1 Mar 2005
from an article in the Whole Life Times by Rebecca Ephraim, R.D., C.C.N
Beyond skin eruptions and rashes, emerging science suggests that untold numbers of cosmetics and personal care ingredients may be, silently and insidiously, promoting cancer, ravaging women’s reproductive functions and causing birth defects. Known by hundreds of long intimidating chemical names, these ingredients are in the products we shower and bathe with, rub, spray, and unconsciously dab on our bodies, day in-and day-out.
It’s the day-in-and-day-out part that’s of most concern, since these toxic ingredients leak their poisons through our porous skin and into our bodies bit-by-bit. “There’s not one smoking gun that we can point to and say, ‘It’s that personal care product, that deodorant, that nail polish that is going to give you cancer,” says Jeanne Rizzo, the executive director of the San Francisco based Breast Cancer Fund. “We can say the cumulative exposure—the aggregate exposure that we all have to a myriad of personal care products containing carcinogens, mutagens and reproductive toxins—has not been assessed.”
Categorically, the giant, mainstream personal care products companies continue to use known or suspected toxic ingredients in their product formulas. There are literally thousands of substances that have been used for decades without the slightest hint to consumers that they may be doing something more than leaving us squeaky clean and smelling good. As activist Charlotte Brody points out, "Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients are reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they are sold to the public. And the FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetic products before marketing."
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