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Safe Personal Care

“You can use the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database to assess your favorite products  to check for toxicity. This where I go to research the products I buy for my family.” – Karen

Safe or Harmful Care Products?

You have probably read that many of your everyday  trusted personal care products are made with hazardous chemicals. Today, safer alternatives are available and there are steps you can take to reduce toxic exposures to protect you and the health of your family. Here are helpful tips:

Simplify

Products with simpler ingredient lists and fewer synthetic chemicals are what to look for. Avoid synthetic fragrance (look for the word “fragrance” on labels), and use fewer products overall. Ask yourself if you need that product and all those extra chemicals. For example, bubble baths with heavy fragrances and synthetic dyes are good to avoid.

Research Products

Since the cosmetics and beauty industry is largely unregulated, it’s up to us as individuals to do our research to find the safest products. There are no legal standards for personal care products labeled as “pure,” “natural” or “organic,” so you must look beyond marketing claims and read labels carefully. You can use the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database to assess your favorite products to check for for toxicity. This where I go to research the products I buy for my family.

Get Involved

It is possible and relatively easy to reduce toxic exposures in your home by buying safer products, but not possible to just shop our way out of this problem. Even if not in your home, toxic chemicals from personal care products can still end up in our air and drinking water, and in the homes of people who don’t access safe products.

The solution: help us change the rules of the game! It shouldn’t be legal to sell cosmetics that contain dangerous ingredients. So groups like EWG are working to pass new laws that protect our health and give consumers better information to make smart choices .

Natural and Organic Products

A product labeled “pure, natural and organic” you would think would be, well … pure, natural and organic. But you would be in for a surprise.

Unlike the food industry, there are no legal standards for organic or natural personal care products sold in the United States. So companies can, and often do, use these terms as marketing gimmicks. For example, the top-selling shampoo in the United States is Clairol Herbal Essences, which until recently claimed to offer users an “organic experience.” In reality ther is not much about this product that is either herbal or organic; it contains more than a dozen synthetic petrochemicals and has a moderate toxicity rating in EWG’s Skin Deep.

Even top-selling brands in the natural products sector have been found to contain 1,4-dioxane, a synthetic chemical carcinogen.

Newer industry standards are emerging that will help consumers differentiate between the natural and not-so-natural products, but multiple standards with different meanings may not be helpful for consumers. EWG’s Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is advocating for a standard that means ingredients are both natural and safe for people.

What You Can Do

Encourage your favorite retailers and manufacturers of natural and organic products to clarify their use of the terms. Most importantly, be a critical consumer and remember that natural is a marketing term, not a legally binding description. And refer to EWG’s Skin Deep website. That is where I do my research before I buy and before I recommend products on my web pages.

Learn about categories of products of particular concern, plus look up safety rankings of the products you use with EWG’s Skin Deep database. Here is a list:

Fragrance

Fragrance is considered a trade secret, so companies don’t have to list the often dozens or even hundreds of synthetic chemical compounds it contains.

Lead in Lipstick

Lead in lipstick? Turns out, the urban legend is true.

Contaminants in Bath Products

Does baby shampoo need to contain cancer-causing chemicals? No – but it often does.

Nail Products and Salons

Nail polish, polish removers and artificial nail products contain a host of toxic chemicals.

Natural and Organic Products

Think “pure, natural and organic” really means pure, natural and organic? Surprise!

EWG’s Skin Deep Database

Visit the world’s largest database of chemicals in cosmetics to assess the toxicity of your favorite products and find safer alternatives.

Nanotechnology

Beware personal care products that tout the use of nanoparticles, nanomaterials or nanotechnology. This emerging technology is almost entirely untested for its health effects, and no requirements exist for either testing or labeling these products.