Eco-Friendliness of Personal Care Products
Many people don't think about the eco-friendliness of everyday products such as lotion, lipstick, deodorant, and other personal care products. We generally assume that if they're safe to put on our bodies, they should be safe for the environment, right? Not necessarily.
Government restrictions on personal care products are not as strict as one might think. The Washington Toxics Coalition reports that the FDA, who is responsible for cosmetic regulations, does not require companies to conduct safety tests and only regulates products AFTER they are on the market. There are only nine chemicals prohibited by the FDA for use in cosmetic products. The European Union prohibits 1,110. These chemicals are obsorbed by our skin and processed through our bodies. Some make it out and end up working their way in to our environment. And, of course, since these chemicals are used during production, the risk exists for them to contaminate our planet during cosmetic manufacture. Still convinced that your skin care products are 100% safe?
You can help protect yourself by avoiding products that contain harmful chemicals that the FDA ignores. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics offers a list of chemicals to avoid and products that they are commonly found in. However, since cosmetic companies are not required to disclose the chemicals in their products, it is hard to know exactly what chemicals are in what products simply by reading the labels on the packages. For more information, you can review the Cosmetics Safety Database, which includes a toxicity rating for ingredients found in products.
Beyond being careful of what products you buy and put on your body, we can address the greater environmental destruction that we continue to perpetuate on multiple fronts. The rise in popularity of the reusable shopping bag is a great example of how quickly eco-friendly movements can catch on. Cities are now considering bans or taxes on plastic bags, encouraging citizens to help our environment by bringing their own reusable bags. Many dry cleaners and individuals are also catching on, beginning to offer reusable dry cleaning bags as well. This shows that when the need to make changes is identified, people are not afraid to make changes. We can hope that this trend carries over in to other areas, such as cosmetics and personal care products.