☆ Dirty Dozen (Chemicals to Avoid in Cosmetics) ☆

I wrote a Two Part article some time ago concerning the hundreds of nasty chemicals that are usually found in Cosmetics and Beauty Products:

"Part 1: Dying to be Beautiful"

"Part 2: Don't Want to Die to be Beautiful"

Today's post is a simplified version of the top "dirty dozen" chemicals to avoid, making it an easy place to start without getting too overwhelmed. 

This list came from the David Suzuki Foundation when I received a small pamphlet in the mail that is perfect to stick in your wallet or to put up on your bathroom mirror to double check your beauty products and cosmetics. 

The truth is that it is quite horrifying just how many toxic chemicals are allowed to be in products we put in direct contact with our skin. U.S. researchers report that one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, and hormone disruptors. Many products also include plasticizers (chemicals that keep concrete soft), degreasers (used to get grime off auto parts), and surfactants (they reduce surface tension in water, like in paint and inks). And yes, those are being put on your skin, not to mention the impact such chemicals have on the environment and wildlife. 

The David Suzuki Foundation surveyed Canadians to see how many of the "Dirty Dozen" ingredients appeared in their cosmetics; their findings show that 80 per cent of entered products contained at least one of these toxic chemicals! 

So, if that's not enough for you to get thinking about what's in your cosmetics it should. This is a good place to start:

"You can avoid harmful chemicals when you use our shopper's guide, and audit your bathroom cupboard using this list of harmful ingredients"

The Dirty Dozen:

1. BHA and BHT

Used mainly in moisturizers and makeup as preservatives. Suspected endocrine disruptors and may cause cancer (BHA). Harmful to fish and other wildlife. 

2. Coal tar dyes: p-phenylenediamine and colours listed as "CI" followed by a five digit number

In addition to coal tar dyes, natural and inorganic pigments used in cosmetics are also assigned Colour Index numbers (in the 75000 and 77000 series, respectively).

Look for p-phenylenediamine hair dyes and in other products colours listed as "CI" followed by five digits.1 The U.S. colour name may also be listed (e.g. "FD&C Blue No. 1" or "Blue 1"). Potential to cause cancer and may be contaminated with heavy metals toxic to the brain. 

3. DEA-related ingredients

Used in creamy and foaming products, such as moisturizers and shampoos. Can react to form nitrosamines, which may cause cancer. Harmful to fish and other wildlife. Look also for related chemicals MEA and TEA. 

4. Dibutyl phthalate

Used as a plasticizer in some nail care products. Suspected endocrine disrupter and reproductive toxicant. Harmful to fish and other wildlife. 

5. Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives

Look for DMDM hydantoin, diazolidinyl urea, imidazolidinyl urea, methenamine and quarternium-15. Used in a variety of cosmetics. Slowly release small amounts of formaldehyde, which causes cancer. 

6. Parabens

Used in a variety of cosmetics as preservatives. Suspected endocrine disrupters and may interfere with male reproductive functions. 

7. Parfum (a.k.a. fragrance)

Any mixture of fragrance ingredients used in a variety of cosmetics — even in some products marketed as "unscented." Some fragrance ingredients can trigger allergies and asthma. Some linked to cancer and neurotoxicity. Some harmful to fish and other wildlife. 

8. PEG compounds

Used in many cosmetic cream bases. Can be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, which may cause cancer. Also for related chemical propylene glycol and other ingredients with the letters "eth" (e.g., polyethylene glycol). 

9. Petrolatum

Used in some hair products for shine and as a moisture barrier in some lip balms, lip sticks and moisturizers. A petroleum product that can be contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which may cause cancer. 

10. Siloxanes

Look for ingredients ending in "-siloxane" or "-methicone." Used in a variety of cosmetics to soften, smooth and moisten. Suspected endocrine disrupter and reproductive toxicant (cyclotetrasiloxane). Harmful to fish and other wildlife. Read more »

11. Sodium laureth sulfate

Used in foaming cosmetics, such as shampoos, cleansers and bubble bath. Can be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, which may cause cancer. Look also for related chemical sodium lauryl sulfate and other ingredients with the letters "eth" (e.g., sodium laureth sulfate). 

12. Triclosan

Used in antibacterial cosmetics, such as toothpastes, cleansers and antiperspirants. Suspected endocrine disrupter and may contribute to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Harmful to fish and other wildlife.

Print off the Shoppers Guide so you too can carry it in your wallet when you're purchasing or looking for new cosmetics! Or there's also the Mobile Shoppers Guide to use on your web devices! 

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Where to go for more information about toxic chemicals in personal care products:

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics — U.S.-based campaign endorsed by the David Suzuki Foundation.

CancerSmart 3.0: the consumer guide — Toxic Free Canada's resource on practical ways to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday household products.

FemmeToxic — Online youth focused campaign for safer cosmetics.

Guide to Less Toxic Products — The Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia's online resource.

Leaping Bunny — Cruelty-free standard providing assurance that animal testing has not been used.

Skin Deep — U.S.-based Environmental Working Group's electronic database detailing the ingredients and hazard ratings for 55,000 personal care products.

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☆ What's Going On: Why Go Organic? ☆

At the most simply-put basis, Organic is everything you could dream of for a healthy body, wildlife, and planet. 

Natural is NOT Organic

Please remember that "Natural" does Not mean "Organic" in any way shape or form. "Natural" only means that a food product does not have any preservatives, synthetic additives, colors, or flavorings Added. But you are still biting into a mouthful of pesticides and still facing all the horrors of non-organic crops. 

Pesticides:

There are over a thousand chemical pesticides available for use in Canada alone. Depending what country you live in will make a difference on the standards in place. Many pesticides are banned in one country, due to their links to cancer, reproductive disorders, and acute toxicity, yet are still used in other countries. And with so much of our food being imported, things get pretty mucky no matter where you live. 

Pesticides have hormone-mimicking, neurotoxic, reproductive-impairing properties, with about 60% of them being hormone disruptors. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 200, 000 people die every year from pesticide poisoning.  

These nasty pesticides don't just stay on their designated crops either, less than 5% end up where they are supposed to as the winds will carry them hald way across the world. Chems banned 20 years ago, such as DDT, are blowing over from countries where they are still in use! 

Check out http://foodnews.org for the foods with the highest and lowest pestice residue. 

Fertilizers:

Laziness has made it so that crops are no longer rotated to let the land's soil rebuild itself. Now the soil is pumped full of potent petrochemical fertilizers instead. 31% of all fossil fuels used by North American farms goes into fertilizes, much of which ends up in rivers, lakes, and oceans. This is bad because overdoses of nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer runoff can create massive algae blooms that suffocate aquatic life and create large dead zones. 

Water:

Global agriculture suck up about 70% of all the water we use on this planet. 

What's extra silly is that Canada has some of the most water-intensive crops (grains and cattle) and 60% of that agriculture happens in the Prairies--which just so happens to be the driest part of the country! 

Irradiation:

Is the zapping of our food with gamma rays, x-rays or electron beams to get rid of germs, slows the sprouting, ripening, and moulding processes so that products can sit on shelves longer. This may sound like a good idea, but the process drains some of the vitamins out of food and it also creates radioactive waste. 

Irradiated foods are supposed to be clearly marked with an international symbol, and if more than 10% of the ingredients in packaged products have been irradiated the label has to list which ones.

GMO:

Here is a prime example of our attempts at playing God without considering the consequences. Genetically modified organisms are developed in labs when genes from different organisms are spliced into another to create so-called "super-foods," but really there is nothing "super" about it. They are meant to improve hardiness, pesticide resistance, and draught resistance, or any other number of things. But GMOs have not been around long enough to know the long-term health effects and they are hardly tested enough to be put out on the market. We really don't understand their effects in nature and have already disrupted natural species, helped continuously create "super weeds" that evolve and grow more resilient to GMO crops, and create super insects with similar aspects. Plus, once they're exposed to wildlife you can't exactly completely remove those pesky GMOs from the environment, as they are carried by animals, insects, winds, and waterways all over the world. 

There is no labeling for which foods or packaged foods are GMO either--that is unless you're buying Organic.

Pesticide Regulation:

We'd like to think that Pesticides are "safe" for human health but the testing process is a joke, with minimal testing done all-together. Steps are skipped due to pressure, and older pesticides have by-passed the new safety standards, which never put into account the effect of pesticides on children's health. Not to mention that these nasty chemicals are tested on animals which react entirely differently in their bodies than ours (what might be poisonous to us might not be to them and vise versa). 

Pesticide regulations in the U.S. are far behind much of the rest of the industrialized world, largely in part due to corporations like Monsanto having such an influence in Government affairs, and because the U.S. does not adequately account for things like additive and synergetic effects*. The European Union regulates much of their pesticide use with the "precautionary principle," which prioritizes protecting human health when there is significant doubt about the safety of a product. In the U.S. such products are "innocent until proven guilty," which often takes decades to prove whether or not a chemical is guilty or not, and in the meantime can wreck all sorts of environmental damage and health hazards. 

*Synergetic Effects: when one type of pesticide plus another type of pesticide equals a more lethal effect due to their combination. A scary thought when conventional crops use more than one type of pesticide so this dangerous cocktail is very likely. 

Environment, Wildlife, and Human Health:

Organic does not pollute groundwater, rivers, lakes, and oceans with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic reduces soil erosion, improves soil quality, increases biodiversity and wildlife on and near farms. Organic does not expose workers to the health hazards of synthetic pesticides. 

Countless animals die due to the spread of pesticides; 30 registered pesticides are known to kill wild birds, fish, and important beneficial insects. They also weaken animals and create birth-defects. 

Furthermore, the growing consensus among the scientific community is that the consumption of pesticides and other chemicals can possibly cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists are warning of the long-term consequences of ingesting these chemicals and are advising that we minimize our consumption of pesticides. The truth is that we still don't know just how badly these pesticides effect human health.

The impacts of pesticides on human health have been linked to causing ADHD in children, birth defects and childhood cancer in the very young, Parkinsons’ Disease in the elderly, asthma, cause neurotoxicity, hormone disruptors, developmental or reproductive toxins, and are known or probable carcinogens. Not to mention they are toxic to Honeybees and are a probable cause of the growing CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) problem. These chemicals also linger in our systems for years, and there is always pesticide residue left behind on non-organic foods even once they reach the grocery store.

Buying Organic is a Responsibility to the World:

Organic doesn't just mean that the food is pesticide-free, it also means it's grown in soil that has been untouched by chemical fertilizers or pesticides for at least three years. The soil is properly taken care of and is rotated, fostering the soil's nutrients instead of kiling it and rendering it useless like conventional crops. Organic food can not be irradiated or fumigated with synthetic agents. It is free of genetically modified organisms (GMO), hormones, and fake processing aids (such as coloring, preservatives and flavorings). Organic is real, true, un-altered food, packed full of nutrients and vitamins. You don't have to worry about getting sick from chemical pesticides. You don't have to worry about your child developing health problems. Organic harmonizes with Earth instead of poisoning wildlife, workers, waterways, the air, and the ground.

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca  

If you found this article to be helpful, please consider a small donation or visit the shop. Thank you for your love and support.