Toxic Chemicals to Avoid
The Personal
Care and Cosmetic Industry makes intensive use of highly
toxic synthetic and petro-chemicals.
The Environmental
Working Group (EWG)
is a non-profit
organisation that has set up the World's Largest Database of
Personal
"Care" Products and the Harmful Chemicals they contain.
The EWG is run
by a team of concerned scientists, engineers, policy experts,
lawyers, and computer programmers
who pore over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and
their
own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the
environment, and to find solutions.
The Research Conducted by the EWG
Brings to Light Unsettling Facts that
You Have a Right to Know.
In a 2004 study conducted by the EWG, it was found that the average
American Woman uses around 16 different Personal "Care" Products which
translates to more than 150 Chemicals being absorbed through the skin,
inhaled through the nose and licked off the lips.
That's 150 Synthetic, Toxic, Carcinogenic, Endocrine Disrupting, Immune
Suppressant Chemicals!
And that doesn't even take into account the plethora of Chemicals
contained in the multitude of other household products and foodstuff's
that are
commonly used.
Why Not Give It a Try?
Click on EWG
and
do
a Search on the Ingredients used in Your Favorite Personal "Care"
Products. You will be VERY
Surprised!!
All products are rated from 0 (least hazardous) to 10 (most
hazardous).
Please
Consider Supporting the EWG by making a Donation.
Commonly
Used Toxic Ingredients and Highly Questionable Ingredients:
The Quantity and Toxicity of the Chemicals commonly used in the name of
Personal "Care" blows the mind. The Cosmetics Industry, of course, will
tell you that the products are safe or not proven 'conclusively' to be
unsafe.
But whilst these fools hide behind their legalise, the lives of
innocent people are being adversely affected (not to mention the
environment).
But all that aside; WHY RISK IT? Especially
when there are
Natural
and Organically Derived Chemical (and Controversy) Free Alternatives.
Some of the typical toxic
ingredients used:
(this is just a
sample -- there are literally thousands)
Many of the 'Ingredients' listed below have a High Hazard Rating on
EWG
Placenta
Extracts from human and cow placenta can condition skin and hair. Vital
to a growing baby in the womb, these same extracts in cosmetics give
the body a slug of hormones that may be enough to spur breast growth in
toddlers according to a few recent case studies.
Mercury
Given everything that has been learnt over the past 30 years about
mercury's ability to damage brain function at low levels, it's hard to
believe it's still used in cosmetics. But it is. It is
found in Paula Dorf mascara, listed as the mercury
preservative "
thimerosal."
If you get a little bit of mascara in your eyes or face when it clumps
or as you wash it off, you may also be getting a little dose of
mercury. Watch out for mercury in eye drops, too. Send a message to
companies that use brain-damaging ingredients and avoid these products.
Lead
When scientists recognized that lead harms the developing brain of a
child, the government demanded its removal from gasoline and house
paint — but not hair dye. This pernicious neurotoxin is in
Grecian Formula 16 and other black hair dyes for men. It's hard to keep
all the lead on your hair — studies find residues on door
knobs and cabinets. Don't expose yourself or your children to this one.
Fragrance
It may smell great, but do you know what's in it? Fragrances are the
great secrets of the cosmetics industry, in everything from shampoo to
deodorant to lotion. Companies are not required to list on product
labels any of the potentially hundreds of chemicals in a single
product's secret fragrance mixture. Fragrances can contain neurotoxins
and are among the top 5 allergens in the world. Buy fragrance free
Animal Parts
If fat scraped from the back of the hide of mink and emu isn't
something you'd like to smear on your skin, you may want to avoid mink
and emu oil, conditioning agents in sunscreen, shaving cream, hair
spray and more.
Hydroquinone Skin Lightener
On a quest for lighter skin? Take a cue from FDA's recent warning, and
avoid skin lighteners with hydroquinone. This skin bleaching chemical
can cause a skin disease called ochronosis, with "disfiguring and
irreversible" blue-black lesions that in the worst cases become
permanent, intensively black bumps the size of caviar all over the skin.
Nanoparticles
These tiny little inventions are touted as the next green revolution,
but we don't find much sexy or green about untested ingredients that
can slide up the optic nerve to the brain or burrow inside red blood
cells. They're found in cosmetics in forms ranging from tiny wire cages
called "buckeyballs" to miniscule bits of metals used as sunscreens.
Good luck finding them, though — companies don't have to tell
us that they're in our products, though we found that more than
one-third of all products contain ingredients now commercially
available in nano forms. And we did find them listed outright on the
labels of some sunscreens (nano metals) and skin creams (buckeyballs).
Buyer beware!
Phythalates
Pronounced "tha'-lates," these little plasticizer chemicals pack a
punch to male sex organs. Whether it's sperm damage, feminization of
baby boys, or infertility, a growing number of studies link phthalates
to problems in men and boys. Pregnant women should avoid it in nail
polish ("dibutyl phathalate") and everyone should avoid products with
"fragrance" on the label, chemical mixtures where phthalates often hide.
Petroleum Byproducts
Surprised to learn that the same factories making gas for your car also
make emollients for your face cream? Meet the workhorse chemicals of
the cosmetics industry — petroleum byproducts, and the
cancer-causing impurities that often contaminate them. These
ingredients include carcinogens in baby shampoo (
see new research on
1,4-dioxane) and petrochemical waste called coal tar in scalp
treatment shampoos.
More
Chemicals:
Parabens
Lead
Acetate
Formaldehyde
Ethylacrylate
Dibutyl
Phthalate
Toluene
Potassium
Dichromate
Coal Tar
2-Bromo-2-Nitropropane-1,3-Diol
Petroleum Distillates
Selenium Sulfide
Hexachlorophene
Zirconium Silicate
Dimethylamine
Phenylphenol
Ammonium Glycolate
Ammonium Lactate
Butoxyethanol
Benzalkonium Chloride
Butyl Methacrylate
Bronopol
Butyl Methacrylate
BHT
Boric Acid
Carbolic Acid (Phenol)
Ceteareth-12
Ceteareth-20
Ceteareth-25
Dioxane
Disodium EDTA
Ethanolamine
Propylene Glycol
Sodium Laureth Sulfate
(SLES)
Aluminium
Imidazolidinyl
Urea
Triethanolamine