Oh dear, I’m so sorry to hear you’re having issues with laundry detergent @colehence, but rest assured you are not alone in being allergic to things like Tide, it’s actually super common.
You didn’t mention what your reactions were (and pulmonology is really only going to help if it’s triggering asthma) and while it’s possible you are reacting to the borax, it’s also entirely possible it’s the synthetic scents, the presence of sulfates (huge problem for a lot of us with chronic allergies or things like eczema) or any number of things in brands like Tide. The smell alone of regular Tide triggers respiratory distress in myself, the second worst thing after that being Downy fabric softener which we found out was triggering an allergic reaction which manifested as panic attacks and migraines for me from even just walking down the laundry aisle in the grocery store, so now I don’t. I will do a loop of the entire store to avoid the laundry aisle unless I have my vogmask with me. Cause fuck all that shit.
Even Tide’s “Free and Clear” range scores an F for failure and high levels of allergy and toxicity through EWG.org due to containing Ethanolamine,
Benzisothiazolinone (also found in pesticides, fun!) as well as Sodium Borate (Borax) which are all known skin irritants and just generally non allergy friendly. So fuck Tide for pretending to actually make something “free and clear” when what they mean is “we didn’t add the neon blue or that weird chemical scent, enjoy your other major allergens though!”.
The only way to really test this on your own without an allergist, is to try alternative laundry detergent brands. Unfortunately actual free and clear detergents are more expensive, but well worth the investment if you can find a way to get them in bulk. Cause y’know not itching to death/having constant headaches and coughs as well as clean clothes should be an attainable goal for everyone, not just people without allergies.
I have three brands I know I can use without major issue. And because this is going to get long, I will put the full ingredient list of each one under a cut ❤
Seventh Generation Powder Detergents: aka I will die on the hill of this brand, I just wish it was more affordable.****
Another thing worth checking for along with trying to avoid borax is methylisothiazolinone which is in virtually every commercial main brand of everything cause it’s a highly effective
antimicrobial and preservative.
And it’s also highly effective at making me dead cause I can’t have anything that contains it in the house, no hand soaps, no laundry, no perfumes, no candles no nothing. Even all of ETD’s things, his soaps, shampoo, lotions, sunscreen, all of it had to go because just even him using it was making my skin break out. Which is unacceptable when you smooch as much as we do.
Methylisothiazolinone is also often used hand in hand with benzisothiazolinone, which you may remember from our good worst friend Tide. So that’s another thing to watch out for, even if one isn’t listed, they often go hand in hand together.
Other brands which are low allergen and don’t contain borax but I haven’t personally tried are:
Biokleen Free & Clear,
Ecover (which my mother has been using for literal decades, it’s great if you can get it but I struggle to find it over here at a reasonable price so I didn’t list it up there)
Attitude: Little Ones Laundry Detergent (Fragrance Free),
Fit Organic Laundry Detergent (Free and Clear),
and Green Shield Organic, which even their scented ones test low on allergens, so I may need to check those out.
Brands to AVOID if you have skin issues or respiratory allergies include:
Tide in all shapes and forms, (I’m sorry, I know it’s cheap but compare that to the cost of your allergy meds/asthma meds and oh boy is it suddenly not worth it.)
Wallgreens “Nice!” brand.
Ajax. (it burns)
Kirkland Signature (you can hear the Costco lovers screaming)
Arm and Hammer (yes really, even their free and clear contains sodium alylyr aryl ether sulfate which is a medium range allergy risk for skin and respiratory issues)
J.R. Watkins ‘Natural’ Liquid Laundry Detergent, Fragrance Free (they don’t actually list what their surfactants are but based on my reaction I think it’s wheat based)
and lastly, the insidious Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day product range which can honeslty just jump off a cliff with their synthetic fragrances and their methylisothiazolinone and all their other crap they hide behind their “we use essential oils so we’re SAFE” marketing horseshit. I’d literally rather gargle glass than touch any of their products again. It’d have roughly the same effect on my throat and lungs.
Anyway…
I hope some of this is helpful for you in trying to work out if it is your laundry cleaning that is causing you the issue. If you want to hit me up on IM (I will be opening it up again this weekend) to chat allergies and what have you, I am totally down with that 🙂 Take care!
Every day I’m still getting notes on an old post where I said that eating healthier costs more money and of course every so often is another health zealot swearing I’m wrong.
EXCEPT:
one dollar at dollar tree
one dollar at mcdonald’s
A fucking quarter almost everywhere
And what these bozos aren’t factoring in is that these foods, loaded with salts and fats and carbs and sugars, are FILLING for a shitload longer than whatever colon cleansing non-GMO avocado unicorn poop some thinspo blog is bragging about. The box of oatmeal creme cookies even lasts more than a day, just two of those things and I have no appetite again for hours.
Personally we are eating better and making more money currently but when I was a kid it was all the above shit and potatoes. Lots and fucking lots of potatoes.
STOP FUCKING TELLING POOR PEOPLE THEY’RE STUPID FOR NOT EATING LIKE YOUR HIPSTER ORGANIC CRAP
Another thing they’re forgetting is food waste. Fresh produce only lasts so long. So to regularly eat fresh you have to 1) go grocery shopping more often and 2) have your meals planned out ahead of time to use everything.
When you only have $50 or less for food for the month, it’s devastating to see $10 worth of fresh produce rot. Especially if it’s because you just don’t have time to cook it. (Poor people usually juggle multiple jobs, work overtime, or work jobs with inconsistent schedules like retail or food services.) They don’t have time to run to the grocery store 3+ times a week, especially if they have to hit up multiple stores to get the cheap prices. They don’t have time to spend 1+ hour every week doing a meal plan. And they probably don’t have that much time or energy to cook.
When I was severely poor (like, we determined which bill to pay each month by how close they were to being shut off. “We paid water last month, so they won’t turn it off until next month. It’s been two months of electricity though, so we should probably pay that before we get a cutoff.) we did not buy fresh. All our veggies were canned, because they don’t spoil. We had lots of ramen, just in case we ran out of money and couldn’t buy groceries for a while. We didn’t buy meat unless we knew we would cook it that day because we didn’t want to see it spoil. We ate a lot of boxed meals. And when I was working 60+ hours a week, you can bet your ass I ate a lot of cheap packaged shit like little debbie. Because I didn’t have time to cook before my 12 hour work day, I only got 4 hours of sleep and I wasn’t sacrificing 30 minutes for a hot breakfast, and I couldn’t afford to eat out.
Anyone who says shit like this has never been poor. When you’re poor it’s not just money you’re lacking, but time, and resources, and mother fucking energy. It’s rough. And I wouldn’t be so quick to judge them if I were you, because the poor have been through more than you could ever understand.
remember when i said veganism was clasist & not an option 4 most of society n they were all in my inbox actin like typical vegans…. well there u go
This goes doubly for chronically ill or disabled poor people. There really isn’t time and energy to make each meal especially if you’re working. It’s damn near impossible.
It’s great if eating vegan or all fresh products or what not works for you but keep in mind it won’t work for everyone.
Something else is that cooking fresh food takes time (and spoons) that people who are working multiple jobs, looking after children, or are ill/disabled don’t have. Box meals take a relative low amount of time and often involve less active cooking time so you can use the three minutes the ramen is boiling to pay attention to your kids or sit down.
From the article:”That many top college graduates hesitate to join a profession with low wages is no great surprise. For many years, talented women had few career alternatives to nursing and teaching; this kept teacher quality artificially high. Now that women have more options, if we want to attract strong teachers, we need to pay competitive salaries. As one observer put it, if you cannot find someone to sell you a Lexus for a few dollars, that doesn’t mean there is a car shortage.”
I like this extended version SOOOO much better than the one they used.
Steve gets to ask the two most likely questions:
1) Did we win the war??
2) HOW TF am I still alive???
Also Fury offer him a welcome and some reassurance.
WHY WHY WHY would they cut this scene down to what they did?? It makes NO SENSE.
I seriously can’t get over the fact that they cut out Fury telling Steve that the world still needs him. Like when I watch the movie ending it just feels so hopeless and cruel to Steve. He’s waken up and is being told that everything he’s known has changed forever. That’s it. He lost everything. There’s no silver lining, just the pain of loosing everyone and everything.
But like feliciates said, in this deleted scene Steve is actually given some reassurance by Fury and is being told that he can still have a purpose if he wants. Not all is lost. He wasn’t just alive at the end for fate to be cruel to him, but to do what he does best, save people and fight for good. Now Steve isn’t sentenced to just solely dwell on the past for who knows how long, he can be motivated to help the people of this time.
IKR? It’s like they looked at it and said, “No, that ending is too hopeful. We need more pain and despair for Steve. Cut it down.”
I honestly can’t tell if this ending is more or less bleak than the one they used. On the one hand, we learn more, but Fury is still pretty cavalier to a man who just lost everything, even if it’s clear he’s trying to soften the blow as best as he can based on a dossier that says Steve was an amazing soldier (and likely would be comforted with a new assignment rather than crushed by it).
But I just can’t get over how absurdly young Steve looks at the 1:30 mark when he’s told there’s more work to be done. Young and hopeless and exhausted, he looks more strikingly like pre-serum Steve than I think he does at any other point in the whole movie. That look in his eyes broke my heart.
if you’re an active follower of mine, i do recognize your username and/or icon. i smile when i see it in my activity. i get excited when you add funny tags to things. i get really happy when you reblog my op posts. so thank you, i appreciate you massively.
I am the case manager for middle school ASD kids and I teach a group of them who have trouble being in the regular classroom for a number of reasons (mostly social anxiety related), so I get to teach all the subjects. My social studies choice for the year is geography and world cultures.
Can people help me find resources for indigenous American and Australian/Maori/Pacific Island cultures? I’m looking for everything, including religion, food, music, art, family style, education, etc etc etc.
I trust myself to find information for most things, but I would really like to get vetted resources for indigenous cultures to make sure they are accurately and respectful.
There's a Mirror on the Wall 