Every day we go about our day to day routine using soaps and detergents and
cosmetics to help us stay clean and free of bacteria and dirt and other undesirables.
What we don’t know is that these products have chemicals that are extremely toxic
to our health.
Recently a six month investigation was done by the Environmental Working Group
(EWG) http://www.ewg.org/ on more than 10,500 ingredients found in personal care
products.
What they found was very startling. The vast majority– some 89% of
the ingredients found in the products that we rub onto our skin spread onto our
faces and wash your hands with has never been evaluated for safety.
The Cosmetic Industry Review panel and the FDA or any other institution has
never evaluated these ingredients for their safety and the CIR panel is run and
funded by the cosmetics industry and is supposed to thoroughly review and assess
the safety of ingredients used in cosmetics.
These companies produce their own studies. That being said would you trust them
to have your best interest in mind?
Consider these facts produced by the Environmental Working Group (EWG)
• 99.6 percent of the products contain one or more ingredients that have
never been safety tested by the CIR. (CIR, a panel run and funded by the
cosmetic industry, is supposed to “thoroughly review and assess the safety of
ingredients used in cosmetics.”)
• One of every 120 products contains ingredients classified as known or
probable human carcinogens by the government.
• One-third of all products contain one or more ingredients classified as
possible human carcinogens.
(This is a big one)
• 55 percent of all products contain “penetration enhancers,” (including some
that contain known or probable human carcinogens) which increase the
product’s ability to penetrate the skin and get into the bloodstream.
The FDA has banned or restricted only nine personal care product
ingredients. For comparison, the European Union has banned 450.
The best thing that we can do to avoid these chemicals is read labels. If you can’t
pronounce it you should probably avoid it. Look for locally produced cosmetics and
lotions.
Some are listed here:
Copper moon apothecary has a wonderful lotions and salves product line. http://
coppermoon.net/
Also Naturopathic Doctor Natalie Metz
www.drnataliemetz.com has an abundant array of medicinal products she creates
herself from natural ingredients you can pronounce.
Or just shop at the local natural food store. We are very lucky to live in a city that
has many to choose from with a staff of very knowledgeable employee’s.