Thank you very much for taking the time to write your interesting article. We are deeply appreciative of your dedication and your environmental consciousness. It’s good to learn that there are people out there around the world who care enough about our planet’s health and each other to take on the complicated pollution issues.

Regarding the Organic Consumers Association’s and author David Steinman’s recent and disturbing organic and natural personal care products study, I’m sorry, but you do have some rather important information reported incorrectly. (A typo perhaps?) There were just three USDA certified organic companies’ products that were tested and found to be dioxane-free, not four companies. The three companies were our company, TerrEssentials (every product we make is certified under the USDA National Organic Program), Dr. Bronners and Sensibility Soaps.

One additional item that is not quite accurate is the information about the derivation of the surfactants (detergents) sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. Regardless of whether these chemicals originate from a petroleum source or vegetable (non-organic coconut oil) source, the fossil fuel-intensive (high temperature of 2000 degrees) industrial manufacturing process and the highly toxic metal catalysts and reactive agents that are required to manufacture these chemicals renders them both as synthetic — not natural — chemical materials. That’s synthetic according to the USDA National Organic Program regulation’s official definition of the word synthetic.

It’s important to know that castile soap is a true soap. True soap originated in nature, unlike surfactants (detergents) which are chemical inventions of men. Unfortunately, the chemical industry has successfully lobbied to be able to call their synthetic detergents “soap”– buyer beware. Environmentally-conscious people need to carefully read labels: true soap is identified as “castile soap,” detergents/surfactants will have a chemical name. By the way, we wash our dishes (and our home and our clothing) with our own castile soap and it works great! Our Zingin’ Citrus is our favorite.

There is much good science to show us that purchasing any “all natural” or “organic” product containing synthetic surfactant, fatty acid/emulsifying wax, coloring, sunscreen, preservative or fragrance chemicals is, quite simply, not an environmentally-friendly action. Thus, it is important to remember that the industrial surfactant manufacturing processes are very polluting and unhealthy for our environment, and products that contain chemical surfactants are unhealthy when you rub them on your body and also unhealthy when they are washed down our drains into our drinking water. Lastly, because these chemicals are cheap, you may think that you are being thrifty when you buy synthetic “all natural” and/or non-certified “organic” products, but, in the long-term, the negative downstream environmental costs are huge.

So that we can create real change and make true contributions to cleaning up our planet, please encourage others to support companies who have made the significant commitment to producing genuine USDA certified organic products — the highest, golden organic standard in the world.

(The USDA National Organic Program regulations are more than 500 pages! USDA certified organic personal care products are held to the same rules — not different and lesser rules — as USDA certified organic foods.)

Thanks again for your good work!