This past Thursday, S.C Johnson announced that it will phase out all phthalates from their products and begin listing all ingredients on their household products.
S.C. Johnson will offer information about these changes through a website (www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com), which will be in both English and Spanish by the end of 2009, their toll-free number (1-800-558-5252) and on product labels.
S.C. Johnson Glade Candle
I posted a while ago about how I made my daughter’s baby food and how easy it actually is to do so. I mostly used a “food wand” blender to puree her food, but I’ve also used a food processor as well. If you’re someone who has a food processor or blender in your kitchen, you really need to check out Z Recommends post from a week ago. They’ve listed many food processors and blenders and have listed if they contain BPA, PVC, and/or phthalates. Be sure to check out an update they did yesterday on the Hamilton Beach products they listed. Do yourself a favor and head on over.
Photo from Flickr by Jodiepedia
Take a look at a USA Today article that describes a study about mothers, their exposure to high levels of phthalates, and how they seem to have affected the genitals of baby boys. It points out the concern for girls as well once the hit puberty and have children of their own.
On July 31, 2008, the New York Times reported that the House voted overwhelmingly to ban lead and phthalates in toys and other items. Phthalates are found in some plastics and are known to be an endocrine disruptor due to the fact that they mimic hormones in the body. Laboratory studies have shown it to cause reproductive and neurological damage. The bill would impose the toughest standards on lead in the world and would ban 6 types of phthalates from children’s products. The bill would also require children’s products to be tested by a third party before they are marketed. The Senate could approve this bill before Congress leaves at the end of this week for its August recess.
Here are some tips for identifying products that have, or are likely to have, phthalates:
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The Environmental Working Group has a website called Skin Deep. This site is an excellent resource for consumers in that it lists thousands of personal care products in an organized way and rates them on how safe their ingredients are.
“Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety.”
At Skin Deep, you can find hundreds of specific items for hair, skin, eyes, nails, baby, oral care, fragrance, and makeup rated from 0-10, zero being the safest. Each item’s score is explained in detail and safer options are given.
I occasionally purchase an item or two at a department store but most of my everyday care products come from my local drugstore. In today’s post I’m listing safer, inexpensive bar soap choices from Skin Deep’s site that can easily be found at your local drugstore. I’ve also listed a common item with high (not safe) score as comparison.
It should be noted that although Skin Deep gives products a “moderate hazard” score, some of them contain parabens, which one study suggested may cause breast cancer due to hormone mimicking properties, fragrance, which can often mean Diethyl Phthalate or DEP, which is an endocrine disruptor that has been linked to reproductive and genital abnormalities, propylene glycol, which the FDA says is safe for general use but can cause cancer and contains toxins that affect reproduction, sodium laureth sulfate, which can cause skin and eye damage and even liver toxicity and finally, BHT, which has been linked to neurotoxicity and endocrine disruption. Items containing any of these are noted.
Basis Sensitive Skin Bar Soap
Dove Beauty Bar Sensitive Skin – BHT
Dial Original Bar Soap White – fragrance
Irish Spring Deodorant Soap Original 8 bar pack – fragrance
Ivory Classic Ivory Bar Soap – fragrance
Zest Bar Soap Bar, Linen Fresh – fragrance
Zest Bath Bar Soap, Spring Burst – fragrance, sodium laureth sulfate
Lever 2000 Bar Soap, Energize – fragrance, propylene glycol
Visit Skin Deep and check out some of your favorite products to see how they rate. Then decide if you need to make some changes. If you do, don’t feel you need to do it all at once. Just make changes as you run out of things.
Check back with me as I’ll continue with safer choices for oral and baby care.
See an earlier post of mine called, “How Safe Is Your Shampoo & Conditioner?“
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The Environmental Working Group has a website called Skin Deep. This site is an excellent resource for consumers in that it lists thousands of personal care products in an organized way and rates them on how safe their ingredients are.
“Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 25,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety.”
At Skin Deep, you can find hundreds of specific items for hair, skin, eyes, nails, baby, oral care, fragrance, and makeup rated from 0-10, zero being the safest. Each item’s score is explained in detail and safer options are given.
I occasionally purchase an item or two at a department store but most of my everyday care products come from my local drugstore. In today’s post I’m listing safer, inexpensive shampoo and conditioner choices from Skin Deep’s site that can easily be found at your local drugstore. I’ve also listed some common items with high (not safe) scores as comparisons.
It should be noted that although Skin Deep gives products a “moderate hazard” score, some of them contain parabens, which one study suggested may cause breast cancer due to hormone mimicking properties, fragrance, which can often mean Diethyl Phthalate or DEP, which is an endocrine disruptor that has been linked to reproductive and genital abnormalities, propylene glycol, which the FDA says is safe for general use but can cause cancer and contains toxins that affect reproduction, and sodium laureth sulfate, which can cause skin and eye damage and even liver toxicity. Items containing any of these are noted.
Burt’s Bees products are available at two of my local drug stores. They would not be what I consider “inexpensive” but the items listed do appear to have the safest ingredients when it comes to drugstore options:
Visit Skin Deep and check out some of your favorite products to see how they rate. Then decide if you need to make some changes. If you do, don’t feel you need to do it all at once. Just make changes as you run out of things.
Check back with me as I’ll continue with safer choices for skin care, oral care, and baby care.
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