So you buy organic fruits and vegetables, antibiotic- and hormone-free meats and you drive an eco-friendly car, but what about your personal care products—shampoos, conditioners, foundation, perfume, hand soap, hairspray—ever read the ingredient label on those? ANewsCafe.com reported the average consumer uses nine cosmetic products every day, which means the body is exposed to roughly 120 chemicals per day, just from personal care products alone.
National Geographic released a “green guide” with the twelve culprits commonly found in personal care products, including overuse of antibacterials, which can actually cause an adverse effects by causing germs such as E. coli; coal tar, a well-known carcinogen; diethanolamine (DEA), which allegedly disrupts hormones and causes depletion of choline; and the infamous parabens (methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, butyl-, isobutyl) that appear in countless personal care products and have been linked to damaged sperm formation and plays a questionable role in breast cancer.
These 12 offenders have been blacklisted and “green”-conscious consumers need to be on the lookout for personal care products with these ingredients. The natural products industry offers alternatives to dyes and parabens; but mislabeling is still an issue, as many companies with still tout “natural” and “organic” but throw in a paraben or two. Word of the wise: read the label, carefully.