Buyer Beware: Personal Care Products, Food and Beverages Need No FDA Approval

While the Food & Drug Administration regulates products designed for personal consumption, the products we breathe in, absorb through our skin and those which we use to contain our food and beverages go completely unregulated. Blood tests show that most Americans' bodies carry a significant burden of pollution, including plastic softeners, flame retardants, pesticides and heavy metals.

Recently independent consumer advocated organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) tested the umbilical cord blood of 10 newborn babies and found nearly 300 chemicals, including BPA, fire retardants, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides that were banned more than 30 years ago. Many of these chemicals are known carcinogens, mutagens, endocrine disrupting chemicals or reproductive toxins.

Others heavy metal contaminates including arsenic, lead and mercury have been linked to a number of birth defects and developmental disorders, most notably the growing incidents of children born with autism. Because they're unregulated, these chemicals are readily prevalent in the personal care products, food and beverage containers and household cleaners we use every day. Certain environmental toxins are difficult to avoid, but by becoming informed and making better choices, you can avoid ingesting harmful chemicals that adversely affect your health.

What can you do? Read the fine print! When purchasing food and beverage containers, select safe plastics that use polyethylene (#1, #2, and #4) and polypropylene (#5), which require the use of fewer toxic additives.

Avoid the more hazardous plastics, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC, #3), polystyrene (#6), and polycarbonate (#7) which typically contains bisphenol A (BPA) and is found in baby bottles or sippy cups.

Personal care products frequently use words such as "pure", "healthy" and "natural" all the time, but these claims don't mean a thing in terms of regulations. Even the terms "organic" and "hypo-allergenic" have no legal standards when used on personal care products.

So companies can, and often do, use these words to market products that contain multiple toxic chemicals. You would be amazed (and outraged) at the number of products marketed "for sensitive skin" that contain allergens and skin toxicants!

Ignore the claims on the front of the package. Flip the product over and look at the label. When it comes to synthetic chemical exposures, less is more.

Choose products with shorter ingredient lists and fewer or no synthetic chemicals. Scan for common chemicals such as sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, parabens, diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA), diazolidinyl and imidazolidinyl urea, PEGs, quaternium 15 and fragrance. If a product contains any of these synthetics, it is a likely bet that you will be inhaling, ingesting or absorbing unnecessary toxins into your body that can easily be avoided.

Next time you shop, be sure to read the labels. Better yet, support one of the growing number of conscientious merchants unwilling to offer products containing harmful substances in your food containers and water bottles.


------

Judy Sambrailo writes on green tips for healthy, eco-friendly sustainable living. Nubius Organics is an online web-store offering a wide selection of green, eco-friendly reusable products including stainless steel water bottles and Klean Kanteens. Please visit http://www.nubiusorganics.com for more green eco-friendly products and green tips.