| |
Path:
Home>Shopping
Center>Personal
Care Products>Organic Natural Hand & Body
Lotions
Organic Natural Hand & Body
Lotions
-- All Personal Care
Products on Sale! --
 Taking
care of
your skin shouldn't put your health at risk. Mass marketed personal care
products may contain ingredients that are suspected of causing cancer or
may have negative neurological, liver or immune system impacts as well
as potentially causing birth defects and hormonal problems. Labels with
words such as "Hypoallergenic", "Fragrance-Free" and "Pure" are not
regulated and provide no assurance that a personal care product has no
synthetic chemicals that can can be harmful.
- Your Skin
- The skin acts as a line of
defense against the elements that surround us. The outermost
part of the skin is called the Epidermis and has 5 layers. This
is the area that personal care products affect most. Your skin
is also an organ and has the ability to absorb substances that
are put on it. This is well established through the use of
medicines administered through dermal patches worn on the body.
You should not put synthetic chemicals and other substances on
the skin you would not be willing to eat, as both ingestion and
skin contact can bring unwanted chemicals into the body. The skin produces a protective material called "Sebum" and it is the
oily substance found in the skin's pores and in between the cells of the
Epidermis. Skin types are based on the amount of Sebum produced by the
sebaceous glands of the skin along with the amount of water and the
reactivity of the skin to become inflamed and irritated.
- The Health Facts
- Exposure to personal care
product chemicals comes from dermal absorption and inhalation
and many of these chemicals remain in the body for life. The
Environmental Working Group (EWG) helps to expose the
health and safety of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance
Industry (CTFI) and the personal care products we use every day.
The Environmental Working Group publishes a searchable database
of products and ingredients called "Skin Deep" to help you find
out what is in the products you use now and learn about
potentially harmful ingredients. Click here to visit the
EWG Skin
Deep website of personal care products and information.
Some key information provided by the Environmental Working Group
on personal care products:
-
A consumer survey of over 2,300 people
conducted in 2004 by EWG on the use of personal care products found
the average adult uses 9 personal care products daily, exposing them
to 126 unique chemicals everyday. More than 25% of all women use at
least 15 products daily. One in 13 women and one in 23 men are
exposed daily to ingredients that are known or probable human
carcinogens and one in 24 women are exposed daily to ingredients
that are known or probable reproductive and developmental toxins.
-
89% of the 10,500 ingredients used in
personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the FDA
or other publicly accountable institution.
-
In the last 30 years, only 9 of the
10,500 ingredients have been banned or restricted.
-
99% of all personal care products have
one or more ingredients that have not been publicly assessed for
safety by the cosmetic industry or the FDA.
-
In 2005, the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) responded to a cosmetic safety petition put
forth by the Environmental Working Group. The FDA response indicated
they do not ensure the safety of personal care products before they
are sold or require premarket safety testing of the product's
ingredients. The FDA states that they do not have guidelines
and safety standards for the personal care industry and leaves it to
product manufacturers to determine what is safe enough for consumer
use.
-
The Environmental Working Group (EWG)
examined ingredients in 7,500 personal care products and found that
1 in 100 contain ingredients classified by the US government as
known human carcinogens and one third of all products had one or
more ingredients classified as possible human carcinogens.
- Read the Labels
- Many personal care companies claim to be
"Natural" or use "Organic" ingredients. Most often these companies use a
few healthy ingredients mixed in with synthetic chemical and petroleum
based colors, fragrances and preservatives so they can call their product natural based.
So much is still unknown about the safety and
long term health impact of repeated exposure to synthetic
chemicals used in personal care products. It is impossible to
test the safety of every possible combination of chemicals used
in the variety of personal care products we use every day. If
you want to know if the products you are using are safe and
truly "natural", read the ingredients. Personal care
products can be made without the use of synthetic and petroleum
based ingredients.
- Two common classes of
synthetic petrochemicals found in many "natural" and
"Organic" products.
-
Petroleum Based
Preservatives - most commonly found in the form of "parabens"
such as methyl paraben, propylparaben and butylparaben,
exist in many "natural" and "organic" personal care
products. These synthetic chemicals are used as
preservatives and pose health risks such as increased
breast cancer risks, potential endocrine disruptor that
can impair fertility or development and skin sensitizer
to cause burning, itching, scaling and blistering of the
skin.
-
Petroleum Surfactants
- used as foaming or wetting agents to create lather and
most commonly found as sodium lauryl sulfate and
propylene glycol. Another common petroleum surfactant is
cocamidopropyl betaine, which many companies indicate as
derived by coconut oil, but uses petrochemicals to
manufacture. Health risks include skin sensitizer to
cause burning, itching, scaling and blistering of the
skin, penetration enhancer to alter the skin structure
allowing chemicals to penetrate deeper into the skin
potentially increasing the amounts of other chemicals
reaching the bloodstream and may have harmful impurities
or breakdown to form toxic chemicals linked to cancer.
- Natural and Organic is Better
- Our skin care products do
not contain artificial fragrances, petrochemicals or other potentially harmful
ingredients like phthalates, formaldehyde, paraben preservatives or petrochemical detergents such
as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), cocamidopropyl betaine or olefin
sulfonate, that can be irritating or unhealthy to your sensitive
skin. Our mild, all
natural and Organic products are 100% synthetic free and custom formulated to be an
effective healthy alternative to synthetic chemical products. The proof is in the ingredients!
- Making a shift toward
natural and Organic purchasing will have a major beneficial impact on all of
us by reducing toxic chemical human exposure and pollution to
our air, water, food and land. It also reduces the demand for
petroleum resources through crop and product manufacturing. Organic crop production is based
on a system of farming that doesn't use toxic synthetic
fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides to replenish and
maintain soil fertility. Supporting
Organic agriculture means toxic synthetic pesticide exposure can be reduced in
our families and in our environment. It also helps to create a market
transformation in which higher demand reduces costs and provides
finished goods through more mainstream sources.
-
Organic Farming
-
No synthetic pesticides,
fertilizers, irradiation, sewage sludge or genetic
engineering were used for the previous three years.
-
Farmers use beneficial
insects that are natural predators to pests, improve the
soil through the use of organic compost and crop rotation
and pull weeds mechanically or physically.
-
Reduced soil erosion,
retention of soil nutrients and no contamination from toxic
pesticide use that can remain persistent in our environment.
-
Independently certified for
quality and purity.
Costs of Personal Care Products:
-
The Purchase Cost
- this is the cost you pay for your product at the retail outlet.
-
The Environmental Cost
- this is the cost you don't see when purchasing the product. There
is a real financial cost and a personal cost associated with the use
and exposure to toxic chemicals. The financial impacts may be
through increased health care costs or through toxic waste cleanup
and treatment of our air, water and land. Personal health costs are more
devastating such as those from disease, birth defects and changes to
our wildlife.
|
|
