Beautiful Colours: Ugly Truth!

[coolguyskumar]

Beautiful Colours: Ugly Truth!

Holi is played with various hues of red, yellow, blue, green, magenta, purple, orange, …..! But do you know that most of the Holi colours sold these days contain many harmful chemicals? Infact most are dyes meant for industrial uses like dyeing textiles and are not meant to be applied on humans. These colours include heavy metals, acids, alkalis, powdered glass…. The black paste has lead oxide, green contains copper sulphate, red is mercury sulphite etc. All these are toxic and can result in anything from skin allergies to cancer, eye irritation to blindness… and much more.

Even the base in which these chemical are mixed are highly toxic. Several powder or dry colours use a base of asbestos talc, chalk powder or silica. Asbestos is a known human carcinogen which gets built up in the body tissue, even micro quantities can result in cancer. Silica may dry as well as chap the skin. The shine in the colours is due to addition of powdered glass or mica. Many water colours have an alkaline base capable of causing severe injuries. If it enters the eyes, it can pose a great danger to the vision. Colours in the form of pastes have toxic compounds mixed in a base of engine oil or other inferior quality oil, capable of causing skin allergy, temporary blindness…



Chemical Colour Composition Health Effects
Black Lead Oxide Renal Failure, Learning disability
Green Copper Sulphate Eye Allergy, Temporary blindness
Purple Chromium iodide Bronchial asthma, Allergies
Silver Aluminium Bromide Carcinogenic
Red Mercury Sulphite Skin cancer, Minamata disease (mental retardation, paralysis, impaired vision...)
Even the way we play Holi is becoming dangerous. Throwing of water balloons can cause injury to the eyes and ears when thrown from a distance and with force. Is it not ironical that while the whole year we take utmost care of our appearance, skin and eyes everyday, on Holi we damage it joyfully with toxic colours? When washed, these chemicals enter the rivers, the soil, and cause even more pollution. Do our festivals and celebrations need not be at the cost of our life and environment?

We can play and motivate others to play Holi with environment and human friendly natural colours. By using safe, natural colours we are not only saving our skins but are also helping to save our environment and conserve our biodiversity. When these colours are mixed with the soil and water they will not add toxicity to them, therefore it will not harm the myriad life forms that live in the soil and water. By this we can bring back in large quantities the diverse plants and trees that give us these colours.

Experts Suggestions:

How to remove colours from your skin?
"If you are not sure with the quality of colours, you better smear your body with coconut oil or any other quality based moisturizing cream before getting coloured. It is better and easier to scrub them off with the oily layer and better to wash your face time to time so that your skin can be easily cleaned later on. If you do get coloured with obstinate colours, apply a mixture of curd and besan or malai and gently rub your face, do this two or three time and you'll get original colour of your skin. Don't try to scratch your skin with nails."

If going out to celebrate Holi:
·Use cap, scarf or hat to protect your hairs from colours.
·Use a sunglass to protect your eyes from harmful colours.
.Apply oil or cream on your skin before going out in Holi.
·Try to play with the natural colours (Gulal).

In case of irritation in eyes:
"Cheap quality and chemical based colour (especially wet) can harm your eyes. If you feel some irritation or redness in your eyes don't rub that area, wash your eyes with clean and running water and immediately go to the eye specialist nearby to your place. If eye specialist is not available at the moment than put one drop of anti biotic like "ciprofloxacin" 3-4 times in a day. Eyeglasses are the best option to protect eyes from colours."

For more information log on to websites -
http://www.cleanindia.org/btonature/holi.htm#toxic
http://environment.delhigovt.nic.in/...3/red_recp.htm
http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes....how/544035.cms

Wishing you a Colourful Holi with Natural and Safe Colours!



HAPPY Holi !!

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