ORGANIC SHAMPOOS, ARE YOU SERIOUS?

With all the natural and organic products on the market some may wonder what all the hype is about. You may even question how can a soap be organic and why would I bother paying more? Believe me, I have thought the same thing. Our concern is the continued allergies in our children and cancer in our families, could we make changes in our daily routines that would begin to slow this down.

There seems to be numerous products in our bathrooms that could be seriously harming our health. There has been research on the affects of many ingredients being carcinogenic yet critics argue that the amounts are very small. Don't be fooled, what we put on our bodies is absorbed and think about how frequently you may be using these products. Shampoos, moisturizers, fragrances, shaving creams, make-up... the list of products used daily goes on, especially for women, it has been said we use up to nine products a day. The government is not regulating the cosmetic industry not in Canada nor in the US. There has been some concerns brought forward to cosmetic companies, hoping in good faith that there will be product changes eliminating some of the better known carcinogenic ingredients.

Please read this from EWG's website:

FDA, the agency that regulates the safety of personal care products, cannot require safety testing of products before they are sold, and does not systematically assess the safety of ingredients. Instead, the cosmetic industry polices the safety of its own products through a safety panel that is run and funded by the industry's trade association. In the absence of mandated testing or even Agency guidance on product safety, some companies make products safe enough to eat, while other companies add carcinogens to their formulations. Until cosmetic safety standards are overhauled, consumers must choose products carefully, with an eye toward avoiding potentially hazardous ingredients.

As a start, we recommend that consumers choose products free of carcinogenic impurities. To avoid 1,4-dioxane, read ingredient labels and avoid any of the 56 cosmetic ingredients that can contain the contaminant, including "sodium laureth sulfate" and ingredients that include the clauses "PEG," "xynol," "ceteareth," and "oleth."


You may want to look at your labels, well, start with organic products and then look at your labels. It's easy to get bombarded by all this and to begin feeling like you have to start from scratch and throw out all your products. Take one step at a time, do what works for your family. Next time you go buy a shampoo for your baby, look in the organic area, some better brands tend to be California Baby, Burt's Bees and Aveeno. Take a look at this handy little PDF from EWG: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/parentsguide/EWG_parentsguide.pdf


FURTHER RESEARCH AND READING
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/health/labels-cosmetics.html
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=2483603