Could Your Skin Care Products Be Toxic?

Could your skin care products could be toxic? Have you looked at the labels of your favorite skin care products recently? If you are like me, you probably have trouble pronouncing the names of most of the chemical ingredients listed. You may also be wondering if all those chemicals are really safe to put on your skin!

Scientists say that we can absorb up to 60% of the chemicals that touch our skin. The average adult uses 9 personal care products each day, which will expose them to approximately 126 chemicals daily. That is a lot of chemicals every day! Most of the chemical ingredients in personal products have not even gone through minimal toxicity testing. So, when you think about the fact that skin moisturizers stay on your skin throughout the day, it is no wonder many consumers are concerned.

The Centers for Disease Control just released its Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals and quantified that 212 chemicals were found in the blood and urine of 8,000 Americans. New testing called bio-monitoring (which measures chemicals that people carry in their bodies) are identifying environmental exposures to toxins that may play a role in illnesses including hormone dysfunction, neurological disorders, lung problems, diabetes and cancer.

Cancer rates are continuing to increase. According to the American Cancer Society, cancer rates have increased since 1901 from only 1 in 8,000 Americans, to 1 in 3 today! By the year 2010, this disease will afflict 1 of every 2 individuals.

Dr. Samuel Epstein, chairman of the Cancer Coalition states that mainstream industry cosmetics and personal care products (CPCPs) are the single most important, yet generally unrecognized, class of avoidable carcinogenic exposure for the overwhelming majority of citizens in major industrial nations.

Consumers are turning to organic skin care products to avoid harsh chemical ingredients. Consumer reports indicate that people are willing to pay more for organic skin care products, because they want to find products that are safe and non toxic. But...are these products really any safer?

There are currently no government regulations regarding "organic" or "natural" labeling for personal hygiene products. Companies which are eager for profits will often label their products as "organic" or "natural" and then feature a few botanical ingredients on their labels to entice consumers, hoping they will not notice the list of synthetic petrochemical and oleo chemical emollients, thickeners, detergents, fragrances and preservatives that follow. It is no wonder consumers are confused and alarmed by such deceptive industry and labeling practices.

Does the term "organic" guarantee safety? Tests results released in March '08 by the Organic Consumers Association revealed that a carcinogenic chemical by-product called 1, 4-dioxane, was found in many popular so called "organic" or "natural" labeled personal care products, even those of some major name brands. 1, 4-dioxane is a chemical by-product that occurs as the result of cheap manufacturing processes, and is a known carcinogen. The OCA testing also revealed that all personal hygiene products made exclusively from certified organic ingredients tested completely free of the toxic 1, 4-dioxane contaminant.

Organic Consumer Association recommends "Certified Organic Skin Care Products".

The OCA recommends that to be as safe as possible, consumers should choose skin care and personal products made by companies that are committed to using only safe natural ingredients, or by those companies using at least 95% ingredients which are certified under the USDA National Organic Program.

This means that the safest thing we can do as a consumer, is to choose either certified organic skin care products, or personal care products made by companies that we know are committed to making safe non-toxic products!

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