It's something we normally don't think about, but things that touch our skin are absorbed into our bodies. They escape the process of swallowing and are transfered directly into our tissues and bloodstream, to join all the other ingredients inside and chemicals inside us.

It goes without saying there's an infinitively long list of things we smear and slather on that would never go into our mouths, but what exactly is allowed in body products that we use? Unfortunately, there's very little regulation of these products. Many consumers may be surprised to learn that the US federal government doesn't require health studies or pre-market testing on personal care products.

Manufacturers are free to put nearly anything they want into cosmetics. These products are reviewed by a manufacturer-controlled safety committee called the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) panel but no human health studies are involved. As a result much of what we buy in the form of cosmetics and skin care isn't caring for anything but profit margins.

According to the Environmental Working Group, "89 percent of 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the CIR, the FDA, nor any other publicly accountable institution," and EWG notes that, "The absence of government oversight for this $35 billion industry leads to companies routinely marketing products with ingredients that are poorly studied, not studied at all, or worse, known to pose potentially serious health risks."

So what are the ingredients and the risks? EWG found ingredients that are "known or probable carcinogens" in one of every 120 cosmetic products on the market, including shampoos, lotions, make up foundations, and lip balm. What this adds up to, says the group, is that "one of every 13 women and one of every 23 men are exposed to ingredients that are known or probable human carcinogens every day through their use of personal care products."

That's a shocking bit of information that consumers may find hard to believe, especially when we rely on government regulations to protect us from toxic ingredients. Unfortunately, consumers in America are very much on their own when it comes to assuring the purity and safety of products.

According to the agency that regulates cosmetics, the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors, "...a cosmetic manufacturer may use almost any raw material as a cosmetic ingredient and market the product without an approval from FDA" (FDA 1995). The industry's self-policing safety panel falls far short of compensating for the lack of government oversight. An EWG analysis found that in its 30-year history, the industry's self-policing safety panel has reviewed the safety of just 11 percent of the 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products. FDA does no systematic reviews of safety. And collectively, the ingredients in personal care products account for one of every eight of the 82,000 chemicals industries have registered for commercial use with the Environmental Protection Agency.

EWG reports that nearly 90 percent of the 10,500 ingredients FDA has determined are used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety by the CIR, the FDA, or any other publicly accountable institution. Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware is the true situation. There's no sense having knowledge without the power to use it to protect yourself.

As with all informed consumer choices, that knowledge can translate into ways to vote your shopping dollars for products that are safe and support the growth of companies that are ethical. Environmental Working Group compiled an electronic database of ingredient labels for 14,100 name-brand products and cross-linked it with 37 toxicity or regulatory databases. These list products by brands as well as giving consumers explainations of the contaminants and reason for concern.

We are what we eat, but the things that go on our skin may just as well go into our mouths, so concerns for diet need to include the trans-dermal diet of n body products. Choosing truly natural products will benefit your health and the health of the planet and that is a beautiful result no matter how you measure!

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written by Paul, September 25, 2007

This scares the S%^& outs me. Whenever I smell the buring brake linnings of a car or the smell of something new like a computer I think," WTH is that smell It must be something toxic"