Be aware of the chemicals in cosmetics
Consider a product’s impact on nature and your body, environmental group says
Leandra Greenfield was 14 when she read that said her sunscreen contained oxybenzone, a suspected endocrine disrupter, which studies had found that may impact human hormones.
The Humber student recalls, “I just remember standing there taking in all this confusing and conflicting information. You need vitamin D from the sun. But too much exposure and you’re at risk of getting skin cancer, so you have to practise sun safety. And now all this talk about the potentially harmful ingredients in my sunscreen. All I wanted to do was have a fun day at the beach.”
Coal tar dyes and formaldehyde. Plasticizers suspected of affecting hormone function. Such products are in the hair colouring, nail polish, deodorants and perfumes we use every day; in products found in the cabinets in bathrooms down the hall.
Maggie MacDonald, toxic program manager of Environmental Defence, explains: “When the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) was passed in 1999, most toxic pollution came from industrial processes. Now, in light of the decline in manufacturing, a greater proportion of pollution found in our bodies and in the environment comes from consumer products.”
As Gillian Deacon points out in her book There’s Lead in Your Lipstick, before you “head out the door, the average woman has sudsed, soaked, slathered and spritzed herself with 126 chemicals” from the products in her bathroom.
MacDonald continues, “Many are harmless, many we don’t know yet what their effects may be over time and many, with longer-term exposure, are bad.”
There are a network of laws and nonregulatory initiatives, both federal and provincial, that deal with chemicals in our lives. Health Canada is mandated, under the Government of Canada’s Hazardous Products Act and Regulations, to protect Canadians from potential health hazards in consumer products. Health Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada are mandated to assess chemicals under the federal government’s Chemical Management Plan.
With this blanket approach, Health Canada states the federal government “is on track to assess the potential risks of approximately 4,300 priority chemicals by 2020.” Health Canada also maintains a Cosmetic Ingredient Hotlist, an administrative tool that informs industry of substances that are restricted or prohibited for cosmetic use, or that require labelling.
Health Canada has built into its cosmetic regulations “a key requirement that manufacturers or importers must notify Health Canada within 10 days of the first sale of the product, and the notification must include information about the product’s formulation. Manufacturers or importers are required to disclose all ingredients on the product label . . . allowing consumers to check for ingredients about which they may have concerns, thereby allowing for more informed decisions regarding product purchase and use.”
Despite these checks, Environmental Defence says that of the more than 80,000 chemicals currently used in industry, consumer products, furniture, household goods and cosmetics, only a fraction have been thoroughly tested for safety.
The New York Times recently conducted an investigation on the condition of nail salon workers in the city. Titled “Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers,” the investigation documented multiple cases where salon workers suffered adverse health effects from long-term exposure to toxins at work.
For consumers, the best approach is “to exercise safe usage and reduce exposure to toxic chemicals,” stresses MacDonald. And not only is it important to consider the consumer products we apply to our bodies, we also need to consider the impact these products have on the environment.
Environmental Defence is currently running a campaign to build awareness around the microbeads found in personal-care products and the environmental harm they cause. Used as exfoliants, these tiny pieces of plastic are added to everyday cosmetic products, facial washes, toothpaste and abrasive cleaners.
While microbeads are not toxic, persistent organic pollutants like PCBs attach themselves to the small plastic particles. Now ubiquitous in our lakes and rivers, microbeads are having a negative effect on fish and wildlife, making their way up the food chain. One study in the U.K. showed that 90 per cent of birds checked had ingested these beads.
So what should a shopper do? Go into the bathroom and throw everything out?
Greenfield recalls what she did next.
“I didn’t freak out, since I was already pretty health conscious and I knew that it would be impossible to go100-per-cent chemical free. It’s everywhere, in everything,” she says. “I just needed to learn up and ease into where my comfort level of exposure would be.”
So she exercised restraint and didn’t over-slather until she learned all she could about the chemicals in the stuff we put on our bodies and then wash into the environment.
Her approach was precautionary. First, she took all her expired medicine back to the pharmacy, where they could dispose of it properly. “Being at the top of the food chain, I didn’t want any endocrine disrupters in the fish on my plate.”
Next, she printed out a wallet-sized shopper’s guide list of what the David Suzuki Foundation calls the “Dirty Dozen” and took it with her. These are chemicals the group recommends to avoid when shopping for cosmetics. She would pull it out to check the ingredient list on personal care products before she made a purchase.
For example, phthalates are a group of chemicals that can make products (usually plastics) softer and more flexible. They are used in a range of products, including cosmetics such as nail polish and perfumes. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) says they are “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”
“If I see dibutyl phthalate and diethyl phthalate on the ingredients list, I’ll give it a pass.” Greenfield rolls the scientific words off her tongue with ease. “For the rest, I know I’ll never be able to get away from it completely, but where I can, I’ll make much of my own stuff like lip gloss, and buy my soap from artisans at the farmers market.”
“I didn’t freak out . . . I just needed to learn up and ease into where my comfort level of exposure would be.” LEANDRA GREENFIELD