?The average adult uses 9 personal care products each day, exposing them to 126 chemicals everyday?
?89% of 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products have not been evaluated for safety?
?One-third of all personal care products contain one or more ingredients, classified as possible human carcinogens?
These are some of the statistics.
Dimethicone (silica), sodium laureth sulfate, methyl paraben, propylene glycol (PG) and fragrance are some of the cancer-causing chemicals found in most daily use personal care products.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) / Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)
Very often we see many labels with long chemical names, followed by the phrase ?derived from ??. SLS / SLES is one of them. We?ll normally see Sodium Laureth Sulfate and in bracket, derived from coconut oil. Consumers are led to believe that these synthetic chemicals must be natural. But this is not true in most cases as what is left after all the chemical processing is usually anything but natural.
Used as detergents to dissolve oils and hold dirt to be rinsed away with water, SLS or SLES are found in car wash detergents, garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers. Yet they are even more widely used as a major ingredient in cosmetics, toothpaste, hair conditioner and about 90% of all body wash and shampoos. You must be wondering what are all these ?garage floor cleaners or engine degreasers? doing in your shampoo? They are used because they are cheap! And a small amount generates plenty of foam and bubble.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate composed of 4 known carcinogens. Studies show that it can be absorbed by the skin surface and gets accumulated in our body organs, such as, the eye, brain, heart and liver, with potential harmful long term effects.
Parabens (Propyl, Methyl, Butyl, or Ethyl)
Often called ?organic preservative?. To begin with, do you know what does ?natural? or ?organic? really mean on a product label? We can see a lot of ?Organic Shampoo? or ?Natural Avocado Cream? in the market nowadays. But, do you know that the Cosmetic Industry is capitalizing on the chemistry definition of organic? Do you know that when most companies say their products are organic, what they really mean is their products contain Carbon atom?
As according to the organic chemistry definition, “any compound that contains carbon is organic”. Carbon is found in anything that has ever lived. By using this definition of organic, we could say that the toxic preservative Paraben is ?organic? because it contains carbon! As it was formed by leaves that rotted over thousands of years to become crude oil, which was then used to make this toxic preservative.
Lab results have shown that parabens can be easily absorbed through the skin and are found in 90% of breast cancer tumors removed from patients. Parabens are used because they are much cheaper than natural alternatives.
Mineral Oil
A by-product of petroleum, used in industry as lubricating oil, is also widely used as a major ingredient in numerous baby products and many other personal care products, such as creams and lotion.
Unlike plant oil, mineral oil does not really nourish the skin. Instead it slows down skin function and cell development and speeds up premature aging of the skin! How it works? It coats the skin like a plastic wrap, to prevent moisture loss, thus keeping your skin soft to touch. However, this hinders normal skin perspiration by preventing elimination of toxins and waste from the skin, as our skin is one of the major organs for toxin elimination. This causes the toxins and wastes to accumulate, leading to acne and other disorders in the long run. Again, mineral oil is used because it is cheaper than plant oil.
We should avoid these cancer-causing synthetic chemicals and make a positive difference to our own health by using truly natural and organic products. Start to read labels today and never be fooled by claims of manufacturers as education is the only way to truly create change! And when you can?t understand most of the long chemical names in the label, high possibility they are synthetic!
To learn more on other harmful chemicals, you can go to: http://organicbest.mionegroup.com/Education/Toxicingredients.aspx
Siew Yin Gark's philosophy has always been that there are no quick fixes to staying healthy. She believes that we can attain health only through proper diet, exercise, sleep and rest and the results will be long term. You can get her latest tips and sharing on health for FREE at her blog: http://www.greathealthandus.com
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