I'm starting this with a thank-you to some of the women that I have borrowed heavily from to write this piece. It requires a special person to attempt to bring about change in a fifty billion dollar per year industry. Rebecca Sutton Ph.D., Jane Houlihan, Annie Leonard and Jennifer Predinger made most of my points for me, and I am just trying to keep the facts interesting for you! I encourage you to learn more to help you decide what to do about this tragic trend. First off, men use an average of 6 personal care, and or cosmetic products each day. Women use twice as many and adolescent girls over sixteen products on an average day,each containing about a dozen chemicals, 80% of which have never been tested for safety. Anything in "common use" in 1938 was grandfathered in to current legislation. "Better living through chemistry" was the watchword of the last century, but as we learn more, we find deadly culprits amongst the magic bullets that science has provided us. We need more heroes who will stand up for our right to be free from the onslaught of toxins in the environment, especially those we seek to wash and decorate our bodies with.
If you are concerned about your health, I would send you to the most comprehensive website I have seen detailing this health threat. safecosmetics.org will help you find safe products that you can use to make your daily toilette safe and effective. I studied this subject for quite some time before I started forming an opinion, but twenty years ago when the red flags were raised, public opinion was against any reasonable regulations of toxic chemicals, especially in beauty products! Unless you did quite a bit of research yourself, guessing what products contained neurotoxins, hormone disruptors, or carcinogens was a shot in the dark. Because of heroic women like those I mentioned, we finally are beginning to understand the errors of our ways.
Only eight of the thousands of cosmetic ingredients that get rubbed onto our faces, hands, hair and bodies each day have been regulated. Even terms such as Herbal, Natural and Organic have absolutely no meaning in the industry. Adding to the insanity are little known facts that make one stare off into space as if in a dream. You may know of Herbal Essence shampoo. It's the number two brand in America, well it contains petrochemical compounds which add to our daily body burden of toxic and carcinogenic compounds. Estee' Lauder advertises that they "help in the fight against breast cancer", but their products contain chemicals that produce the disease!
Since the average American spends over 150 dollars per year on these things, it would be nice if we knew that they were not making us sick! A recent study of young women, age 14-19 found both methylparaben and propylparaben in the blood or urine of every girl tested. These women are especially vulnerable to these hormone disruptors. In their rapidly changing bodies, this is not the sort of imbalance that we should be creating in them. Sixteen chemicals were routinely found in these young women, the direct result of their cosmetics use!
Please support the legislation that is going through Congress now. Called the Safe Chemicals Act of 2010, it deserves everyone's support. If for no other reason than to guarantee the safety of our children. We all have to wash our faces, brush our teeth and wash our hair. Please learn more about the ways we are doing it now as well as the safest ways that it can be done. You will never go back to poisoned products once you know and understand their impacts on our health and welfare.
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