Personal Care Products: Are You at Risk
for Cancer?
Sara Frost
Azzam
Guest Columnist, The Wellesley
Townsman
(First in a two-part series on the cosmetics industry.)
Many women,
including myself, proudly wear our pink ribbons, particularly during the month
of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month. For many corporations, pink
ribbons are a legitimate way to raise money for prevention and a
cure. For a few corporations, whose products contribute to the incidence of
breast cancer, these ribbons are a terrific marketing gimmick that
distracts us from the risk of using their products. This article seeks to
help you, as educated consumers, more prudently choose the low-risk products
provided for us by responsible, health-conscious manufacturers.
Cosmetics are a good
pace to begin. You can buy several different brands of cosmetics that are
manufactured by companies that purport to be supporting breast cancer
research without your knowing that their product lines contain parabens and
phthalates possibly linked to breast cancer. Fortunately, there is a new
website called “Skin Deep” which allows consumers to find the products they use
and check them for their toxicity levels:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/index.php You can use this website to match up
the products you use with their toxicity levels to ultimately feel more
comfortable about the companies your money supports.
I have already stopped using nail polish,
as some of you may recall from a column that I wrote several years ago. However, even as a fairly educated
consumer, I was surprised to learn that some of the products I use for face,
body, hair, teeth, and eyes are not as benign as I had previously thought. As an individual with a family history
of breast cancer, who does due diligence on all products with chemicals, I was
shocked. There
are no limits imposed by the FDA for chemicals in cosmetics and no regulation of
their health effects. In fact, 89% of ingredients used in products we use every
day have not been tested for safety.[1] The average person may use at least 10
different personal care products in a day.
This number may seem high, but try counting it as you go through your
daily routine. Whether you are male or female, there is: shampoo, conditioner,
soap, saline solution (if you wear contact lenses), toothpaste, moisturizer,
shaving cream, perfume/aftershave, styling product, deodorant, mouthwash. If you are female, add to this list any
nail polish and make-up that you use.
Then, think about this alarming statistic: up to 70% of what is applied
to the skin is believed to be absorbed into the body. [2]
Moreover, I now have
a daughter who will soon reach the years where she thinks about her
appearance. I am concerned about
the products she may choose to use.
Although I would like to think that breast cancer will be eradicated in
my time, the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” (for me) is that it
will be eradicated in her lifetime.
To this end, I need to educate not only myself, but my daughter as
well. Anyone reading this article
who is a concerned parent, consumer, or both, there are steps that you can
take.
First and foremost, I
would urge parents to educate their daughters about their use of nail
polish. Several years ago at a
science fair in a poorly ventilated gym, I complained to the school principal
about an exhibit that some fifth grade girls were showing that was an “automatic
nail polish remover.” The gym
reeked of acetone and the many ingredients of nail polish. The exhibitors nearby were coughing and
complaining of headaches.
Although it was a unique (and actually workable!) idea, I feel that those
parents and daughters would have chosen something less harmful to themselves and
to the environment had they known about the risks involved in using nail polish
and nail polish remover. Check out
the Skin Deep website to research the types of nail polish that are less harmful
to your daughters. Nail polish is
one of the most harmful cosmetic products your daughter can use. Be educated and prudent in what you
allow her to use. If, as a typical
adolescent, she fights you on this, show her the results on the Skin Deep
website. Show her the results of
the other personal care products she uses as well. Help her to understand the ramifications
of her choices.
Remember that
cosmetics use is not limited to women.
Men use skin care products, shaving cream, shampoos, and facial cleansing
products as well. I urge all men to
check out the website, do a “search” on the products they use, and be prudent in
your purchases, as well as the purchases made by your sons. There is a careful path that men, as
well as women, must tread in their use of body and hair products. Just conducting a search on shaving
creams was rather alarming. Check
out the products you use, and see how they rate.
The government
does not mandate safety studies of cosmetics. Only 11 percent of the 10,500
ingredients that the FDA has documented in cosmetics have been assessed for
safety by the cosmetic industry's review panel. This is an alarmingly small number of
chemicals that have passed any kind of safety review before consumer use.
Here are some
other steps that everyone can take to prevent exposure to potentially toxic
chemicals in one’s daily life:
Before
purchasing any personal
care product, check it out on the Skin Deep website.
Educate yourself by using the "Custom
Shopping List" feature of the Skin Deep website to find products that have fewer
potential health issues. If
the products you use are rated poorly on the website, then use fewer
products.
Reduce
chemical contact from your
daily routine. If you cut down on
the number of chemicals contacting your skin every day, you will reduce many
potential health risks. This may be a tough step to take, but part of growing
old is celebrating our aging. Do we
all need to cover our gray? If this
is something you feel strongly about, then cut out a chemical somewhere else in
your routine. If you like the look
of nail polish, maybe you could use it on your toenails, but not on your
fingernails, or vice versa.
Give up
scented products and choose
products that are fragrance free, including the candles and room
fresheners you use in your home.
To improve your
health and reduce risks, be sparing AND educated in your use of chemicals. As Mom always said: “it is better to be
safe than sorry.”