If you google "Sodium Lauryl Sulfate" you will immediatley find tons of links encouraging you to toss every product in your house containing this ingredient (which you will be surprised to learn is almost everything). You will also find tons of links encouraging you the former links are bunk. What's a googler to do?

Keep your products.

According to Urbanlegends.com this myth began with a simple email:

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Subject: FW: SHAMPOO ALERT!!! MUST READ!!!

Importance: High

Check the ingredients listed on your shampoo bottle, and see if they have this substance by the name of Sodium Laureth Sulfate or simply SLS.

This substance is found in most shampoo, the manufactures use it because it produces a lot of foam and it is cheap. BUT the fact is that SLS is used to scrub garage floors, and it is very strong.

It is also proven that it can cause cancer in the long run, and this is no joke. Well, I went home and check my shampoo (Vidal Sasoon), it hasn't got it, but others such as Vo5, Palmolive etc..they've got this substance, so I've called up to one of the company (u must think I had nothing better to do, no, I am just concerned about our health) well, I told them their product contains a substance that will cause people to have cancer, and u know what they said, they said "Yeah.we knew about it but there is nothing we can do about it coz we need that substance to produce foam, oh, by the way the Colgate toothpaste also contains the same substance to produce the bubbles". Oh my God, I've been using the Colgate since when I was born, what the world is that, are we going to die very soon. They said they are going to send me some info.

Research have shown that in the 1980s, the chance of getting cancer is 1 out of 8000 and now in the 1990s, the chances of getting cancer is 1 out of 3 which is very serious. So I hope that you will take this seriousness and pass on this to all the people you know, and hopefully, we can stop "giving" ourselves the cancer virus.

This is serious, after you have read this, pass it on to as many people as possible, this is not a chain letter, but it concerns our health.

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If you go look in your shower or under your sink you'll find most of your products contain sodium lauryl sulfate. Organic, expensive or cheap many of them contain this ingredient.

I heard about this rumor from my roommate. I intercepted a large shopping bag she had filled to the brim with her beauty products "contaminated" with this ingredient. She had read on a few green sites that this chemical was a huge no-no. In her bag were Keihl's lotions, Aveda shampoos and numerous other organic/high-end beauty products. It just didn't add up. So I took her bag from her and decided to keep it in a safe place while I did some more research.

It turns out that the worst sodium sulfate can do is irritate sensitive skin. Here are a few links from reputable sites listed in one place if you need some reassurance:

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_6_1x_Shampoo.asp?sitearea=MED

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/household/shampoo.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_laureth_sulfate

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/common_ecomyth_sls.php

So go be beautiful and don't sweat the sodium lauryl sulfate stuff!