The Ugly Side of Pretty..."Product" may NOT be a good idea

[marions ghost]

This article came out today...claiming that many cosmetics and personal care products are now thought to be seriously hazardous (even natural ones). So does reading this article make you want to start buying that home-made soap down at the goat farm?

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21686/

(snip)
"The public, bless our little democratic good government hearts, believes that there is some federal agency that makes sure that dangerous chemicals aren't put into the products we put all over ourselves. Sadly, it's just not true," quips Brody, who's executive director of Commonweal. It, along with Rizzo's Breast Cancer Fund and dozens of other social profit groups, are waging the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. They're banging the drum to rouse consumers from our slumber of ignorance to realize the dangers lurking in personal care products and the failure -- or refusal -- of any power to change it.

The Innocents and the Knowing
If you believe that buying "natural" cosmetics and personal care products (those brands usually found in natural health stores and the like) guarantees toxin-free ingredients, you are wrong. The reasons for this are dicey with dollops of gray shading. It comes down to a spectrum that runs from 1) companies that know better but willfully use toxic ingredients to 2) well-intending natural products companies that heretofore operated out of ignorance.

(snip)
Here's How to Check for Toxins in Your Products
(see link to website "Skin Deep")

In a massive undertaking, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyzed the health and safety reviews of 10,000 ingredients in personal care products. The EWG discovered that there is scant research available to document the safety or health risks of low-dose repeated exposures to chemical mixtures. But the absence of data should never be mistaken for proof of safety. The EWG points out that the more we study low-dose exposures, the more we understand that they can cause adverse effects ranging from the subtle and reversible, to effects that are more serious and permanent. Based on that, the EWG has developed Skin Deep, a sophisticated online rating system that ranks brand-name products on their potential health risks and the absence of basic safety evaluations.

[Radio_Lady]

1. Uh - oh. These sites are great, but the outlook is not good.

I spent almost a decade with a haircolor sales organization, and had intimate contact with all kinds of chemicals.

So far, no untoward effects, and I love makeup and skin care stuff.

Good links. Thanks.