Pocket Personal Care Shopping Guide

Ever wonder what's inside that shampoo, soap and lotion we slather over ourselves daily? Word on the street (or from credible orgs., actually) is that there may be some pretty nasty chemicals and ingredients in these bottles and jars we use to "get clean" and look "beautiful". Know what I think? This product issue just got more than a little bit "personal".

To keep us all calm, the good news is that some really great and credible organizations from David Suzuki Foundation to Environmental Defence are doing some great work at tackling the personal care product issue. One of the great fruits of this labour is the easily digestable tools they are coming out with so the rest of us can become more knowledgeable about what to avoid in what we are buying.

Environmental Defence recently put together a great list called the Just Beautiful Personal Care Products Pocket Shopping Guide. The guide lists what they see as the top 10 ingredients to avoid when shopping. Here they are:

The Toxic Ten

• Triclosan - Found in "antibacterial" products, it accumulates in fatty tissues and when exposed to sunlight, it creates a mild form of dioxin. 
• Fragrance or Parfum - Fragarances can cause headaches, nausea, shortness of breath and more... and the chemical cocktails used to make "parfum" have also been found to bioaccumulate in animals. 
• Dibutyl Phthalate - Used to soften plastic (and found in most nail polishes), it can also be found in human blood and body tissues and is known to cause birth defects in animals. 
• Petrolatum - This stuff comes from non-renewable resources like crude oil and is associated with all of the nasty pollution and ecological damage from the extraction and refining process. 
• Formaldehyde Releasing Agents - Formaldehyde may cause cancer and or lesser problems like rashes, fatigue or even eye, nose and throat irritations. 
• Parabens - These are "estrogenic" - they mimic female hormones and, though not 100% proven to cause cancer, have been found in breast cancer tumour samples. 
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate - This stuff helps your shampoo and toothpaste suds up and is also known to cause eye and skin irritations.
• Cyclomethicone, Cyclotetrasiloxane, Cyclopentasiloxane, or Cyclohexasiloxane - Found in many moisturizers, hair products and cosmetics, these chemicals can irritate skin, eyes and lungs and also has been found to bioaccumulate. 
• Coal tar-derived colours - A known human carcinogen and found in common hair dye and cosmetics. 
• BHA & BHT - Preservatives, they are possible human carcinogens and a known human immune system toxicants (the EU banned it, so why haven't we?!).

Print out your own copy of the pocket guide here.

More resources: 

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/

Credit must be given to ECOHOLIC  author Adria Vasil, as her books were used as references for some of the detail provided in the Toxic Ten (she is coming out with a book on all things body care, ECOHOLIC Body, soon, too) list.

Beware BPA in cans and bottles

Image: Environmental Working Group

Was that a bit extreme? Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, let me break this down for you.

The issue of the chemical BPA (bisphenol A) has grabbed the Canadian Federal Government's attention as well as many European countries and several U.S. states for its presence in baby bottles, drinking bottles, and in the lining of cans of soup, soda and vegetables/fruit.

So why do we care about BPA? Well, for one, the chemical has been linked to cancer cells and developmental and reproductive damage in infants. So it's especially dangerous for babies to be in contact with the stuff, especially in baby bottles they may feed from daily. BPA has been banned from baby bottles in Canada since 2008, but that's not the end of the story for this brutal chemical.

Look in your pantry or cupboards and chances are you'll see loads of cans filled with fruits and vegetables. Where is the BPA in cans? You can find it in the lining inside the can (that's right, soaking with your food) to keep the stuff preserved and from the metal leaching into your food. Nice.

While there are mo limits on BPA in cans yet in Canada, we can still do something about this. Try cooking with fresh ingredients, buy food in glass containers and jars and stock up on dried beans if you don't mind the whole soaking business. If you have kids, this issue needs to be a concern to you. For us adults, we should still be trying to limit our contact with this nasty chemical.

Learn more about BPA in bottles and cans from Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org and Canada's own Environmental Defence: http://www.environmentaldefence.ca as well as their Toxic Nation site: http://www.toxicnation.ca.