July 19, 2007 | Health, Shopping
You bet! I found a report in the Parenting magazine that showed up in my mailbox today about I,4-dioxane. This is a probable human carcinogen, and it’s in my kids’ shampoo! In fact, I went to Skin Deep, where you can check your personal use products (cosmetics, soaps, lotions, etc.) for toxicity information and I found that the Gerber Grins & Giggles (Oatmeal) I’ve been using is known to contain formaldehyde (with its own score of problems), I,4-dioxane, and ingredients linked to the following:
- Cancer
- Developmental and reproductive toxicity
- Allergies and immunotoxicity
EEK! Now, it would be easy to jump off the deep end and get rid of anything with a Skin Deep toxicity rating above, say, 1 (out of 10 - and my Gerber Grins & Giggles is a 5) but that wouldn’t be practical. Let’s face it. A lot of what they’re testing for is suspected carcinogens, and even sunlight can be deemed a carcinogen. So let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water (ha! or the baby with the carcinogenic bath wash!). But, take a look at the Skin Deep website and see what it says about what you’re using - it’s run by EWG, a non-profit advocacy group and they’re goal is to help consumers. Unfortunately my preferred baby wash isn’t listed there (Bath Junkie - it’s truly awesome, but now I’m afraid…).It pays to be an informed consumer, so that at the very least you can weigh the risks against the price and convenience of the products you purchase.
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