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Bath time can be pure heaven for both parent and child. Many kids love playing in the tub and could go on splashing around for hours if they can.
But there’s something rearing its ugly head in the middle of this cozy picture because your child’s bath products may be exposing him/her to cancer!
Yes, you’ve read that right. Many baby and children’s care products have been found to contain the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
The non-profit organization Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) tested different kids bath products and discovered that:
• 17 out of 28 products or 61 percent contained both formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane, including Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, Sesame Street Bubble Bath, Grins & Giggles Milk & Honey Baby Wash and Huggies Naturally Refreshing Cucumber & Green Tea Baby Wash.
• 23 out of 28 products or 82 percent contained formaldehyde at levels ranging from 79 parts per million (ppm) to 610 ppm. Baby Magic Baby Lotion had the highest levels of formaldehyde.
• 32 out of 48 products or 67 percent contained 1,4-dioxane at levels ranging from 0.27 ppm to 35 ppm. American Girl shower products had the highest levels of 1,4-dioxane.
So much for being labeled ‘gentle’ and ‘pure’ because there’s nothing gentle about formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
Toxic Chemicals Make Bath Time Hazardous!
Formaldehyde is a colorless and flammable industrial chemical used to make building materials and household products and is also used as a disinfectant and preservative. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified it as a probable human carcinogen under high and prolonged exposure.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer also included formaldehyde on its list of known carcinogens.
Aside from the risk of cancer, your child can also develop rashes when exposed to formaldehyde. But that’s the least of your concerns.
Dr.Sheela Sathyanarayana, an environmental health pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital warned that kids become “extremely sensitized” from formaldehyde exposures, and with each new exposure, bigger reactions follow and could possibly make their skin sensitive to a variety of substances aside from formaldehyde.
On the other hand, 1,4-dioxane is a petroleum based contaminant described as a probable human carcinogen by the EPA and an animal carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program. It has also been linked to birth defects, is a suspected neurotoxin and kidney and respiratory toxicant.
Because formaldehyde is released from some of the chemicals used as preservatives and 1,4-dioxane is a byproduct of chemical processing, the FDA does not require manufacturers like Johnson & Johnson to list them as ingredients on the product labels.
Since you won’t find formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane on the labels of children’s bath products, the CSC advises consumers to be wary of these ingredients, which are likely to contain either of the two toxic chemicals: peg-100 stearate, sodium laureth sulfate, polyethylene and ceteareth-20, quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea and sodium hydroxymethoylglycinate.
But your child is not the only one in danger. If toxic chemicals have found their way to kids bath products, personal care products for adults are also not safe from contamination.
Data from an Environmental Working Group (EWG) study on the safety of personal care products show that the average adult uses nine products that contain 126 different chemicals. Also, over 250,000 women and one out of every 100 men use 15 products per day on the average.
The EWG found that:
• Only 28 of the 7,500 products in the study were completely tested by the cosmetic industry’s self-regulating Cosmetic Ingredient Review Board
• One-third of all the products tested contained at least one ingredient that fell under the category of human carcinogen
• 71 percent of hair dye products evaluated had carcinogenic coal tar as an ingredient
• Close to 70 percent of the products reviewed were found to include ingredients that could be tainted with impurities associated with cancer and other health complications
• 54 percent of the products violated the safety recommendations proposed by the industry’s self-regulating panel. Unsafe ingredients were discovered in diaper cream, products for damaged skin and in spray products
How to Avoid Toxic Personal Care Products
Dr. Mercola explains that putting chemicals on your skin is actually worse than directly ingesting them because the enzymes in your saliva and stomach help break down whatever you eat and flush it out of your body but the chemicals you put on your or your child’s skin are absorbed straight to the bloodstream without being filtered. You’re at the mercy of the toxins.
His rule of thumb for personal care product safety? Don’t put things in your skin that you wouldn’t even consider eating!
You can visit the EWG’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database to find out if your family’s personal care products are safe.
Choose quality organic products for your skin and beware of those only pretending to be organic. Remember that your skin reflects the state of your health.
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