Before I mention this next green tip I want to let you know that I know taking a cotton swab to your ear is bad. It can hurt your ear if you clean too far and leaves your ear vulnerable to water or infection, but truth be told, I’m addicted to “cleaning” my ears. I can’t stand the feeling of earwax building up in my ear. It makes my ear itch. It makes me feel like my ears are dirty even though I know they are not.
After every shower I take a cotton-tipped applicator to my ear and clean out my ears. My parents did it. My parent’s parents did it. So it has become an unhealthy tradition in my family. Unfortunately small as cotton-tipped applicator can be it is harmful not only to the inside of the ear, but in a small or perhaps big way harmful to the environment.
Think about it. Swabs use cotton and cotton contains chemicals like pesticides. Because of the use of pesticides there are a number of human health and environmental concerns today. For example: pesticides can contaminate our drinking water and absorb through our skin causing illness like cancer. Children are the most susceptible to pesticides.
So I’ve set out to find eco-friendly cotton swabs or an alternative environmentally friendly way to clean my ear and here is what I found:
The Finger
If you have big ears like my husband does, a pinky to the ear may be sufficient to remove excess earwax, but my ears are small and may I add, “Eewwwww!”
Liquid Ear Drops
There are liquids you can add to you ear to clean them out. Some can be homemade and others can be bought over the counter at the store. My mother-in-law once tried to convince me that this was a healthier alternative. My husband who happily agreed and strongly believes in the dangers of my ear cleaning addiction, held my reluctant head down to the side as she squeezed the liquid into my ear. My experience? Terrifying. I definitely wont let them do that to me again. I might as well have had a slimy bug crawl into my ear because that is exactly how it felt.
Eco-friendly Cotton-tipped Applicators
It took me a long time to find these, but I finally found them. They’re called Simply Gentle Organic Cotton Buds and 2% of the cost of this bucket filled with eco-swabs is donated to assist people in cotton growing areas to build a better future for themselves and their children. So you see, I’m sort of doing a good thing by cleaning out my ears with cotton swabs.
Who am I kidding? Cotton swabs to the ear are bad, but if your addiction is so bad you must use them at least use environmentally friendly ones like these. Most importantly DON’T clean your kids ears with cotton swabs and DON’T let them see you clean your ears with cotton swabs. Stop this unhealthy tradition. Also DON’T throw them in the toilet unless you want to call a plumber!
Ear Candling
Here’s a natural method that shocked me speechless. Its’ called Ear Candling (a.k.a ear coning) and is an alternative therapy treatment which dates back to the year 2500 B.C. It is a method of naturally clearing earwax and removing toxins from a person’s ear by using a hollow candle that is placed in the ear. One end of the hollow candle is lit up. The other end is placed in the ear while the patient lies on her side. The spiral cone allows smoke to be pulled down into the ear canal and then back up. This causes the canal to warm up and loosens the earwax. Which is then pulled up with the air being drawn up from the inner ear to the outer ear and is deposited at the base of the candle.
Honestly, even the slightest possibility of burning my ear or my earwax melting and sticking to my eardrum only to be removed by surgery is enough to scare me away from using this eco-friendly method.
Ears are self-cleaning
Leave your ears alone and the wax will gradually make it to the opening by gravity and body heat. Once at the opening you can wipe the wax off with a washcloth or rinse it away in the shower with warm water. “Like other waxes, earwax will melt with the increased heat of warm water. Of course, never put hot water in your ears. As a matter of fact, unless you want to experience vertigo and vomiting, never put cold water in your ears either,” writes Dr. Rod Moser, PA, PhD. Self- cleaning is the most environmentally friendly and healthy way to deal with your ears.
Remember earwax is beneficial for the ear. It protects the inside of the ear from water and bacteria. If you remove the wax out of the ear canal, you will leave the skin vulnerable to infection. If you stick something in your ear to clean out the wax you risk pushing the wax back further and creating blockage possibly causing some hearing loss.
To all you ear cleaning addicts out there I’ve provide several eco friendly methods to clean out your ears. It is up to you to choose which method is best for you. Me, I know what option is best for me. Now that I’ve run out of cotton swabs to use I’ve made a pact with myself to try go cold turkey. I only hope the withdrawal symptoms aren’t as bad this time around. It isn’t easy breaking an addictive tradition, especially when it feels sooooo good!
Better things to do with any left over cotton swabs: use them for artistic painting, to remove eco-friendly nail polish, to clean between the buttons on your keyboard or for your pretend CSI investigations.
