Skin Deep

[annuin]

Skin Deep

http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/

How safe are your personal care products?

I'd already heard about the fact that there is basically nothing stopping companies slapping "natural" and even "organic" labels on personal care products, being that they aren't governed like the foodstuffs bearing the USDA Organic label. In fact, they're not really governed at all, so it can be a bit of a chemical free-for-all in the ingredients list.

Kind of scary if you think about it, especially when you consider that many products contain known carcinogens and other toxins... and we rub this on our bodies or in our hair or stick it in our eyes without thinking about it.

Comments

[darkvervain.livejournal.com]

Ya know, parabens scare the crap out of me. :(

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

Actually, a lot of regular products cause all sorts of problems. If you're prone to thrush, many types of ordinary hair conditioner can exacerbate/trigger the condition markedly. Also, hormones in hair and skin products have been implicated in early puberty rates among African-American girls.

Scary stuff.

[extatika.livejournal.com]

The delightful (read: sickening) other side of the same coin is that many such known carcinogens and other toxins *have* been tested and declared safe by an unethical process of essentialy testing the substance on every possible breed of every possible species in every possible manner until the desired "safe" result is obtained, and all other results declared "anomalous" or just outright destroyed/ignored. Then if anyone says "this product contains known carcinogen X" the manufacturers have the security of pointing to the test results and saying "well it's been animal tested and it's safe, ha-ha-ha, you can't sue us!"
Rather than being exceptional this is a standard practice in all areas of the vivisection industry, but *especially* cosmetic and agrichem testing.

[bonny-katie.livejournal.com]

Burt's Bees is about the only brand I trust :/