| If
you get problems with the email link on the right index not working,
a backup is: aromamedical@hotmail.com or info@aromamedical.org |
|
Dec
2011: An alarming research article has just been
published on the lack of long term viability of Frankincense
trees in Ethiopia. Another example of useful trees being decimated
by uncontrolled human activity. A .pdf file with fill details
is available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2011.02078.x/pdf
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|
August
2011:
Just added a talk I gave after the trip to Turkey in 2000. It
is linked from the rose distillation article.
All articles
are now available in a single linked .exe file Click
here to download 1.5 Mbytes. This has a search engine making
finding things in the many articles much easier. Your antivirus
software may tell you that this is a virus simply because it is
an .exe file. It is not.
|
| May
2011: I just uploaded a
couple of parodies to illustrate how inept some scientific advisors
on toxicology are. These are the cretins Government departments
listen to and who are fast destroying our ability to utilise natural
products. |
|
March
2011: If
you are a customer of comcast.com
and do not get a reply from me, it is because that useless mob
are constantly blacklisting and blocking overseas servers. Then
they make it difficult to contact them. I suggest you sign up
for a hotmail or similar free account.
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|
OCT.
2010: I have reached official retirement age. CDs, downloads and
the course will continue, but paper publications have been
withdrawn, See here.
New
trade review:
This new article
might help newcomers interested in essential oils and aromatherapy
beat the con artists, and should be of interest to those trained
on poor quality courses.
Safety
update: Now
that 'Plant Aromatics' is dead, I have updated the article on
essential oil safety and
introduced a chart some may find helpful.
|
| August
2010:
After many years of having the free oils information file on this
site, I have had to remove the download link. It will still be available,
but only via an email attachment after you send me the required
information. The reason for this is that someone seems to have been
distributing the password codes. Numerous downloads have occurred,
but without a request for the password. |
| July
2010: With the greatest or regret I have had to change
the format of all the CDS and downloads. Previously, I used a program
that assembled all the files into a single self contained .exe file
with an excellent search facility. Due to the increasing use by
Internet service providers of badly written security software, this
has been blocking the .exe files sent as emails, or even as downloads.
Now all files are in copy protected .html files but customers will
need to know how to use winzip or similar to extract all the files
to their hard drive.
Something
that may interest UK readers in particular. Not Aroma related
apart from the bad smell. Bad businesses
|
| Feb
2010:
A new
website for UK readers over the threat
to our herbal medicine. |
| 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: Update to the healthcare web link scammers
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 |
| April
2009: We have a serious pirate in our midst called
Stephie Cyr. See this page
for more on the Canadian aromatherapy teacher who has ripped off
course materials from my Colleague Lynn Bosman, and thus in turn
from myself. |
| March
2009: The new non-commercial website aromamedical.org
is now available. This has a new feature of book
reviews which will not be added to this site. |
| JAN.
2009: There are now many websites giving advice on
aromatherapy, yet nothing on the training of the people providing
the information. BEWARE many of these sites are being set
up just to make money from the Google ads system. They take their
information out of highly dubious books and republish it. Significant
amounts of that information are wrong and dangerous.
See also July 2006 below. |
|
DEC.
2008: Beware of assuming all members of the Natural
Perfumers Guild http://naturalperfumers.com/ are credible
or honest traders - several are not.
One of their
members http://www.profumo.it/ trades in animal extracts banned
for importation to the USA and banned in Europe under CITES regulations.
If you live in the USA and import their animal extracts you could
be fined and have your stock impounded. At least 3 other members
of that guild make illegal medicinal claims (in the USA) for their
products. There is some evidence that certain of their teachers
buy and sell synthetic fragrance blends as the real thing. This
is mainly due to many of their members being far from the experts
their publicity suggests. It is a shame that some of the more
respected people in this trade continue to be part of this disreputable
organisation.
|
| Sept
2008: 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. The file from cropwatch is here:
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 of very
dangerous claims being made on an Indian web site.
|
|
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 just 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. Many of these groups are
'moderated' by the owners who edit posts to inhibit freedom of
expression, or deter members from going to other suppliers.
I have left
several groups: that are 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.
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.
|
|
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
|
| 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. |