Organic Products
What other organic products are available?
Other organic products on the market include health and beauty product, such as skin creams. It is also possible to buy organic textiles and clothing.
How do I know that calling a product organic isn't just a marketing trick?
The organic market is growing a lot and so to insure the product your buying does not fall foul of a marketing trick, you have to be a bit savvy. Organic regulation only covers food products, so anything that is not food - health and beauty care products, textiles, etc. - can carry the term organic and by law, no-one has to check. This is why we have developed our own organic certification scheme for health, beauty care and textiles products. Do look out for the Soil Association symbol on these products to ensure the term organic is not just being used as a marketing trick. Other organic certification bodies have got schemes, but there is nothing to stop a company from calling a shampoo organic and filling it with rubbish that actually could be damaging to your health. At the moment there is nothing stopping them doing that. Do check that health and beauty care products, and textile products, carry a certification code if they are lablled as organic.
What are the benefits of organic make-up?
Well your skin is the biggest organ and studies show that you absorb about 60% of what you put on your skin. That can increase; if you suffer from any kind of irritation or abrasion, then you're more likely to absorb more of those products. Some of these products are really quite nasty; they can be found in anti-freeze and in all sorts of things you wouldn't expect that can be damaging to your health. So, in an organic product that's been certified, we've checked to ensure that any of the ingredients we allow don't cause any kind of health problems.
What are the benefits of organic cleaning products?
The benefits of using organic cleaning products are similar to those of using health and beauty care products, because your skin is your largest organ and you absorb about 60% of what you put on your skin. If you're using cleaning products that have been organically certified then they won't contain any nasty ingredients that are likely to damage your health. We would advise you to use organic cleaning products in order to reduce the toxic load that you are subjecting your body to.
Where can I buy other organic products?
If you have a look on our website, www.soilassociation.org, you can find the organic directory. On the organic directory, you can find your local organic shops. You can ask them, if they don't already, to stock organic cleaning products.
What are the benefits of using organic cotton?
The benefits of using organic cotton tend to be more about reducing the amount of pesticides that workers in developing countries are subjected to. There's a hideous figure - around 25,000 people die as a result of using pesticides in developing countries because there aren't safety regulations. They're not as tight as they are over here. If you are using cotton next your skin, your skin is absorbing 60% of whatever you put on it. So, the benefits of using organic cotton are two-fold. You're helping farmers in the developing countries and you're also protecting your health against potential skin problems.