Dear Massage Magazine,
I submitted an article, which you published as a Guest Editorial on page 22 of your March 2010 issue, entitled Essential Oils: Premium Quality Yields Premium Results. On page 10, your Contents Page, this was listed as: Guest Editorial: Read about therapeutic grade essential oils in “Powerful Tools in A Small Bottle”, by Dawn-Mari Yurkovic, at www.massagemag.com/powerfultools. Don’t you agree this is a little weird? One person writes a two-page article, and a completely different person/article is listed on the Contents page of the magazine?
In my article I explain why “such terms as pharmaceutical grade, therapeutic grade or food grade have no meaning in relation to the quality of essential oils for aromatherapy.” But, at the end of the article, you inserted a box, with: Read about therapeutic grade essential oils in “Powerful Tools in A Small Bottle”, by Dawn-Mari Yurkovic at www.massagemag.com/powerfultools. OK, I can take a hint, even if it’s thrust in my face.
In Dawn-Mari’s pitch (she’s basically selling her classes and her essential oils) she makes the following comment: Only therapeutic grade essential oils should be used to ensure safety and that there are no synthetic or toxic chemicals being introduced to the body. Unfortunately, less than 2 percent of the essential oil found in health-food stores and the like are actually therapeutic grade, even though the label might say something like “100-percent pure”.
On speaking to Karen Menehan and Stanford Erickson, two of your editors, I was told that one role of a publication was to present alternative viewpoints. A fair point in principle, but I have read dozens of editorials, guest and otherwise, and don’t remember a single one that presented opposing views in this way. And, I’m still confused as to how my article was listed as someone else’s.
As for “therapeutic grade” essential oils, I agree with Dawn-Mari that synthetic or toxic chemicals are best avoided in aromatherapy. (Though I would add that these terms are not synonymous, and some essential oils naturally contain toxic constituents.) Also, I totally agree with the sentiment that essential oils used in aromatherapy should be of a grade suitable for the task. I’m just saying that there is no independent, industry standard that is known as “therapeutic grade.”
Aura Cacia's Tim Blakely (center) helping with a distillation project in Nepal
And, I’m not at all sure where the idea that “less than 2% of essential oils sold in health stores are appropriate for aromatherapy” comes from. This is quite simply pure and unadulterated fantasy! Perhaps the most common retail brand is Aura Cacia, and if you go to their website you will find 27 organically certified essential oils listed. A very high percentage of essential oils now sold for use in aromatherapy is organically certified, and some of the ones that are not are simply not available as certified organic oils. This not only applies in the USA, the same is true in most regions. Is an organically certified essential oil not suitable for aromatherapy?
I was personally offended by the way my article was treated; at the very least you could have let me know your intentions ahead of time. And, I appreciate that you have apologized to me for this. As journalists, if you are going to present opposing views, I submit that it is your duty to do some fact checking. You have told me that, since you know nothing about aromatherapy, this would not be appropriate. I respectfully disagree, and in this instance you have contributed, perhaps significantly, to misinformation about essential oils for aromatherapy. Fact and fiction are not “differences of opinion.”
Sincerely,
Robert Tisserand
Robert you are the MAN! Thank you for being a voice of reason and knowledge. More importantly, thank you for calling people on their BS! To often people will be reluctant to speak up when confronted with individuals or companies spreading misinformation to further their agenda (and profit motive). Fact and fiction are not differences of opinion. Massage magazine should be ashamed. Instead they give an idiotic response, in essence saying, “we don’t know anything so it’s inappropriate that we educate ourselves before we send info out the our industry”.
Wow.
Being in the wellness and massage industries for several decades I must say that I will counsel all my students to stay away from that publication and instead seek out those who want to actually get good info out to the public. For example, THIS website.
Hi Robert – I know I’ve read that more than a few times in some of the main stream aromatherapy books and think I was told that in my aromatherapy classes – about the 2% thing. So, it is a perception that I myself also have and have, therefore, spent long hours trying to determine if my sources are selling me what they say they are and who my sources should be – long hours and dollars spent to attend conferences to rub elbows with those who should know. However, at that time in 2006, organic essential oils were not readily or at all available. I have also read and have been told by those who should know, that just because an oil is certified organic, there is still no guarantee that said essential oil is not adulterated or for that matter really organic. The argument that I was given was that no one stays around to make sure that the material actually placed into the still was the same that was grown in the organic soil. We live in a world of distrust and for good reason as we look around at the greed in high places. I know this doesn’t address your issues about your article but was and always will be interested in any discussion concerning what constitutes an unadulterated oil. That being said, I would think there are certain things to consider when purchasing an oil and the chances it may or may not be adulterated. Some oils are naturally inexpensive and there would be nothing gained by adulterating them. If you look at how many acres of a particular oil are said to have been grown for a particular year and for that same year there was a great more essential oil sold than could have been produced – then you know you probably have an issue. I know that you know far more about this issue than I do, but I would like to see more discussion concerning what things would throw up a red flag when purchasing an oil from a particular supplier. The internet is now so absolutely full of people selling essential oils and copying and pasting the same old information that it is a bit overwhelming. My concern is the same as other clinical aromatherapists and that is that people will try a particular oil, find that it doesn’t work because it is either adulterated or the person selling the oil really doesn’t have a clue which oil or chemotype should be used for a particular purpose, so the client then assumes that any and all claims made by the aromatherapy industry are false or vastly overstated. This is true in research studies that have been done as well. Is there an answer? I would like to see an article by someone as knowledgeable as yourself that gives you a list of possible red flags and things to consider when looking for suppliers, particularly bulk suppliers.
Hi Ann,
A genuine therapeutic grade standard for essential oils is a great idea, it just doesn’t exist at this point in time. What does exist is the ISO standard, for many essential oils – http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html – and for organic certification, an organization called IFOAM – http://www.ifoam.org – the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, which was formed in 1972. Certified organic essential oils have been available since the 1980s. Maybe not in your local health store, but they were being produced.
Organic certification involves an ongoing process of inspection and checking, and it is therefore costly. Small enterprises generally cannot afford it (though they may still be offering genuine organic oils) and large companies take a massive risk if they intentionally label a non-organic product as organic.
Yes, essential oil adulteration exists, though this doesn’t always involve synthetic chemicals. One of the most common frauds is to add lavandin oil to lavender oil, though this is not difficult to detect with GC analysis. But, the idea that virtually all essential oils that are sold in health stores are, by definition, adulterated, is baseless. There is no evidence for it, and there never has been any.
Where are the adulterated oils? Most of them probably end up in cheap fragrances.
Hi Robert,
Boy you are having a time of it with your information being either misrepresented or presented in a horrible way. I am glad you chose to write the magazine and address the issue here on your website.
Kendra Kirkham wrote a really great article a few years ago for the IFPA Journal “In Essence” about the lack of any formal essential oil “grading” system for aromatherapy and provided clear information about the topic, as well as explain the use of the words “therapeutic grade” as a marketing tool for a certain MLM essential oil company. It’s a shame that many others now elect to coin the bogus term. I understand the thought is to express that their oils may be of higher quality or perhaps used in clinical settings, but use of such terms only adds to consumer confusion. Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the masses.
I’m the editor in chief at MASSAGE Magazine, and I’m commenting here to address some of the information in this blog posting.
We published “Powerful Tools in a Small Bottle,” by Dawn-Mari Yurkovic, online, in conjunction with “Essential Oils: Premium Quality Yields Premium Results,” by Robert Tisserand, which ran in our March print issue.
First, in response to Robert’s concern regarding the connection made between his Guest Editorial and Dawn-Mari Yurkovic’s companion article, I have gone into our online files and removed the reference to Robert’s article from Dawn-Mari’s article.
Robert’s point about our Table of Contents layout is a good one, and so we will list the print Guest Editorial title and author byline in future issues’ Table of Contents. We will make this change beginning with our June issue.
Also, according to Dawn-Mari, although there isn’t a worldwide or country-wide board setting legal standards for therapeutic-grade essential oils (which in fact was never stated nor inferred in her article), there are companies creating their own standards.
For anyone who hasn’t read Dawn-Mari’s article, here is a link to it: http://www.massagemag.com/powerfultools
Here is a link to Robert’s article: http://www.massagemag.com/tisserandaromatherapy
Finally, we do fact check. Any belief to the contrary is based on misunderstanding.
Karen Menehan
MASSAGE Magazine
kmenehan@massagemag.com
http://www.massagemag.com
“companies creating there own standards” is why we have certifying organizations; to ensure truth in advertising and obtainable measureable repeatable standards. If it were ok to have every company creating their own standards we’d have more problems. Oh yeah we do, Sallie and Freddie, Enron… That’s why we voted for Obama because this type of side stepping around responsibility and being honest is not acceptable. Thank you Robert, I was trying to figure out where I got this notion of “therapeutic grade” when I couldn’t find a certifying body that provided that term. I am fairly sure I got it from some YL distributor. It’s one of the reasons I value having found you and bought your books etc. You cut through the cr_p out there. Thank you.