Are My Personal Hygiene Products Safe?

A few years ago I began to think more about my general health. Turning 40 was probably the motivating factor but I did become concerned with physical fitness, nutrition, and ultimately personal hygiene products or toiletries. I remembered from High School Health class that the skin is an organ… not just a suit of armor. I became curious as to what exactly was being absorbed into my body by way of the skin. I became an avid label reader like others who realize you cannot always trust manufacturers to produce in your best interest. Could I be using products that were ultimately harming, aging, or even robbing me of feeling as healthy as I could feel?  Are my personal hygiene products safe?

Reviewing my daily routine I wanted to examine with priority the products I used the most. These would be shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, and toothpaste. Those are not an all inclusive list but I thought the top five would be a good start. It was an easy choice to look at deodorants first because I had experienced an occasional redness under my arms and a burning sensation when applying the stick/solid product I was using. This was not an isolated incident… I had 25 plus years of daily use with aerosols, roll-ons, and solids from various mainstream manufacturers. Usually I would attempt to go a day without or at least a very light application until any redness was gone and then back to normal and recommended use.

I soon realized that ingredient labels for cosmetic products were even more difficult to discern than ingredient labels on what we eat. There is simply not as much regulation for cosmetics by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

As an example here are the ingredients listed on the label of the stick deodorant I was using regularly just a few years ago:

PROPYLENE GLYCOL, FDC BLUE #1, EXT DC VIOLET #2, WATER, SODIUM STEARATE, SODIUM LAURETH-13 CARBOXYLATE, FRAGRANCE, TETRASODIUM EDTA

I was happy to see water in that list… I knew what that was. But how many everyday people are going to know what “tetrasodium EDTA” is much less what goes into “fragrance”?

Before I had performed any research to uncover the properties of the chemicals in my deodorant I felt that I just needed to switch to something safer and there was no reason to delay. I had heard about mineral salts being a natural deodorant and so I began using one of the solid rock forms of that product. Here is the ingredient label:

MINERAL SALTS

Less seemed to be more in this situation and I was happy that I switched and still am. However, do people know what mineral salts are? Are they safe? I admit that I did not know. I thought mineral salts sat next to the pepper on my kitchen table.

I have used my experience with deodorants as an example for this article but the information applies to all cosmetics or toiletries. If you have ever tried to query information on any product ingredient you have most likely experienced many conflicting, vague, or non-existing results. In addition I did not want to hear just what the cosmetic companies were saying about their ingredients.

It does not seem wise to solely trust the FDA in regards to my safety either. They are a government agency after all and some checks and balances would be prudent. Right or wrong they only regulate what they can regulate and that isn’t much in the cosmetic industry.

After many internet dead ends and forum opinions I did find a reference website that seems to be informative and unbiased… their only bias being to protect public health.

EWG is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which states that their mission is to “is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment“. They make this claim on their website:

“Our research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know. It shames and shakes up polluters and their lobbyists. It rattles politicians and shapes policy. It persuades bureaucracies to rethink science and strengthen regulation. It provides practical information you can use to protect your family and community.”

Their work regarding skin care pointed me to their sub-site Skin Deep (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com). This is the database that EWG is building which matches their “personal care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases”. This is the site I have bookmarked and now use frequently. What I really like about this particular site is that they not only rate the overall hazard level of each ingredient but they also provide a “data gap” percentage… meaning they factor in the many times that there simply is not enough toxicity studies or assessments to conclusively know a product’s safety or danger level. So ingredients with a high data gap may imply things could be better or worse. I appreciate and respect that they make known what is not known.

So by using the ingredient information from my deodorant above at Skin Deep’s website I find an overall hazard level of 5 out of 10 for my previous mainstream deodorant. They call this a moderate hazard and assigned a data gap of 76%. That sounds pretty high. The data gap is an average of each individual ingredient and “fragrance” qualifies for 100% data gap all by itself. Why is that? The FDA doesn’t require more detailed information and this leaves concern of neurotoxicity, allergies, etc. The fragrance is classified as “identity unknown”.

In my second example is the mineral salt deodorant any safer? Yes, in this case the overall hazard level is 0 out of 10. However, there is still a 84% data gap. Skin Deep lists that there are no known hazards for the level of mineral salts used in this product but one or more animal studies show reproductive effects at high doses.

I am not going over the other ingredients in this article as I encourage you take any concerns you might have in your own medicine cabinet and do a little research online. My intention was not to promote any particular product and neither am I associated with Skin Deep in any way. Most of my internet searches for cosmetic safety information have been exercises in futility. While you can find helpful information at vendor sites as well as the FDA I was happy to find a site that I could share with you that derives it’s information from researchers and scientists.

Any element, chemical combination, or product can be dangerous depending on how it is used. Even H2O placed in the wrong place, specifically the lungs, will kill us quickly. It is each of our responsibility to determine what is safe and effective for our own use. I have seen many true and informative manufacturers websites and believe the FDA website is a good source of information as well. I recommend Skin Deep as one more resource that you can use when concerned about the products you find in your bathrooms.

Leave me a comment if you have found other reliable sources of information as well.