What is PTDTBH? Well I really don’t know but it is short for Pentaerythrityl Tetra-Di-T-Butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate. I had to abbreviate it because the name is too long for a title. This is an ingredient from a label of a popular brand of manufactured soap.

Since it has been determined that what we put on our bodies actually goes into our bodies I wonder why anyone would buy this soap. Yet millions of people do and use it everyday with what appears to be no ill effects.

Yet so many diseases are on the rise such as cancers, diabetes, asthma and respiratory, birth defects, and especially immune system disorders and allergies. It makes one wonder if all the chemicals we are exposed to daily are causing all these diseases. If you had to count the number of chemicals you were exposed to daily it would boggle your mind.

You get up in the morning and shower with above soap. The “fragrance” listing alone can contain dozens of chemicals and guess what, you don’t even know what they are because they don’t have to tell you. These chemicals alone most likely are effecting you but you don’t even know it.

Your shampoo, lotions, makeup, laundry soap, fabric softeners, etc. all have tons of chemicals in them so by the time you have showered and dressed in the morning you have already been exposed to thousands of them and so has our environment. Don’t forget that when you used that soap or washed that lotion off all those chemicals went down the drain and ultimately into the environment.

You can be exposed to them again in the water you drink or food you eat. By now you may be thinking that it is hopeless or why bother trying to avoid all these chemicals. I agree the thought of all this can be overwhelming but I still believe it is worth trying to keep this junk out of my body and my family’s bodies.

The way I am doing it is one small step at a time. 13 years ago I stopped using liquid and all manufactured body soaps. I started making my own all natural ones and started my business, Scenter of the Mind, selling them. Every bar of soap I sell replaces a manufactured one and prevents a chemical cocktail going into someone’s bloodstream and down the drain into our water supply and beyond.

I also stopped using most household cleaners. I use mostly baking soda and vinegar and occasionally some comet cleanser. I avoid synthetic fragrances in everything I can like laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc. since I have already become sensitive to them and they make me ill.

I compost my grass clippings and recycle as well. So maybe I can’t save the world from all these chemicals and their pollution but I feel good about the things I can and do accomplish. I am dedicated to keep improving on the way I live and bring it back into harmony with nature, the way I believe it should be. The closer I get to this goal the better I feel.

So what do you do to try to help the earth? Do you take small steps or are you too overwhelmed to even try?