Many of us have made changes to our diets by including more fruits and vegetables, choosing organically grown produce and reading food labels. Yet while we are holding the food industry to higher standards, refusing to buy products with harmful ingredients; the cosmetic industry is still flying under the radar of government agencies and the public eye.
Beauty, however, is more than skin deep and reading labels can open your eyes to the dangers lurking in today’s beauty products. From lead in lipsticks to the phthalates and parabens in your baby’s lotion, the list of toxic and health-damaging ingredients is long and expands daily
Did you know that on any given day, the average woman uses a dozen personal care products, containing 168 chemicals, 89% of which have never been tested for the safety of their ingredients.
The reason for the lack of testing is that there are no regulatory requirements. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is charged with the oversight of cosmetics, but has no authority to require pre-market safety assessment. It can neither review and regulate what goes into cosmetics, nor can it recall products that are found to be harmful.
Instead, the government allows the cosmetic industry to set up its own committee to self-police its products. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) is composed of scientists whose task is to openly and fairly review and assess the safety of beauty products. Compliance with the committee’s recommendations however is voluntary. While the fox is guarding the hen house, the average American bathroom is a minefield of toxic chemicals that are used on a regular basis, despite their health damaging effect. The top five harmful chemicals most commonly found in popular beauty products are lead, formaldehyde, parabens, phthalates and nitrosamines.
Lead is a toxic heavy metal and can be found in whitening toothpastes and lipsticks. The negative effects of lead exposure are well documented and reach from neuro-toxicity, seizures, gastrointestinal issues to reproductive and kidney dysfunction
Formaldehyde, another frequently used ingredient, is absorbed either through the skin or by inhalation and can be found in nail polishes, shampoos and liquid body soaps. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, excessive and prolonged exposure can cause skin rashes and may contribute to the development of cancer.
Parabens are most often used as preservatives and are found in body creams, lotions, shampoos as well as any beauty product that has water added to it. Parabens have been shown to disrupt hormones, cause skin reactions and have even been found in breast cancer tumors.
Phthalates are in a class of chemicals that has been linked to hormone disruption, which can affect development and fertility. Even though some phthalates are now banned due to consumer pressure, diethyl phthalate (DEP) is still used in many products, including fragrance. In 2010, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found DEP in 12 of 17 fragrance products tested. DEP, which is banned in Europe, is still used in perfumes and air fresheners, but is not listed on labels as DEP but simply as “fragrance”
Nitrosamines can be found in almost every skin care product, in baby shampoos, mascara, and concealer, yet because the CIR views them as impurities and not as actual ingredients, they are often not listed. Many studies link nitrosamine to cancer and in 1996, the FDA suggested cosmetic manufacturers remove ingredients from their products that, when combined, create nitrosamine, but this suggestion has largely been ignored.
These are only a few on the long list of harmful and potentially dangerous chemicals that beauty products expose us to and while the cosmetic industry argues that these toxic ingredients are absorbed in such small amounts that they do not pose any danger, it is the repeated use and thereby cumulative effect of exposure over a lifetime as well as the timing of exposure such as during growth and development, that increases their harmful effects.
To find out which of your products at home are safe to use and which aren’t, visit the Safe Cosmetics website at http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/.
If you really want to know what goes into your beauty products, why not make them yourself.
Mother Nature provides and abundance of herbs, oils and fragrances that are safe, accessible and allow you to tailor the products to your skin’s needs. Some of these herbs you may already have in your garden or use in the kitchen, other you can find at your health food store and of course Souvia. Not only is making your own cosmetic products easy and fun, it can also save you money.
Kerstin Wingert is the Owner of Souvia® Tea and “chai-wallah” of Moon Valley
Copyright 2011, Souvia LLC, all rights reserved
