Newest Information
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If you get any problems with bounced emails to the normal email on the right index, an emergency backup is: aromamedical@hotmail.com or info@aromamedical.com Jan 2010: A review of old Young Living Tapes, but still relevant. November 2009: Aromatherapy blog pages, short article. Sept. 2009: A new article by saveourherbs.org.uk about the threats to traditional herbalists in the UK. See this page and please do sign the petition. July 2009: An update to the health care site link cons, with URLs. See this page June 2009: A review of the lies and misinformation by Young Living distributors and supposed animal therapists, over essential oils for use on pets. See this page March 2009: Added to 'articles by others' a correction to common aromatherapy book errors over the nationality of Avicenna. JAN. 2009: There are now many websites giving advice on aromatherapy, yet give no information on the training of the person providing the information. BEWARE many of these sites are being set up just to make money from the Google ads system. They simply take their information out of some highly dubious books and republish it. Significant amounts of that information are wrong and dangerous. See also July 2006 below.
Nov. 2008: Updated the article on hydrosols with new information on dangerous contamination. Sept 2008: Below is the newest version of the file from Cropwatch.org on the endangered species that are still being exploited in aromatherapy and perfumery. These products will continue to be supplied as long as therapists and the public buy them. threatlist.pdf August 2008: An excellent study by Bernie Hephrun of Linden absolute's. It is 27 pages long with photos. I have put it into a single password protected .exe file (PC only at the moment). If you want the file and password please send me your full mail address - no PO boxes. Click to download file July 2008: A review article of very dangerous claims being made on an Indian web site. May 2008: A new article on Natural Perfumes versus synthetics and related educational issues. Natural Perfumery April 2008: Yahoo and other newsgroups: Please beware of assuming that people on these groups are experts in the subjects they give advice on. Some are, but very few. Many of these newsgroups are created simply to enable the 'owners' to market their products. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but a lot wrong when people who have no training in medicine, herbs, oils or much else, start giving health advice. I have been horrified at some of the dangerous advice on essential oils and herbs given on some of these groups. Those groups that are 'moderated' edit posts to inhibit freedom of expression or deter members from going to other suppliers. The group I recommend is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATFE I
have left this group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oils_herbs_etc
as it is now under unjustifiable censorship based on the commercial
interests of the moderators. See my new article:
fragrance-scare-story While many Americans seem to think their Constitution gives them freedom of speech, this does not extend to companies and individuals. The moderators of newsgroups take full advantage of that. Most of these groups are 'private' and the group owners or moderators can censor anything they dislike, or which could expose their friends to probing of their integrity. This allows con artists free reign and stops them being exposed to scrutiny. That is something desperately needed in a trade packed to bursting with such people. It also inhibits an individual or group of people from criticism of inaccurate, misleading, illegal and dangerous information on web sites. FEB. 2008: Young
Living Files: Feb 2007: Lavender & tea tree article in the NEMJ. This unsound research article has grabbed headlines around the world. An excellent detailed rebuttal is to be found in the file below from the Australian Tea Tree growers organisation. pdf article. Advisory article for those seeking guidance on purchasing "natural" products via web sites. Article click here Jan 2007 - Some alarming new proposals from IFRA that may affect essential oils use. This organisation which at one time produced good guidelines on essential oil safety, seems to be taking the path of modern scientists who only understand chemicals. Looks like the old boys and girls in the fragrance trade who worked with, and understood, natural extracts have been put out to grass!! Read more from this .pdf download and to keep up to date on these issues visit the cropwatch web page. November 2006 - An increasing concern is the growth in pseudo scientific web sites providing misleading safety data on chemicals and the products they occur in. Beware if you find a site that classifies a chemical as "dangerous", but the site does not say in what circumstances and volumes. The fact a chemical may have proven toxic if consumed to excess, does not mean that chemical is always dangerous in any product it is used in. Quiet a number of these so called "dangerous" chemicals (to dumb scientists) are natural constituents of the plants in our everyday foods, indeed some are considered to have positive health effects such as anti oxidants, anti cancer, etc. These consumer advice websites often try to declare "green credentials" giving them an air of authority. If someone cannot provide exact information on volumes of a chemical required to cause problems, and in what circumstances of use, then the information they give is all but worthless. July 2006 - Update on the web site link scammers: The position over health care advice web sites is getting worse fast. I have been approached by several such sites recently who want me to link to them, after they have already added my link to their site without asking. I have checked out the registration of some of these sites and it is really alarming. The most recent one was a reputable looking site on woman's health issues. It included some good articles, but it was registered in Lima, Peru and the site owner was actively adding links to any old business just to gain hits and thus advertising revenue. In other words a scam operation aimed at fooling the public that the information they provided was from a reputable organisation. There was NO organisation, my guess is it is one person masquerading as an organisation to fool you and make money out of this activity. Please bear in mind anyone can register themselves as a .org. This suffix does not provide automatic credibility to who is operating the web site. Therefore, please be very careful in what you believe on any health care sites that seem to have lots of links on them. The chances are high that it is a site run simply to make money and is not a reputable source of information, also there may be no organisation involved as the title may suggest to you. Article click here Beware of those courses claiming to supply "the latest scientific data". Some of these teachers are just copying articles from aromatherapy journals. Such journals tend to feature information which has not been published by reputable medical and scientific publications. In addition, they often use database information where the differences between herbal preparations and essential oils have not been clearly defined. Scientific information is misused in an attempt to prove that an essential oil has the same actions as in the research on the herb. This is one of the biggest blunders made within aromatherapy as a whole. Some may find a review of mine in relation to this matter of interest: http://ecam.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/1/3/301 Scroll down to the email review link near the end of the article or hit: http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/eletters/1/3/301#5 Please note: The following web site has an article using some of my material, but it has been edited to suit the web site owner. It commences by stating that I said "Aromatherapy simply does not work". I have never made such a statement. The owner has been asked to remove that comment, or the whole article, but has ignored all such requests: http://www.andybarson.co.uk/Aroma/against.htm UK readers may find 'Health Which' February 2001 pp 18-20 of interest. This journal had a limited range of essential oils analysed and came up with some interesting results. Nothing surprising to those that know the way the essential oil trade operates. However, it graphically illustrates the inability of the aromatherapy/essential oils trade to police itself. Also, when UK Government departments actively support ineffective trade organisations, there seems little hope of ever getting the house in order. |