What is your skin eating?
When it comes to choosing personal care items (soap, deodorant, shampoo, sun screen etc.), here’s a good rule of thumb:
If it’s not made from natural ingredients, don’t put it on your skin.
Much that we put on our skin (or breathe via our lungs) ends up inside our bodies.
This has significant implications for human health.
Many modern chemicals—used in mass-produced, brand-name personal care items—are known to disrupt human physiology in a variety of ways.
Commonly-cited concerns include, but are not limited to;
Cancer
Neurotoxicity
Endocrine dysregulation & reproductive system toxicity
Teratogenic activity / developmental toxicity
Non-reproductive organ system toxicity (liver, kidney, lung…)
Immune system dysregulation
Disruption of the microbiome
Irritation and allergic reactions (skin, eyes, lungs…)
Bioaccumulation
And, with regards to Nature, when we flush it all down the drain…
Ecosystem toxicity
Avoid most things that you can’t pronounce
Here’s a few ingredient groups to screen for;
Bisphenols (BPA is the tip of the bisphenol iceberg)
Parabens & pthalates
Fragrance / parfum (contents often not divulged—company secret!)
All of the above are known endocrine disruptors, which, among other concerns, are strongly linked to reproductive harm.
Unsure about a particular ingredient or product?
The Skin Deep® database from the Environmental Working Group, is a very handy reference guide for consumers who want to learn more about the contents of their household and personal care products.
Tens of thousands of common, brand-name products have been catalogued, and ranked per problem area.
If a product is not listed, you can still search their database for individual ‘ingredients’.
Caveat emptor — let the buyer beware!
Unfortunately, we currently live in a world where the cosmetic (and food) industries are largely unregulated.
This allows for the use of additives that are unproven, unsafe, and the long-term effects of which remain unknown.
Time and time again, companies declare their products ‘safe’ and ‘healthy’.
A few years later, the truth always arrives, and it’s never pretty.
Synthetic chemical additives should be considered guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around.
The onus should be on companies to prove safety and efficacy of their products ahead of time…
But it’s not—apparently it’s on us, as consumers, to do our research and ‘choose wisely’.
Until this changes (don’t hold your breath), it’s up to us to educate ourselves, and to support companies who are doing the right thing, by their consumers, and by the environment.
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References
Domínguez-Morueco, N, González-Alonso, S & Valcárcel, Y 2014, ‘Phthalate occurrence in rivers and tap water from central Spain’, Science of The Total Environment, vol. 500–501, pp. 139–146.
Environmental Working Group (EWG) 2022, Skin Deep®, viewed 7th January 2022 at <https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/>
Patisaul, H 2009, ‘Long-term effects of environmental endocrine disruptors on reproductive physiology and behavior’, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 3.
vom Saal, FS, Akingbemi, BT, Belcher, SM, Birnbaum, LS, Crain, DA, Eriksen, M, … Zoeller, RT 2007, ‘Chapel Hill bisphenol A expert panel consensus statement: Integration of mechanisms, effects in animals and potential to impact human health at current levels of exposure’, Reproductive Toxicology, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 131–138.
Wang, L, Asimakopoulos, AG & Kannan, K 2015, ‘Accumulation of 19 environmental phenolic and xenobiotic heterocyclic aromatic compounds in human adipose tissue’, Environment International, vol. 78, pp. 45–50.
Xu, X, Nie, S, Ding, H & Hou, FF 2018, ‘Environmental pollution and kidney diseases’, Nature Reviews Nephrology, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 313–324.
Yang, CZ, Yaniger, SI, Jordan, VC, Klein, DJ & Bittner, GD 2011, ‘Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved’, Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 119, no. 7, pp. 989–996.
Zahra, A, Dong, Q, Hall, M, Jeyaneethi, J, Silva, E, Karteris, E & Sisu, C 2021, ‘Identification of Potential Bisphenol A (BPA) Exposure Biomarkers in Ovarian Cancer’, Journal of Clinical Medicine, vol. 10, no. 9, p. 1979.