Beauty Product Ingredients to Avoid
10 Personal Care & Cosmetic Chemicals to Steer Clear Of
Nov 18, 2008
With the cosmetics industry being virtually unregulated, and no required safety testing of personal care product ingredients in North America, cosmetics manufacturers can add whatever chemicals they want to their products, without heeding the health and safety of consumers.
Marketing & Ingredients in the Beauty Industry Are Not Regulated
When it comes to personal care products, consumers are totally unprotected from false and ostentatious marketing claims. Companies may freely represent their products in any way they choose, since according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), marketing claims for personal care products is entirely unregulated. Even reassuring terms like "natural" and "hypoallergenic" have no official definitions, despite the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA's) efforts to regulate these terms. In 2000, the FDA confessed that manufacturers can use marketing claims "to mean anything or nothing at all." The FDA also admitted that the cosmetics industry sells image through its products, and it is the responsibility of the consumer to believe or dispute the marketing claims (FDA 2000).
That's why it's so important to read labels before you buy and apply.
Aren't There Some Personal Care Brands That Are Totally Safe & Natural?
Despite what many people believe, popular (and even trendy) brands such as the Body Shop and Aveda – which aggressively market themselves and their products as being natural and are wholly owned by L'Oréal – aren't actually all that ecologically- or even human-friendly when you take a close look at the ingredients list… if you can find a complete list of ingredients, that is.
Upon review of the ingredient listings for Body Shop, Aveda, Kiss My Face, Alba, Nature's Gate, and many other products lines which tout themselves as "natural", it quickly becomes clear that in addition to the botanical, organic or free trade ingredients they may contain, the vast majority of their products also contain synthetic, very unnatural ingredients which act as detergents, emollients, preservatives, antibacterial agents, fragrances and dyes.
Personal Care Product Chemical Ingredients to Avoid
In her book Ecoholic, Adria Vasil's national bestseller on the most environmentally friendly information, products and services in Canada, Vasil listed ten beauty product ingredients to steer clear of in order to protect one's personal health and safety.
- Diethanolamine (DEA) is a suspected carcinogen commonly found in shampoos, body wash and makeup. Watch out for DEA contamination of other ingredients including Cocaminde DEA, MEA, and TEA.
- Formaldehyde is rarely printed on ingredient lists, but this known carcinogen – which can evaporate into the air when the product is wet – is found in DMDM hydantoin, Imidazolidinyl urea, and quaternium-15.
- Parabens are a family of chemicals which have been found to be estrogenic , which means that they mimic estrogen or female hormones. Parabens have been found in breast cancer tumor samples, and have been shown by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have endocrine-disrupting effects. Look for the word "paraben" or any other word with the suffix "-paraben", including methylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben, etc.
- Petrolatum is derived from a non-renewable crude oil, which is not advisable to breathe, so slathering this on your skin is akin to "tanking up at the pump," as Vasil puts it. Mineral oil is also petroleum-based.
- Phenyledediamine (PPD) is found in all permanent hair dyes, especially darker shades, and has been linked to bladder cancer in long-term frequent users. PPD also called P-diaminobenzene.
- Phthalates are a family of hormone disrupting chemicals often guised as the ingredient "fragrance".
- Sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate (SLS) are skin irritants that can cause skin dryness and are suspected by many organizations (including the EWD) of causing cancer, despite studies which have let these chemicals off the hook by groups such as the Cosmetics Industry Review (CIR).
- Talc is a powder which may be contaminated with carcinogenic asbestos; these samples are recognized as carcinogenic. Talc is used in everything from blush to baby powder despite unsuccessful motions by the US Department of Health's National Institutes of Health (NIH) to have all talc categorized as a probable carcinogen.
- Toluene is a solvent used in nail polishes that causes damage to the nervous system, liver and kidneys with long term exposure.
- Triclosan is the most common active ingredient in "antibacterial" liquid hand soaps, and is also found in toothpastes, deodorants, face and body washes, and acne treatments, among others (EWG 2008). The toxin is found in an increasing number of everyday items, such as dishwashing detergent, kitchen tools, toys, trash bags, bedding, bathmats, socks, and footwear, contaminates household dust (Canosa 2007), and is accumulating in rivers and sewage sludge where it can convert into carcinogenic dioxins when exposed to sunlight in water. Triclosan builds up in fat and can amass in the bodies of people and animals over time, has been associated with thyroid dysfunction, may have androgenic and estrogenic hormone-disrupting effects, and can react with chlorine in tap water to form chloroform.
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