EWG - Today's Watchdog for Everything Clean

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I recently had the pleasure of attending an EWG.org Pop Up event in Portland, Oregon. EWG is hosting pop ups all over the US to showcase a variety of EWG Verified™ products to the public. I chatted with several EWG staff members from their Washington, DC office. In our conversation, we discussed how there is a sense of urgency, now more than ever, to provide more complete and concise information to the public about what they should look for when deciding what is or is not a clean/green product. The term "Greenwashing" came up in our conversation, which I will be blogging about in another post very soon.

At this EWG pop up, I was able to meet with company representatives and find out more about their products and why it is so important to their company's mission that their product be EWG Verified™. The representatives of these companies were also very generous and provided the attendees with many samples to take with us. I definitely plan to try all the samples I gathered at this pop up, and I will be blogging about them in future posts.

What is EWG?

EWG stands for “Environmental Working Group.” They are a non-profit organization started in 1992. Their mission is “to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment.” EWG provides on their website several different databases on a variety of products that affect the consumer and their environment, including cosmetics, food, and tap water to name just a few. Below are a couple of the links to their consumer guides for cosmetics and tap water:

EWG – Skin Deep Guide to Cosmetics (rates 70,000 personal care products)

Did you know that Beautycounter is among the list of the top EWG Verified™ cosmetic and skincare companies in the US?

EWG – Tap Water Database (contains drinking water analysis of over 30 million state water records)

I live in a community surrounded by wineries and hazelnut farms in Oregon. So I decided I would check out the EWG “Tap Water Database” to see what they found in the water from my neighborhood City of Newberg. I was very happy to see that their report showed zero contaminants detected above the standard health guidelines, and only one detected potential contaminant, Nitrate. Nitrate is a fertilizer chemical which comes from agricultural and urban runoff, which makes total sense given where I live. I also found out that excessive nitrate in tap water can cause oxygen deprivation in infants and increase risks of cancer.

So I decided to check the tap water in our neighboring city of McMinnville. Their database noted McMinnville's water had two contaminants detected which are above the health guidelines and are linked to cancer; Chromium (hexavalent) and total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), along with other contaminants (Chlorate, Nitrate, Strontium). Then compare that with other parts of the country where the levels of toxins in the water are 15 or more, it becomes even more important to know what we are consuming on daily basis. Anyone remember the story about the water contaminants in Flint, Michigan?

EWG’s 2019 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™

EWG also published on their website a shopper's guide to everything pesticide. This EWG Guide, includes “The Dirty Dozen™” with kale being #3 on this list, and “The Clean Fifteen™” produce which contains the fewest pesticides, like avocado, pineapple, onions, papaya, cantaloupe, cauliflower, and mushrooms to name a few. For the complete list go here.

More About the Pesticide Roundup Coming Soon

Stay tuned to my upcoming blog post which will be totally devoted to Roundup. I will offer tips and tricks to move away from Roundup and organically manage pests in your garden. We all know in our heart of hearts that Roundup is not good for our health or our environment.

This is even more important now given the announcement that came out very recently from Washington State University concluding their study on Roundup, that, “…commonly used pesticide Roundup increases changes of health issues such as prostate disease, kidney disease and birth defects in grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those exposed to the pesticide.” These diseases include obesity, ovarian disease and birth abnormalities. Even today a very close family member of mine was diagnosed with a prostate disease, which makes me wonder is it due to exposure to Roundup?

Finally, please be sure to check out all of the links on this post for more detailed and invaluable information for you and your family.