and frustrations, the limitations on consumption and the little hidden gems we'll be forced to seek out.

However, if you look at the list given on the first post, you'll see that items 2-8 have nothing to do with local and are really just about making conscious choices in shopping. We brainstormed all the things that we don't feel safe or good about consuming and came up with concise ways of banning them. The hope is that a ban will make us stop and consider the harm a choice may cause and, when people ask us what the heck this is about, we can share these ideas. With as little a step up onto the soapbox as possible, of course.

Rule #4, "Hair/beauty products from the natural foods co-op and only those that pass the test: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/" is one of those 'consider the harm' add-ons. In this case, it is harm to ourselves that we are considering. There are really cheap products to aid washing and primping. A lot of these are banned in the EU. Eh? Our government okaying something that another governing body says is too dangerous to be allowed on our citizens? Obama didn't state that there would be a return to taking science seriously for nothing.

About 750 personal care products sold here aren't considered safe in other industrialized nations. Yikes. Almost all products for sale contain something that hasn't been publicly assessed for safety.

Being far too scared of lye to resort to homemade soap, we've settled on the assessments made by the Environmental Working Group as to safety. Looking at the ingredient list and the potential threats for health is pretty disturbing but this is a case where not knowing seems pretty foolish.

I expect costs in this area will go up this year as we stick to the limited number of safe products. However, chemo sucks and I'm all for spending some extra money in an effort to avoid it.