The chemicals in our lives
Sometimes we don’t stop to think just how many chemicals we have contact with. According to Health Canada, there are over 10,000 ingredients used in personal care products inCanada (excluding flavours and fragrances). On average, we apply 7 personal care products on our bodies every day. Personal care products include soaps, toiletries and cosmetics such has shampoos, conditioners, bath and body washes, face creams, body lotions, lip balms, deodorants, toothpaste, lip sticks and much more.
Given an average of 15 ingredients per product, this represents over 100 ingredients we are exposed to every single day. Over the average year are exposed to well over 15 liters of various personal care products. These numbers for most people are understated.
Not only are we personally exposed to a cocktail of chemicals but we also put these chemicals into the environment. When you take the amount we each use and multiply it by the population you end up with a massive volume, enough to fill several rivers and lakes.
The safety of chemicals
Most conventional personal care products contain synthetic ingredients that are not found in nature e.g. chemical preservatives, synthetic fragrances, dyes etc. These are foreign to nature and to our bodies.
Many of these chemicals have not been tested for their safety. We are becoming more aware of how these chemicals can get into the environment, the water supply and into our bodies. We might not realize it, but skin is not a complete barrier. Many ingredients are absorbed through the skin and into the blood stream (thus the advent of medical patches). We believe that if an ingredient is not safe for us to swallow then it should not be applied on our skin.
The health risks with long-term use of some of the synthetic ingredients found in conventional products have not been established. Less than 1% of 14,835 products, assessed in a recent survey, were made with ingredients that have all been tested for safety. Another survey assessing 7,500 conventional personal care products, found that one third of them contain one or more ingredients classified as "possibly cancer-causing". Other synthetic ingredients used in personal care products have been shown to affect reproduction and childhood development.
What about the additive effect of questionable ingredients found in 2 out of 7 products you use daily? Very little research has been done to determine the synergistic or additive effects of using multiple questionable synthetic ingredients together within the same products.
Living safely
Living safely can be a challenge considering the amount of man-made ingredients found in personal care, household products and even our food.
What can you do about it? Learn as much as you can about ingredients, especially those that are proven harmful. You should read lists of ingredients and don’t use the products that contain them.
We suggest using simple natural products that do not contain artificial chemicals. Stay away from products with long lists of chemicals. You will be amazed at just how well simple, natural ingredients work. Our ancestors have used them; once you re-discover them they can do wonders for you and your family.
Further information
Here are some articles that review some of the issues with chemicals in personal care products and their safety:
The Globe and Mail: Cancer and cosmetics by Margaret Philp
CBC Marketplace: Chasing the cancer answer by Wendy Mesley