Hello,

I’m new here and I wanted to ask you about AFM (and warn you). I live in Europe, Germany, and I could get products from AFM here. The AFM Safe Choice Shampoo & Body Wash was the only shampoo I could use. But now they’ve change their ingredients. There are two preservatives in it:
1. methylisothiazolinone: The more “harmless” one compared to the second. But it is still neurotoxic and dangerous for the baby if a pregnant woman uses it.
2. methylchloroisothiazolinone: A very bad one. It’s toxic, a fungicide. Wikipedia says: “It is effective against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, yeast and fungi.”
Then, they replaced cocamide MEA by cocamide DEA (I don’t think this is very much different, but possibly, it is a big difference because there are websites that say that cocamide DEA was carcinogen, and I haven’t read this from cocamide MEA).

Of course, I reacted on it at once. I’ve been extremely chemically sensitive for five years, but it had slightly improved during the last two years. I could go outside more often and didn’t react that extreme on small amounts of smoke or perfume, so I could go for little walks again when the air was okay outside. If I smelled anything that’s bad for me, I could go away before I had a reaction.
Then, I put this product on my hands one time, only on the hands. I smelled it at once, but I was strangely confused so I was not sure if the water was smelling, the room or my own hands (usually, I don’t feel confused from a bad smell). I think I had problems with my eyes, too, because the light seemed to be strangely red, like the light of a fire in the dark. I haven’t ever experienced that.
Still, I realised that it had to be the shampoo, because the water is filtered, and washed my hands over and over again with the old bottle of the shampoo. It wouldn’t go away, but luckily, I have something like a “catalytic converter for smells” made from stainless steel which helped me to remove it. I don’t remember much from the rest of the evening, I must have talked to my my parents about some everyday things and I can’t remember now. My mother says, I haven’t said anything about the shampoo, I guess I didn’t feel up to it. The first thing I can memorize clearly is looking on the watch at three in the night (I used the product at 9 pm). From what I remember, I hadn’t slept before and I was extremely thirsty and felt very ill. I drank a lot of water and went to bed. I feared that I would get nephritis again because I felt like that, it was the case once and it was very bad and dangerous.
The next day, I had an extreme reaction, it feelt like having a flu without the cough and throat aches, and it wouldn’t get better for several days. I felt extremely weak all the time (usually, I feel very bad from reactions, but I hardly ever feel weak).
I’ve never had such a reaction on a shampoo (I’ve used and tried several things, but never had a really bad reaction from putting something just on the hands. I try shampoos on the hands and let them be if I can’t stand the smell). In fact, I had such a bad reaction only once before in my life, when I got nephritis and the severe form of MCS from inhaling extreme amounts of mold, pcp, pcb and whatever was in the building that was demolished in front of my nose when I had been in a school room with a new floor that was stinking very bad. Well, that was worse, but if this was the worst (and there was a moment when I thought last) day of my life, this day was the second worst.
Now, I’m more sensitive then I’ve ever been. I hardly dare to leave the house anymore because now, I react at little things at once and very bad. I don’t think I can run away for several minutes with a charcoal mask pressed on my face so I can hardly breath anymore, because the reactions make me extremely weak now. I fear there will be no inline-skating this summer, because I couldn’t escape from perfum or smoke with a reaction.

So, I want to warn you if you haven’t already used it. I was lucky in a way, I had it only on the hands and my health wasn’t very bad in that moment, but think of someone who feels like me now and puts it on the head, especially when there’s no shampoo left from the old bottle! I wanted to tell you what I’ve experienced with it so you can see that this is not a little thing one person will tolerate without a problem and one won’t. The old bottles without the new ingredients are labeled only in English, the new bottles with the new ingredients are labeled in French, too. But look on the ingredients!
Please don’t think: “I have nothing else so I have to try it at least.” You know that washing with baking soda is possible, too. I found a way to get my hair clean with baking soda. It also is shining and healthy. You have to use baking soda twice and lemon juice, citric acid or vinegar and rinse it off in a special order. If you ask, I’ll explain it, it’s easy. Rinsing with the sour substances is only for beauty, not extremely necessary.
So, to say it in a short way, please don’t use the AFM shampoo bottles with the new preservatives.

Best wishes from Germany,
Else

Hi Else
I was aware very early on, as my sensitivity was developing that Methylisothiazolinone was causing me problems. In fact I identified it in laundry tablets, cream cleaners, floor cleaner, shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath and washing up liquid, hand cream and cosmetics.
It may well be in other household products too, I just never used them.

This chemical is added as a safer chemical alternative to Formaldehyde.

heres few things you can find it in

hpd.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands...&amp;id=92<br /><br />Post edited by: Helen64, at: 2009/04/03 23:24

Hi Else,

Welcome to the site and the forums

Thank you so much for taking the time to post all that detailed information about methylisothiazolinone and the AFM range of personal care products.

I know how irritating it can be when a product you have been using with no problems is suddenly \&quot;reformulated\&quot; and you start to react to it.

Helen64 - thanks for the link to the NIH site. That's a really useful database that I hadn't looked at before

Hi Maff, Hi Helen,

thank you for your answers.
I've experienced often enough that a company changes the ingredients and I didn't tolerate the product anymore. Usually, there is a new, \&quot;harmless\&quot; (compared to those preservatives) ingredient in it that I react to, and that's it.
But this time it's worse. The biggest problem is methylCHLOROisothiazolinone. This substance is something no one producing a product for people with allergies, MCS, or just for children should use.
Organochlorides aren't only known to trigger, but to cause MCS. Pesticides, insectizides, PCP, PCB... You'll always find the \&quot;Cl\&quot; in the organic molecules. I think a company like AFM has to know that. But still, they put an organochloride in their shampoo.
If there are laws that say preservatives have to be used (I think: citric acid is a good preservative, but I don't know the laws) AFM could, for example, use an alcohol. Some people would tolerate this, some wouldn't. But it wouldn't be that bad.
Well... we can't do anything, but they will get problems themselves. 3 reasons why AFM could be the next victim (?) of the financial crisis:
1. people with MCS or severe allergies won't tolerate the product, so they don't buy it anymore
2. the new shampoo is stinking like pesiticide plus perfume. people who can't tolerate perfumes or don't want perfumes because they have enough other allergies won't buy it anymore
3. if people experience very bad reactions, and many will do, they won't trust AFM anymore. I won't buy other products from AFM anymore. Not because I don't like AFM but because I can't be sure anymore that AFM uses only ingredients that many people with MCS tolerate.
So... sometimes there is justice. Let's hope no one will give them money, because we don't need their products. And... there could be a reason four:
4. Someone who found an alternative to AFM shampoo won't use it anymore. I leave the rest of the old version without the preservatives in the bottle. Why? I didn't know that I could have healthy skin and shining hair. I thought it was normal to have acne (not extreme, a little) at my age. But it is gone almost completely. And my skin doesn't get dry anymore since I stopped using surfactants (I use baking soda and lemon juice). I don't need to use salad oil for my skin anymore. Now, I wear my hair open very often, and I can wear sleeveless shirts because my skin is good enough for that again. Well... do we need their industrial-chemical-irritant-pollutive-whatever surfactants? It's a pity that I can't stand the smell of Rhassoul, because it's even more natural than baking soda.

Else