Cosmetics
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
EWG's Skin Deep Database
Beauty and the Beast There are cancer-causing chemicals in cosmetics.
They´ve been banned in Europe, but the U.S. industry wants to keep them.
Cosmetics Full of Suspect Chemicals
Cosmetics and Health: The Phthalate Connection
Safer Personal Care Information
The Skin Deep product safety database provides safety ratings for nearly 25,000 personal care products - almost a quarter of all products on the market - and the 7,000 ingredients they contain. Due to gaping loopholes in federal law, companies can put virtually any ingredient into personal care products. Even worse, the government does not require pre-market safety tests for any of them. EWG’s aim is to fill in where companies and the government left off.
Skin Deep is the only tool available to consumers to assess and compare the safety of personal care products.
Also visit the EWG site:
www.ewg.org
ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION: 20 Ways to Reduce Your Intake of Chemicals in Body Care Products
www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/reduce052104.cfm
Excerpts:
NAIL CARE: If you can't give up nail varnish, protect the cuticles with oil. Although the part of the nail you see is dead, it is still porous and can absorb the chemicals used in varnish and remover, such as toluene, acetone and formaldehyde.
SHAVING: A thick coating of aloe vera gel is a good alternative to shaving foams and gels. It has natural anti-inflammatory and skin-softening properties, without all the chemicals.
LIPSTICK: The average make-up wearing woman will eat two pounds of lipstick in her life-time. Most lipsticks contain petroleum derivatives. Try brands based on beeswax, plant oils or vitamin E instead.
Greenpeace
(greenpeace.org.uk) and Women's Environmental Network (wen.org.uk) both have useful lists of products to avoid, as well as companies with good track records.
TO DYE OR NOT TO DYE? PERMANENT HAIR DYES,
www.care2.com/greenliving/permanent-hair-dye-dangers.html
by Annie B. Bond. If you use permanent hair dyes at least once a month you should know about a 2001 study from researchers at the University of Southern California that analyzed the association between hair dying activity and bladder cancer. There wasn’t an association between semi-permanent or temporary hair dyes & the cancer.
Fragrance
Fragrance Safety Concerns, by our Dr. Lynn Tondat Ruggieri
Making Sense of Scents
No Perfume Means Healthier Air
Sweet Poison, What your nose can't tell you about the dangers of perfume
Parish Offers Incense-Free Christmas Mass
