Question with regards to E.O. marketing claims NEW

[Guest guest]

ATFE2 , " ramarkel " <ramarkel wrote:

>

> Dear Martin,

>

> I have been involved in alternative medicine; essential oils and herbs for

over 15 years and I would like your expert opinion on something. I have seen

claims over the years from numerous wholesalers and retailers in the US stating

that their oils are " therapeutic, medicinal grade,certified therapeutic or

pharmaceutical grade. " But now I have been seeing more and more terms used to

sell essential oils like, " non-sprayed, wild harvested, conventional and

organic. "

>

> In your opinion what should one make of these marketing terms in an

unregulated industry? Are these individuals playing by the rules set forth by

the EU and US when they claim " organic but not certified organic by the NOP or

other regulatory agencies?

>

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Just found an old group mail that may better cover some of your questions.It

also really covers the claims of therapeutic benefits for certain kinds of oils.

-----------

Organically certified oils

 

I thought some of you may be interested to read the latest offerings on this

subject on Crissie Wildwood's website. NOTE:now offline but a link to her

archives is:

http://web.archive.org/web/20060711194031/http://www.chrissie-wildwood.com/

 

Crissie has shown that the committee who advise the UK Soil Association on

setting O.G. standards are mainly comprised of representatives of companies

involved in selling products. Such a committee cannot possibly be classified as

independent of vested trade interests.

 

Here in the UK and in France many oil suppliers are claiming their essential

oils are " certified organic " . However, when the certifying organizations are

checked out they are next to worthless. It has become clear that there are no

sound organic certification organizations throughout Europe. They are all

rubber stamping, paper pushing bureaucrats. For example, our Soil Association

claim to inspect growers in the UK once a year. If that visit is pre-arranged I

do not yet know, but one can be sure such a visit will mean certain farmers

quickly hiding any non organic methods they have been using.

I can recall many moons ago, when I was in the print trade, that our Government

Factory Inspectors would tell the company when they were going to visit and

suddenly there was a mad rush to clear the place up, and put all the guards back

onto the machines that the operators had removed.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that there are no organically grown oils as

certainly there are, what I am saying is you cannot trust any certification

systems in Europe. You will be paying premium prices with absolutely no

assurance that what you get is in fact produced according to the guidelines of

organic growing. You certainly cannot trust any oils that bear OG labels where

the country of origin is outside of the routine area covered by the certifying

body. Here the Soil Association were planning on awarding OG status *based on

what the oil suppliers told them* for oils from Madagascar, Rosewood and

Sandalwood. They have clearly been conned by certain suppliers who SAY their

producers comply with the guidelines-yeah-yeah-yeah!!

 

In the USA I do not know if the OG certification organizations are similar to

our own, but all I can say is buyer beware. ADDED NOTE: I now understand some of

the US organisations are hot on inspections.

 

Certainly there are genuine producers around the world who grow to OG standards,

or who wildcraft to ecological guidelines. How you as a therapist can get

satisfactory evidence though is another ballgame. As it stands anyone can claim

" all their oils are OG produced " and get away with it because no enforcement

agencies prosecute them for fraud, the worst offenders can be found on Canadian

and US web sites.

 

It makes little difference if an essential oil used in massage or by inhalation

is organically grown or not. Most people get a hundred times more synthetic

chemicals in their food every day than is ever going to get through the skin

from external application of an oil. We also take in all kinds of nasty

chemicals in most processed foods and from atmospheric pollution. That is why

breastmilk throughout most of the world is contaminated with pesticide residues,

PCBs and even DDT 30 years after it was banned.

 

I would personally only be interested in OG oils for internal use, or if I was

100% certain that the premium I paid was fed back to the producers rather than

just lining the pockets of oil traders.

 

Martin Watt