Mineral Oil - Safe for Babies, Massaging & Me?

We assume so much when we shop. That everything on sale is safe, that things for babies are especially safe, and that big business and the government have our best interests at heart and will protect us from unscrupulous products or manufacturers. Take mineral oil, for example. I mean, they sell it for babies as “Baby Oil”, so it must be OK, mustn’t it?

Common Question: “I use baby oil sometimes for my legs as they are very dry. I am thinking maybe I should just get some almond oil or something else? I have a small bottle baby oil and have just been using it. Is it good or is it not so good? My legs seem drier after using it for a week.”

And the rather complex answer?

The name mineral oil by itself is deliberately vague and sounds innocuous enough. If you try to identify the correct chemical name, you’ll learn there actually isn’t one. Other names/synonyms for mineral oil are: Paraffin oil; Heat-treating oil; Hydraulic oil; Cable oil; Lubricating oil; Oil mist, refined mineral; mineral oil mist; oil mist, mineral, severely refined; Uvasol; Paraffin oils; Mineral oil hydrocarbon solvent (petroleum); Mineral oil (saturated parrafin oil); oil, petroleum; Nujol; liquid paraffin; white mineral oil; clearteck; drakeol; hevyteck; filtrawhite; frigol; kremol; kaydol; alboline; paroleine; Saxol; adepsine oil; glymol; lignite oil; blandol white mineral oil; carnea 21; Ervol; gloria; hydrocarbon oils; peneteck; primol; triona b; blandlube; crystosol; Molol; protopet; bayol f; crystol 325; fonoline; bayol 55; kondremul; neo-cultol; oil mist; penreco; perfecta; petrogalar; primol 355; primol d; tech pet f; Petroleum hydrocarbons; jute batching oil; paraffin oil (class); petrolatum, liquid; white oil; Mineral oil, aromatic; Mineral oil, paraffinic; Mineral Seal Oil; Electrical Insulating Oil; OIL MIST, MINERAL (MINERAL OIL)

Now that’s reassuring and all very natural-sounding, isn’t it? Especially when you consider that mineral oil is the primary ingredient for a number of leading brands of “natural” cosmetics. Not to mention baby products.

So what do the people who sell it have to say? The statement on the website of a major petroleum oil product supplier: “Pharmaceutical white oils are generally recognized as safe. The products are not known to have any allergenic, skin irritation or toxic side effects.” Do you believe that? If I buy a 50kg drum of “white oil” here in Thailand from the chemical supplier, it comes complete with a Hazchem warning, reminding me to use it in a well-ventilated space (it can cause and trigger asthma) and cautioning me that it cause skin dryness and irritation.

Negative Effects of Mineral Oil in Skin Care

A liquid produced by the distillation of petroleum, mineral oil is odorless, tasteless and inexpensive. It is a common ingredient in baby lotions, cold creams, ointments and cosmetics. Its slippery quality helps products spread easily across the skin; however, the Environmental Working Group lists mineral oil as a potential hazard due to its link to skin irritation, allergic reaction and cancer.

Stops skin “breathing” naturally.

Mineral oil coasts the skin with an impermeable layer that inhibits the skin's natural ability to breathe. Although product manufacturers claim that this helps locks moisture in the skin, opponents of mineral oil caution that this film interferes with the skin's ability to eliminate toxins through sweat. Mineral oil can also block pores and cause acne, potentially leading to long-term scarring. According to Mercola.com, this effect also prevents the absorption of any healthful ingredients in your moisturizers or skin treatment products.

Accelerates Drying.

Because mineral oil pulls moisture away from the skin, it can contribute to dry skin and chapping, even though it is sold to alleviate these skin conditions. According to Positive Health Online, this effect also robs newly formed cells of moisture, which interferes with normal cell development, slowing down the cell renewal rate and contributing to premature aging of the skin. While the sun is the number one cause of skin damage and premature aging, skin care products with mineral oil aren't helpful and may contribute to the damage.

Causes Skin Rashes.

According to Drugs.com, common side effects of mineral oil and petroleum jelly include mild itching, burning, stinging or dry skin. Severe side effects, in those who are allergic, may include rash, hives, difficulty breathing, or swelling of the face, lips, mouth or tongue.

Linked to Cancer. 

According to the National Toxicology Program, unrefined or mildly refined mineral oil is a known carcinogen due to the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which naturally occur in coal and petroleum. PAHs have been linked to various cancers, including scrotal, gastrointestinal, sinonasal, bladder and lung cancer. (reference 5) Mineral oil used for cosmetic purposes is highly refined to remove PAHs, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires that some over-the-counter products containing mineral oil now display a warning label. Consumer advocacy groups such as the Environmental Working Group advise exercising caution when using products containing mineral oil until more conclusive research is available.

And why is that research not being conducted? Start looking around and reading labels and you will find mineral oil is in the vast majority of all cosmetics, soaps and personal care products. Why? It’s cheap. Let’s just delicately say that the political will is simply not there to conduct research that would jeopardize the profits of the big players in the cosmetic and personal care product business.

The conclusion? If your health matters to you, choose only personal care products using natural plant-based oils. Read widely and make good, environmentally sustainable choices when you shop.

References:

Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database: Mineral Oil
Positive Health Online: Mineral Oil Petroleum Derivative in Beauty Products
Mercola.com: Traditional Tanning Oils Contain Harsh Chemicals and Potentially Dangerous Ingredients
Drugs.com: Mineral Oil Side Effects
National Toxicology Program: Substance Profiles: Mineral Oil

Quality Touch for Beautiful Skin

Close your eyes for a moment and remember the last time someone reached out to simply hold you – maybe with a little half-smile and a hint of sensuality, to support and encourage you and maybe just because it felt really nice… no agenda.  (* NB if you can’t remember or have never had this, it’s time to start changing the people you hang out with!).  Feel that lovely moment of surrender and enjoyment again.  Now, Recall #2.  Try to remember the last time someone rudely grabbed your arm or shook your shoulder roughly to get your attention.  Or jabbed you hard in the ribs.  Or maybe they just shouted at you.  Feel the difference in the way your whole being responds between the first interaction and the second.  The first interaction makes you almost want to draw the person in through the pores of your skin to bring them closer, whereas in the second interaction you bristle so fast that you energetically repel them and probably snap back.

 

Now I want you to honestly consider how you approach your skin. Do you slap products on to your skin determinedly and forcefully to try to make it conform to an ideal of beauty?  Do you bully it?  A hurried 5 mins given begrudgingly cos you need results fast?  Mutter at your zits, wrinkles or stray hairs crossly in the mirror?  Or do you quietly give your skin a gentle and grateful touch when you use your products and clean your body?

Or maybe you’re a massage or spa therapist.  Do you give mindful and generous touch when you massage, or are you busy thinking about sen lines, thumb pressure, the overdue phone bill or, Goddess forbid, what’s for lunch.  Be honest.

Every cell in your body is alive and responds to energy, to touch.  The way you touch skin changes the way it receives not only the healing touch but also the product you apply.

Now imagine you have an innocent 11 month old baby hungrily awaiting her dinner in her high chair.  Gurgling and banging the spoon in that oh-so-cute way.  Imagine yourself feeding her some wholesome food prepared with love, ever-so-mild and nutritious.  Delicious but gentle.  Baby gurgles, dribbles, smiles, receives and digests your lovingly prepared meal.  Everybody happy.  Or take #2.  You smile and coo and then gently spoon into baby’s mouth some strong flavoured, ultra spicy food that burns her mouth and makes her cry, or some tuna that’s really for cats but it was cheap and seems OK and the cat doesn’t have a problem with it so why should baby?  You wouldn’t do that, would you? 

The relationship between the quality of the touch skin receives and the products we choose to use IS really important. 

It doesn’t matter how delightful or natural the body or face care product is, if it is slapped on hurriedly, begrudged or resented.  If the touch is rough, uncomfortable and perfunctory, the cells of the body literally recoil.  It doesn’t matter how expensive the massage oil or how many lovely essential oils it contains, if it is applied without mindfulness, generosity or care.  Conversely, the best technical massage in the world is flawed if you’re using products known to cause skin irritations, which contain harmful petrochemicals or which contain artificial fragrances which are publicly documented to be seriously harmful to long-term health but allowed under lax labeling laws.

Good natural skin health – for ourselves, our clients and our customers – requires us to consider this complex relationship between the quality of the touch and the nature of the product. 

So now take yourself back to where we started – to that gentle, supportive embrace that is so wonderful to receive.  Remember it again and savor it for a moment.  When next you think skin care for yourself, for clients or for massage, think natural and try to recreate that feeling.  Do no harm with your skin care and massage products - to the environment or to the body which will receive it.  And learn to give yourself over completely to the experience of quality touch, whether it’s 5 mins in the privacy of your bathroom or during that slightly-rushed-pre-lunch massage that you need to deliver. 

Enjoy the vibrant health and glowing skin that mindful touch combined with simple, effective and natural products brings.

 

http://arunthainatural.com

Climate Change Killing the Thai Coconut Culture

Somehow you’d think that the day something as big and important as climate change started eroding the ancient Thai culture, that someone would have noticed or reported it or something. Sadly not. It strikes me that the huge changes in our lives and cultures do often go unremarked.

Before I explain how climate change is already having a huge impact on Thai diet, environment and natural medicine, I need to fill you in on a few basics about Thailand and coconuts. You don’t need to have ever been here to equate a coconut tree with Thailand and tropical bliss. Every Thai market has at least one coconut shop – “raan grati” – where they grind up the coconut meat to make coconut milk and sell various coconut products. Coconut milk is used extensively in everything from sweets to curries, and coconut oil has been used for centuries for cooking. It’s only in recent years that the incredible nutritional and skin benefits of cold pressed virgin coconut oil have been researched and publicized. But the wise Thai grandmothers always knew that. Traditional Thai medicine has always used coconut oil as a base for “ya mong” – the therapeutic herbal balms used for massage, headaches and natural healing. Sadly, in recent years, vaseline has become the “ya mong” base of choice among many Thai people because it is cheap and easier than blending hot coconut oil and wax. But Arun Thai Natural still uses and celebrates the basic methodology and ingredients – starting with coconut oil and beeswax – that have been known here for centuries.

One more bit of background you need to understand. Coconut oil is produced in 3 basic ways. (1) Virgin cold pressed, which is made under pressure and preserves the long-chain fatty acids, yielding a totally clear, fragrant healthful oil which solidifies at about 21C. Low yields and a corresponding substantial price. (2) Heat extracted coconut oil which is almost clear, also highly fragrant in a slightly more toasted way, but lacks the same quality of long chain fatty acids and is therefore higher in free radicals. High yields and a very fair price. (3) Chemically extracted coconut oil which is very, very cheap, a golden yellow colour and is often used as a massage oil base; even the unscrupulous vendors here sell it with a verbal warning, “No eat! Dangerous!”.

Arun Thai Natural sells virgin cold-pressed coconut oil and also uses it to make our Care+ Body Treatment Oil. But for our “ya mong” massage balms, foot balms and lip balm, we use the highest quality heat extracted coconut oil, since we have to heat it anyway to melt the wax into it and there is simply no value in using the cold pressed oil. We also use the heat extracted coconut oil as the base for our Phlai (warming) and Ginger Cassia (cooling) Traditional Massage Oils because, you guessed it, we make them the traditional way which involves heating the oil and therefore makes the cold-pressed oil a non-option.

So the last 7 weeks have been a total shock and mystery in our little Thai world. No heat-extracted coconut oil to be found, anywhere in Chiang Mai. For the first three weeks we thought our suppliers were just being very Thai about their ordering at the end of a long slow rainy season – cash strapped, unwilling to invest in new stock and fibbing a bit. Then came the stories from all the various suppliers, vendors, shops and agents we visited and talked to. The floods. No transport. Too expensive. Coconuts “paeng” (expensive) at the end of the rains. Now we do experience this little price glitch at the end of every rainy season, where the price of all things coconut goes up a bit, only to fall again, but it has never resulted in a complete drying up of supply all over Thailand’s second biggest city.

Now you also do need to appreciate that although coconut trees grow everywhere in Thailand, the trees in the north here don’t produce nearly as much oil due to it being less tropical and more temperate, so the northern coconuts are pretty much worthless for oil extraction. 95% of all Thai coconut production comes from the area just a bit south of Bangkok, with the real hub being located around Chumpon and Prachuap Khiri Khan. Now this area has just been hit by flooding issues from two sides. Massive water run-off from the north and north east, which collides with the two highest king tides of the year. Huge parts of Thailand have, in the last weeks, sustained the heaviest flooding in 50 years.

There have been articles in the papers in the last month suggesting that in as few as 7 years, large parts of Bangkok will be submerged. Being Dutch, knowing the power of the sea and also having seen the flood devastation this rainy season, I think that is beyond possible and moving towards likely.

Determined to get to the bottom of the coconut oil supply issue, we hit the road and the phones today to get past the frustrating veneer of Thai politenesses, excuses and downright lies. I schlepped through 3 different major markets to eyeball and confront the suppliers and vendors while Naa, my production manager, sat on the phone to growers and factories in Chumpon and Phrachuap Khiri Khan and also to the distributors of their products in the north.

And the story we finally pieced together is a sobering one. The coconut tree growers have been devastated by the floods, which are not yet fully receded. They are estimating 25-50% of their trees to be damaged to the point of them needing to be removed. They are not yet able to calculate how much can be salvaged. The growers and factories therefore, are using the fruit they have to obtain the highly profitable virgin cold-pressed oil (for that we are very thankful!) and then heat processing the dregs to produce the abundant chemically derived product, which is so awful we don’t even want to know about it. The volume of fruit left for heat extraction has shrunk enormously, resulting in a wholesale price hike of over 130% in the last week alone, and continuing to climb. The vendors in Chiang Mai are unwilling to buy this much pricier product and so have been fudging and fibbing and simply not ordering it in. And they’re not going to change that. Nearly every vendor I spoke to argued the benefits of palm oil - price and availability. The other Thai herbal product makers are embracing palm oil with open arms as an alternative to coconut oil – the vendors could not understand why Arun Thai Natural is vehemently opposed to and won’t ever be using palm oil.

So this afternoon we sat down and made some decisions. We will discontinue the use of heat treated coconut oil in our balms and traditional massage oil products, and substitute a mix of the used-to-be-more-expensive rice bran and cold pressed sesame oils instead. They are much better quality oils and, in combination, will produce a much smoother and richer product. Previously we have erred on the side of tradition and the price difference had been such as to support that choice. But because Arun Thai Natural is growing fast and we are producing more product, we will be able to buy our oils in greater volume and therefore should be able to hold our current pricing.

I should be delighted, and at one level, I am. Circumstance has pushed Arun Thai Natural to increase product quality, albeit in a way that moves us a little bit further away from the traditional Thai roots that we celebrate and cherish. But I can’t help feeling a little bit sad about the demise of the coconut culture. A couple of days ago I tried to order a fresh coconut for my daughter, Ploi, at a restaurant and was told “no have – too expensive”. Unthinkable.

Realistically, the Thai government lacks the resources and the funding to address the massive infrastructure issues that are needed to offset rising sea levels, subsidence and flooding from the north each season. In 10 months time, the remaining coconut trees will get another dose of very wet feet and another nail will be driven into the coconut culture’s coffin. Some climate and engineering experts predict as few as 7 years before parts of Bangkok will need to be evacuated. I wonder what the price of coconuts and coconut oil will be in 7 years time….? I wonder how much more pristine Asian jungle will have been slashed to plant more palms for palm oil, and how many species will have lost their habitat and be on the brink of extinction.

Sustainable. It’s an easy marketing word to toss about but today Arun Thai Natural came hard up against what that means. We think it means we have to change to protect the world we live in, and we’re ready to do that. We are even happy about the better quality product that we will be able to offer. But we’re just a bit sad about climate change and the end of the Thai coconut culture.