Dangerous Daily Care

I decided to examine one of my most often used personal care product, a large bottle of Garnier Fructise Daily Care Shampoo. I couldn’t wait to find out what toxins I was covering my body with every morning in the shower. The ingredients listed on the back of the bottle are as follows;

“Aqua/Water; Sodium Laureth Sulfate; Cocamidopropyl Betaine; Cocamide MIPA; Dimethicone; Distearyl Ether; Sodium Chloride; Behenyl Alcohol; Niacinamide; Saccharum Officinarum/Sugar Cane Extract; Sodium Methylparaben; DMDM Hydantoin; PPG-5-Ceteth-20; Polyquaternium-10; Camellia Sinensis/Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract; Linalool; Pyrus Malus/Apple Fruit Extract; Carbomer; Pyridoxine HCl; Citric Acid; Butylphenyl Methylpropional; Citrus Limonum/Lemon Peel Extract; Laureth-2; Parfum (Fragrance).”




All this is packed in to a seemingly harmless off-the-shelf shampoo. Now to examine the ill-effects of my daily care ritual. According to the Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews website some of the substances in my shampoo have been linked to cancer, reproductive problems, neurotoxicity, allergies, and multitudes of other cellular level changes. Generally, the shampoo was given a 5 out of 10 on the hazard scale on the website, indicating a moderate level of danger associated with its ingredients. In regards to the Table on toxicity featured in the Okala Design book, I couldn’t find direct connections between the toxins they listed and the ones cited on the other website. I assume that the wording on the ingredients list on the back of the bottle may be a little different than the toxins listed in the Okala book, but they still describe the same compounds. I also noticed the supposed “data gaps” that were listed on the website, I was really confused by these. How can “fragrance” have a highly dangerous score of 8 but feature a “100%” data gap on its information? I wonder how the account a score to a substance without any information on it?

Even so, there are a lot of terrible things in my shampoos and other body care products. After realizing how many terrible things are in a lot of the regular use products I own, I have definitely started evaluating other alternatives. I spent a little time browsing the Environmental Working Group’s database and found a moderate rating on most of my products, but also found a lot of replacements for my products that were much safer. While I know that I cannot just stop using deodorant and shampoos, I now know the harmful side effects that these everyday items have on human and animals in testing situations. It is slightly terrifying to find that products like these are sold to consumers constantly and there is not that much outcry from the public… In light of my new found knowledge, I definitely plan on switching to daily care products that were rated on the 0-1 range on the informative EWG’s database. What is still throwing me off is that even products with a 0 rating, such as “Healing-Scents Pepperminty Shampoo/Body Wash” include substances linked to cancer, what hasn’t been linked to cancer? Is there any way to escape these types of toxins? I feel like you could drive yourself crazy attempting to rid your lifestyles of these toxins… Also, a concern of mine is buying these lower-risk products. Just take a look at the Healing-Scents website which is flat out terribly done. Albeit, possibly erroneous, this can illustrate an inferior product and furthermore makes me uncomfortable with purchasing their products. I simply don’t want to transfer my credit card information over that website. It just leads a little bit of credence to the notion that alternative, ecological products are somewhat inferior. Presentation is still important, even if the company is ecologically friendly.