6 Harsh, Toxic Cosmetics Ingredients to Avoid
When you’re perusing products in the beauty aisle, you might have a difficult time telling which ones are truly safe and natural and which ones aren’t. After all, companies jumping on the eco-beauty bandwagon are marketing products this way even if they contain harmful, toxic ingredients. So, if you can’t trust the label, what can you trust? You’ve got to be your own advocate and look at the ingredients.
Here are six ingredients commonly found in cosmetics and personal care products that can cause irritation, cancer, birth defects, hormone disruption and other ill effects. Try to memorize them so you can make better purchasing decisions on the go. Oh, and you should also look up all of the products you use in the Cosmetic Safety Database. Don’t fall prey to greenwashing, and don’t unwittingly expose yourself and your family to harmful substances!
Fragrance – Hidden within this innocuous term is a gaggle of toxic substances including benzene derivatives and aldehydes. The term ‘fragrance’ can hide from 10 to 300 substances, many of which have never been tested for safety. The chemicals used in synthetic fragrances are gastrointestinal, liver and respiratory toxicants, may be neurotoxins and may cause allergies.
Parabens – Look for both ‘paraben’ and ‘methylparaben’. Banned in the European Union, this preservative is still found in many supposedly ‘natural’ products. It’s a human skin toxicant, and mimics the hormone estrogen, which is known to play a role in breast cancer. As an endocrine disruptor, it also affects testosterone levels in men. It may also impact the development of both babies and adults.
Formaldehyde – Rarely will a product just show ‘formaldehyde’ as an ingredient – it’s masked as formalin, formic aldehyde, merthaldehyde, methanal, methyl aldehyde, oxomethane and oxymethylene. It’s found in an astonishing array of products from baby shampoo and acne treatment to deodrant and mascara.
PEG compounds – Avoid anything with ‘PEG’ listed, whether it’s PEG-10 Laurate, PEG-4 Dimethacrylate or any of the other PEG compounds. Animal studies have shown brain, nervous system and organ effects. PEG compounds are reproductive and skin toxins – they actually alter skin structure to allow other chemicals to penetrate more deeply, increasing the amounts of other chemicals that reach the bloodstream.
p-Phenylenediamine – This chemical is most frequently found in hair dye. It’s a colorant that has been found to be an immune and respiratory toxicant, and possibly a neurotoxin. It may cause excema, nervous system damage, athsma and gastritis. It’s a skin, kidney and liver toxicant and has been shown to cause cancer in animal studies.
Phthalates – This plasticizer and solvent has been banned in the UK but is still commonly found in products in the U.S. It’s an immune system toxicant, developmental and reproductive toxin and probable neurotoxin. It disrupts hormones, may cause cancer and has been proven in animal studies to accumulate in the body.
These six ingredients are a good start, but there are actually dozens that you’d do best to stay away from if you can. Check out the whole ‘Dirty Thirty’ over at Teens Turning Green.
