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I don\u2019t know about you, but in the recent years I have heard words like pthalates and parabens being thrown around a lot.\u00a0 Products are being marketed as \u201cparaben-free\u201d or \u201cnon-toxic\u201d, but what do these standards actually mean? And who is enforcing these health standards?<\/p>\n

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Stink!<\/h3>\n

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A few weeks ago, a Netflix Documentary\u00a0 called \u201cStink!\u201d was recommended to me because it shines a light on the disturbingly unregulated industries that produce the majority of American goods.\u00a0 Roughly 80,000 chemicals are used in U.S. products today, but the FDA has only banned 30. That\u2019s right, 30!\u00a0 In contrast, the UK has 1,200 banned chemicals and even those numbers are far too low.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For years I lived under the assumption that the FDA regulated household products, just as they regulated medicine or food, but I was sorely mistaken.\u00a0 In fact, there are government regulations that make it easier for companies to hide chemicals they use in their products. This makes it even more difficult to screen your products for dangerous chemicals – assuming you even know what to look for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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One of the most shocking scenes in \u201cStink!\u201d is a recorded interview with members of the FDA. During the meeting, FDA leaders admit that if arsenic (a known poison) was being used in a product\u2019s fragrance, they could do nothing about it. This is because fragrance formulas are protected as a trade secret under American law. To put this into perspective, there are over 3,000 chemicals that are commonly used to make fragrances.\u00a0 This means that you could buy a product that only has 10 chemicals listed on its ingredients, but if the word \u201cfragrance\u201d or \u201cparfum\u201d is on the bottle, there could actually be dozens of toxic chemicals!\u00a0 Studies have concluded that the average perfumes\/colognes have roughly 14 chemicals that are not listed on the ingredients label.<\/p>\n

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So what if there are toxic chemicals in products? It’s not like I’m eating or drinking my makeup.<\/h3>\n

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One of the reasons that these chemicals aren\u2019t as regulated is this very reason; you\u2019re not expected to intentionally ingest any of these products.\u00a0 However, studies have shown that even if we don\u2019t consciously put these products in our body, they still can find their way into our bodies at very high levels.\u00a0 For example, a 2018 study found that there were 20x more parabens in the urine of women who wore makeup versus women who rarely or never wore makeup. It was then estimated that women who wear makeup are exposed to 50mg of parabens PER DAY! These chemicals can be absorbed through our skin in small quantities and makeup products can easily get in our eyes, mouth, nose etc.<\/p>\n

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