Safe Cosmetics - Part 1

Educate yourself with this group of blogs to help you become aware and direct your skin care and cosmetic purchases into safer products. This is taken from www.safecosmetics.com. Use this site to find out how your products rate for safety.

1. Toxic Chemicals are in our beauty products AND in our bodies.
Everyday we use multiple personal care products—from shampoo to deodorant, lotion to make-up—that contain chemical ingredients that are absorbed through the skin, inhaled or ingested. So it’s not surprising that potentially harmful chemicals have gotten into our bodies, our breast milk and our children. Some of these chemicals are linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities and other health problems that are epidemic in our society. Astonishingly, in the United States, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women are expected to develop cancer during their lifetimes, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Note: It surprises me that people are not more alarmed at the National Cancer Institutes statistics. We give, walk and donate to an industry that dismisses all of the chemicals and carginogenic ingredients that we use daily on our bodies and in our homes. So, when you see disease statistics that are 'astonishing', maybe it's the products we use. Corporations will only respond when our spending is redirected toward safer products.

2. Small exposures can add up to harm.
The cosmetics industry says it’s safe to put toxic chemicals linked to cancer, infertility or other health problems into personal care products because the amount in each product is too small to matter. But none of us use just one product. Think about how many products you use in a single day—from toothpaste to soap, shampoo, hair conditioner, deodorant, body lotion, shaving products and makeup—and how many products you use in a year, and over a lifetime. Small amounts of toxic chemicals add up and can accumulate in our bodies. Chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects do not belong in personal care products, period.

Note: When I was writing my book, Your Money, Your Power: 10 Ideas for Mindful Spending to Create a Healthy, Green Planet, I was really concerned about the NUMBER of chemicals we ingest in 1 day and I could not find any studies that have taken a look at chemical or carcinogenics when used with one another. No one seems to know the harm our bodies and the environment are subjected to daily with 1,000's of chemicals. The US lags far behind the European Union in protecting us from harmful, carcinogenic ingredients. The European Union has banned 1,000+ cosmetic ingredients while the US has banned only 10!

Tana Dean is an ecopreneur, her internet eco business TanaDean.com also includes a monthly enewsletter and blogs. Her book Your Money, Your Power: 10 Ideas for Mindful Spending to Create a Healthy, Green Planet, empowers people to use their daily purchasing decisions and actions to positively change our environment, corporate responsibility and health. Purchase Certified Organic Skin Care.