You asked and we answered! Here is your one-page reference guide on phthalates! How can you possibly remember ALL OF THE THINGS we should be avoiding in our products? Use the reference to assist you to keep you and your family safe from the harmful effects of phthalates!
Phthalates – tips to follow to keep your family safe!
Click HERE to read a more detailed post on phthalates, and how to identify them on labels, what products in your home may expose you to them, and how they can affect the health of you and those you love! Do you need suggestions on safer personal care products, cleaning supplies, and home goods? Click HERE to see my favorite safe, clean products!
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Do you know ALL of the ingredients in the products you use on your skin, lips, or hair on a daily basis? More importantly, do you know all of the ingredients in your children’s personal care products including their shampoo, body wash, body lotion, or in your daughter’s makeup? If so, can you say with 100% certainty that they are safe? Unfortunately, in the United States, we can never assume that the products we purchase are safe just because we picked them off of a shelf in a department store.
Unsafe products due to under regulation in the U.S.
The challenge for the average consumer stems from the fact that the personal care products industry is largely self-regulated. The manufacturers are not required to conduct premarket safety testing under the current laws. Amazingly, the laws that govern the office’s authority for personal care products in the United States are just 1.5 pages long. What is even more frightening, there has not been a major federal law passed to regulate the safety of ingredients you use on your body since 1938, which is when they were first enacted. On a side note, it took me almost 10 minutes to even find the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. The American cosmetics industry is a massive $70 billion-a-year industry, while the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Cosmetics and Colors has an annual budget of just $8 million and 27 staff members.
What does that mean for us? It means that there is huge burden placed on all of us to try and decipher what is safe and what is not! Due to the poor and out-dated laws, the FDA is not required to approve personal care products or the ingredients in them before they are launched and sold in stores. Without the time and appropriate knowledge, the average consumer will purchase these products, take them home, and apply them without hesitation on themselves and their family members! Did you know that the European Union bans over 1,300 chemicals in the product formulas of personal care products and they have restricted the levels of over 250 more in such products whereas the United States has only partially banned 30 to date?!?
How many chemicals do you apply to your body on a daily basis?
According to the Environmental Working Group, it is estimated that on average, a woman uses 12 personal care products every day, exposing herself to approximately 168 chemicals. Although men tend to use half as many products as women, they still apply on average 85 chemicals to their body every day. Or think about your tween and teenage daughters, who are experimenting with makeup application and exposing their largest organ to dangerous chemicals or even asbestos as in the recent reports from Claire’s and Justice.
To make matters even worse, if a company receives health-related complaints, they have no legal obligation to report the health problems to the FDA. In 2014, the FDA began to investigate WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioners and found that the manufacturer had received over 21,000 complaints related to hair loss and scalp problems, yet the product remains on the market. Or the lawsuit against the well-known Johnson & Johnson who failed to disclose a possible link between their baby powder and Shower to Shower talc powder and ovarian cancer. Sadly, I was one of the many who used Shower to Shower for years, so the claims are incredibly frightening for me and may be for many of you!
What is in your products?
Fragrance – what does it really mean?
The law also permits manufacturers to leave ingredients off of a label and it does not require companies to tell consumers what is actually in the company’s secret blends. Fragrance is essentially a catch all term for “secret ingredients” that companies are able to use. They allow it because the mixes they use to create scents are considered trade secrets, but may contain hidden ingredients like phthalates. A study by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics looked at 17 brand name fragrance products and discovered 14 chemicals known to have harmful effects on the human body. According to the FDA, fragrance blends are actually responsible for up to 30% of all allergic reactions to skincare products.
Allergic reactions, infertility, cancer, endocrine disruption and so much more!
So is a rash or an allergic reaction as bad as it gets? No, not even close! Studies have found direct correlations between chemical exposure in personal care products and infertility, miscarriages, hair loss, asthma, and even cancer. Chemicals like parabens and phthalates are commonly found in lotions, shampoos, and nail polishes and are in a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors. What do endocrine disruptors actually disrupt? Reproductive problems including infertility, early onset puberty, endometriosis, breast and testicular cancer have all been linked to class of chemicals, endocrine disruptors. Phthalate exposure in humans has been linked to changes in sex hormone levels, altered development of genitals, low sperm quality and count as well as obesity, reduced female fertility, preterm birth, low birthweight infants, worsening of allergy and asthma symptoms, and altered toddler behavior.
What can we do to protect ourselves and our family?
Phthalates and parabens are just two of the chemicals that can be found in products you and your family use on a daily basis. When is the last time you checked the labels on your products? If you haven’t started, now is the time. We, as average consumers, have to take our life and that of our family into our own hands when it comes to the potential dangers of chemicals in your personal care products! As you’ve read, the government and FDA are not protecting you as much as you may have thought.
Please start by educating yourself on some of the dangerous, common chemicals found in personal care products throughout your home. I will continue to provide you with valuable information to help guide you on what to look for on your labels and steer you towards safer products for you and your family! Click HERE to see some of my favorite companies that provide safe and clean products or those companies that also give back in different ways!
It’s time to take action!
Take a bold step today and pull 5 of your products from your shelf and scan them on EWG’s Healthy Living App. The app will rate the overall safety of your product and more detailed information on any allergy concerns, cancer concerns, or developmental concerns. It will also provide you with individual scores for each of the ingredients so you can learn what exactly may be problematic and why. Feel free to comment on what you find out!
