| Personal Care Corner | |
How Safe Are Your Personal Care Products?
by Sarah Long, Co-op Wellness Assistant, from the February 2006 newsletter
Have you ever stopped to wonder what’s in the personal care products you use on a daily basis? Surveys have shown that a typical consumer uses up to 25 different cosmetic products (the terms cosmetics and personal care products are used interchangeably here, but they both include shampoos, lotions, deodorants, sunscreens, makeup, etc.) in a day, exposing her/himself to over 200 different chemicals. You may be surprised to learn that cosmetics companies are free to use almost any chemical as an ingredient in their products, including some that are listed by the EPA as carcinogens or reproductive toxins. This is a scary thought, especially in light of the fact that 60 to 70 percent of what we put on our skin is absorbed into the body. Though the FDA is charged with the responsibility of making sure cosmetics are safe and properly labeled, cosmetics are actually the least regulated products in the FDA’s realm. Cosmetics require no testing before they’re marketed, and almost 90 percent of the ingredients used in personal care products have never even been evaluated for safety.
My interest in cosmetic ingredients and their effects was spurred about a year ago, when I began working as a Wellness Assistant at the Moscow Food Co-op in the health and beauty department. I wanted to know if the ingredients in “natural” personal care products were somehow safer for consumers. What made some personal care products more dangerous than others? Several resources were very helpful to me in my search for answers. One organization, the Environmental Working Group, has developed a searchable database called Skin Deep that provides in-depth safety and ingredient information on over 14,000 personal care products. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics also has an informative Web site with tips about how you can help pressure the health and beauty industry to remove harmful chemicals from their products. Two other informative organizations and their websites are The Breast Cancer Fund and Think Before You Pink.
In doing my research, I found several chemicals that stood out as being particularly dangerous. Pthalates are a class of synthetic chemicals that are used as plasticizers and are often added to cosmetics products to improve their texture, add luster and disperse fragrance. Pthalates are known endocrine disruptors, and lab animals exposed to pthalates have exhibited a variety of birth defects and lifelong reproductive impairments. One recent study found and increased incidence of abnormal genital development in boys whose mothers were exposed to pthalates. While you may see pthalates listed as ingredients on a cosmetic label, it is much more likely that a manufacturer will conceal their presence under the generic term “fragrance.” In fact, most synthetic fragrances contain pthalates.
Another class of chemicals to watch for in personal care products is parabens, often seen as methyl- and propylparaben. Parabens are preservatives that extend the life of such products as lotions, lipsticks and foundations, to name just a few. Parabens are also used to enhance skin absorption. Numerous studies have shown that parabens disrupt male and female hormone function by interfering with the roles of testosterone and estrogen. Parabens have also received a lot of press lately since several studies have found intact parabens in human breast tumors.
Evidence of the dangerous effects of pthalates, parabens and other cosmetic ingredients is truly alarming, but there are organizations out there that are bringing these issues to light, and industry is beginning to respond. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has drafted a compact that companies can sign pledging that they will reformulate all of their products within three years to remove known or suspected harmful chemicals. So far, over 200 companies have signed the compact. In addition, the California Safe Cosmetics Act of 2005 was recently signed, which was a landmark advance in the safety of personal care products. Among other things, the new law requires cosmetics manufacturers to disclose chemicals that cause cancer or birth defects and it also authorizes OSHA to regulate products to protect salon workers.
Here at the Moscow Food Co-op, our decisions on what personal care products to carry are based on a variety of things, including what ingredients those products contain. Many of the lines we carry have already signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics, including Avalon Natural Products, Badger, Burt’s Bees, Dr. Bronner’s, Derma E, Ecco Bella, EO, Jason, Kiss My Face, Logona, Simplers, Sensua, Weleda and Zia (see www.safecosmetics.org for a list of all the signers). Our goal is to continually evaluate our products for safety and to help all of our customers select the appropriate personal care products for their needs.
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