Here at Savon Du Bois, we believe that it is very important to make smart choices when shopping for skin and body care products. Looking for and avoiding toxic ingredients in these products is something I talk about a lot in this blog. Past blogs have highlighted several of these ingredients and warned you of the potential health effects of using products that contain them. I've talked about things like organ and immune system toxicity, and endocrine disruption, but what do these mean? It's all well and good to know that “phthalates” could cause non-reproductive organ system toxicity, but what, exactly, is that? Am I going to need a band-aid or a prescription? Let's see if we can figure this out, shall we?
Health Concern #1 - Toxicity
The word toxins refers to substances that cause damage. In our bodies, toxins damage healthy tissues. Some substances are highly toxic, while others are less so. The amount of damage it is capable of doing determines its level of toxicity. In the beauty and skin care industry, it is the chemical ingredients used in our cosmetic and cleansing products that introduce these toxins into our systems*. Most of the time, they get in to our bodies by soaking in to our skin. Depending on where they end up, various types of toxicity could occur. Organ toxicity means that the toxins have traveled through the body to our organs (sometimes only one or two, sometimes many) and started to affect the normal functioning of that organ. Immunotoxicity refers to damage to the immune system making us susceptible to allergies, getting sick more often or taking longer to recover after illness. Reproductive toxicity, as the name suggests, is damage to our reproductive systems and organs. This could result in problems with sexual function or fertility. When you're reading labels, ingredients with toxic potential include hydroquinone (found in skin-lightening treatments), parabens (found in a wide range of products like shampoo, moisturizer, and toothpaste), and formaldehyde (in nail polish, hair colour and some shampoos).
Health Concern #2 - Endocrine Disruption
Your endocrine system is a series of glands responsible for regulating certain functions in the body like growth, development, metabolism, tissue function and mood . Our hormones are the messengers that travel in the bloodstream to tell different parts of our body what to do. When something interrupts that process, (sending our hormones out of whack), problems can occur. The impact of that could be small, like acne or weight gain, or extremely significant, like birth defects and cancer. Applying cleansers, make-up and lotions to our skin that contain endocrine disrupting chemicals introduces these substances into our bloodstream. Once in there, they start cause havoc with our hormones. Check your ingredient lists for things like BHA/BHT (a preservative), fragrance/parfum (usually means a cocktail of chemicals), oxybenzone (the active ingredient in sunscreen), parabens (a whole class of chemical preservatives) and triclosan (also known by the brand name Microban, found in hand sanitizers, cleansers, antibacterial products).
Health Concern #3 – Cancer
There is not much that needs to be said about this one, so I'll cut to the chase. Be on the lookout for ingredients such as talc (similar in composition to asbestos, look for talc in baby and body powder, eyeshadow, blush), parabens (they mimic estrogen and increase breast cancer risk), coal tar (found in anti-dandruff shampoos, anti-lice treatments), and DEA/TEA/MEA (used to increase lather in face and body washes, and shampoo).
There are many more ingredients to avoid and quite a few more health risks to be concerned about, but I don't want to frighten you with this information. Well, maybe I do. If I frighten you enough to get you to empty your make-up bag, and pull all the shampoo bottles out of the shower for a closer look, then it was well worth it.
Each day we use body products that contain chemical ingredients is another day of accumulating exposure, because our bodies can't get rid of these toxins as fast as we are exposed. Brushing your teeth once isn't going to send you to the ER, but it may make you sick eventually. However, brushing your teeth, washing your hair, applying deodorant, using hand cream and spritzing on your favourite perfume day after day after day is increasing your risk of illness and disease. Is it a risk you are willing to take?
Thanks to YouBeauty.com, Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and Gillian Deacon for filling in the blanks for me. For more information on this topic, see the list of “Scary Ingredients” on our website.
* Smoking, alcohol, some foods and other things also cause toxicity in the body.
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