Have we really ever thought about what is in our personal care products?
Did you know that a recent survey of 2,300 people around the country conducted by the Environmental Working Group found that if you're like most Americans, you use an average of nine products containing about 126 unique ingredients. More than a quarter of women use at least 15!! And these are products that we use everyday!
These products include everything from shampoo and conditioner to lip balm and lipstick and everything in between. And it is not just products for women, men's products are just as troubling, worse yet is our kids and baby products that we put so much trust in using everyday. Harsh ingredients that should concern us parents.
Each of these products contain an array of chemicals and fragrances, most of them synthetic petrochemicals and many of them potentially toxic. The makers of personal care products do their best to assure us that their products will make us look young, make our skin glow, our hair shine and our wrinkles fade. But what they can't assure us is that their products are safe to use. This is because as with household cleaners, they haven't tested the vast majority of the products they sell, and the U.S. government doesn't require them to.
There are so many harmful ingredients that I could not possibly cover even a fraction of them in this post but let's start with phthalates. Most of us have heard about them but do we really know the danger of them? They are in products ranging from personal care baby products to fragrances, nail polish, aerosols and the list goes on and on! It somehow does not seem right to choose personal care products for our family that have ingredients that are also used in cleaning products and nail polishes!
What concerns me as a mom is that so many others do not know the dangers of toxins in our babies and kids products and I think it is so important for others to know and become educated so that we can make decisions on whether or not we want to continue to use harmful products for our family.
Phthalates, a probable carcinogen - there are more than two dozen different types of phthalates commonly used by the chemical industry. Being a probable carcinogen means that they cause cancer in animals and they may cause cancer in humans. And that is just the tip of the iceberg, the list of harmful effects from these chemicals is very scary.
**But the good news is that you can make a change and choose to use products for you and your family that are not harmful and use products that will not cause ill side effects. I have listed some websites that you can check out to learn more about the harmful ingredients that might concern you. **Please feel free to contact me if you would like more information about this topic, I would also be so happy to share information about products that can help you to live a cleaner, healthier life!!
healthychild.org/...care_products_for_babies_and_kids
As always, please feel free to leave your comments, I would love to hear from you!
