Toxic Beauty: Ugly Truth

   We associate beauty with youth, health, clear skin, and shiny long hair, but can the chemicals in your beauty & household products cause cancer & disease, premature aging, and worse, poison and negatively impact your health?  

Just because it’s sold in stores, online, or is produced by big name companies, consumers feel the products they can purchase are products they should purchase, having faith in brands and the country’s interest in the public’s safety and health, but it isn’t so.

How many products, let alone chemicals, do you apply and use daily, weekly, monthly?

Try running through your routine

  • Morning: Face wash, shampoo and conditioner, body wash, shaving cream or foam, lotions, eye creams, primers, foundations, concealer, powders, hair sprays and styling products, deodorant….
  • Throughout the day: hand sanitizers, soap, perfume, 
  • At night: makeup removers, eye creams, face serums and moisturizers, 
  • Cleaning: disinfectant sprays, deodorizers, cleaning solutions and products

According to a study cited in Women’s Health, we apply over 168 chemicals daily! The article goes on to explain laws haven’t changed in 75yrs!

“…Chemicals in these products aren’t reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration and companies aren’t required to report what ingredients they use and at what concentrations. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t even have mandatory recall authority for products that may cause serious harm.”

 (Sen. Feinstein & Sen. Collins, ’15)

   According to the documentary, The Human Experiment, laws do not force chemicals to be proven safe before release into the market, but rather harm must be proven after it has occurred.  It went on to explain that BPA, Bisphenol a, was found to be present in the bloodstreams of 93% of Americans, a chemical which was found to be an endocrine-disrupter which affects hormones. A study showed the chemical negatively affected mice’s reproductive systems, including ovaries and prostates…that’s right, it can cause infertility; endocrine-disrupters have been linked to conditions like PCOS. What’s worse, harmful chemicals can be found in more than just the products you apply: from the plastic cups you drink from to your furniture and even the very chair you’re sitting on as you read this. Triclosan, a common ingredient in antibacterial soap, toothpaste, and make-up has the same effect…and we don’t know that it’s more effective than plain soap and water, but may actually make bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. 😱

   Chemicals, pollutants and industrial compounds we interact with daily have been shown to negatively affect systems including:

  • Reproductive Toxicity and pregnancy complications
  • Neuro Toxicity & Development 
  • Thyroids
  • Neurological effects
  • Endocrin system toxicity, affecting hormones
  • Immune system toxicity
  • Cause cancers, including breast cancer.

   In America, this brings into question the policies and practices of the E.P.A. and F.D.A., which interestingly enough do not govern products like vitamins and supplements, let alone the chemicals in beauty and cleaning products.👎🏻

  As consumers, we must demand legislation in government, regulations in industry and production, and testing the safety of consumer goods before, not after, they’re released to the public; we must vote with our dollar and not support harmful products by boycotting them and their companies, and must speak up in any ways we can including social media and contacting representatives of government. Also, become an informed shopper, reading labels and looking out for:

  • Parabens
  • Carcinogens 
  • BPA (DDT & PCB’s as well but taken off market)
  • Pesticides 
  • Brominated Flame-Retardants 

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