Stay Alert This Halloween and All Year: Toxic Body Products

Thursday, October 30, 2008 by: Al G Smith
Tags: halloween, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) You may have heard that you should reduce the toxic assaults on your body and start to choose a healthier lifestyle by using safer alternative body care, skin care and hair care products. This is particularly important advice for anyone who has a family and is in charge of buying bathroom products for youngsters to use. Almost all, typical, off-the-shelf products contain a host of synthetic chemicals that are acknowledged as potentially harmful to health in one way or another.

Before you start buying up bargain basement products for Christmas gifts, or daub on that 'cheap' face or body paint for Halloween or other party events, take a moment to get clued-up on the nasty chemical ingredients you should avoid most of all. You'll need to check the fine print on the bottles of skin care, body care, hair care and such like before you decide to purchase them.

But taking this step towards a healthier lifestyle could well pay off in the years to come - especially for your children, or those you are yet to have. Why is this? Because some chemicals used in these products, made to be spread on your skin and hair, can actually act as mutagens - that is they could cause genetic mutation, and/or act as hormonal disruptors that could impact on your (or their!) fertility, or cause even worse problems.

You may well know about some of these 'chemical nasties' already, but it bears repeating, and be sure to pass this on to friends and family who may not yet be so well informed. Here, then, is just a quick summary of some of the nasty man-made chemicals you should seek to avoid using on your skin and/or hair. You can obtain a more detailed report by using the link at the bottom of this article:

Parabens: This is a 'family' of chemical ingredients used in very many skin care, body care and haircare products. You'll see this 'extension' added to prefixes such as butyl, ethyl, methyl, and so on. Parabens have been linked to endocrine gland disruption – meaning they can cause hormonal problems.

Sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate (sulphate): These are very harsh foaming agents used in many soap products, especially liquid soaps and shampoos. They may cause sensitivities and even skin damage.

Fragrances and dyes: These are widely used and often relate to the commencement of allergic reactions. Some evidence has also pointed at there role in precipitating cancerous conditions, and also negative effects on the nervous system.

Ingredients incorporating the abbreviation "PEG" and/or ending in "-eth": These ingredients may be contaminated with highly toxic substances.

Methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone: These commonly used ingredients may look impressively named, but are responsible for causing allergies and also aggravating the nervous system.

Triclosan and triclocarban: These are commonly used anti-bacterial substances but they have been shown to cause potential thyroid problems in susceptible people. They should be avoided.

DMDM hydantoin and imidanzolidinyl urea: These may also frequently be found on labels as ingredients in skin and body products but are known to have toxic effects.

Triethanolamine (TEA) and related compounds DEA (Di-)and MEA (Mono-): This 'family' of oft-found ingredients in products destined for your skin and hair may cause allergic reactions and trigger sensitivities.

Some experts also suggest that you should avoid any of the 'new generation' of products aimed at the lucrative anti-aging market that contain lactic acid, glycolic acid (used in those horrific-sounding skin peeling products!), AHA and/or BHA acid. The traumatic effects of these acids on the skin, in reality, are not fully known and could lead to a variety of possible health challenges in the future.

Other potentially unpleasant products include nail polishes and nail polish removers that frequently contain the highly toxic ingredient formaldehyde, known to be cancer causing and a nerve poison.

You should also think twice about using any product such as dark permanent hair dyes as these may contain the strong bleach peroxide, toxic ammonia compounds, and/or p-phenylenediamine, and diaminobenzene – a further group of nasty toxic synthetic chemicals you would do well to avoid.

To adopt a healthier approach to choosing safer alternative products to use on your own, and your family's skin you need to become a regular label reader. You may need to arm yourself with a pocket-sized magnifying glass for reading many product labels, though, as the print is almost illegibly small. Which of course begs the question "Why?" Perhaps, now, you know. To help you in this quest a more complete detailed listing of the ingredients to avoid in skincare, body care and hair care can be found at http://www.gonando.com/healthier-lifestyle-e... where it is available to download free of charge.

About the author

Al G Smith MSc BSc - Has been working and teaching in the food related sector for over 30 years and is currently a website publisher (http://www.gonaturalandorganic.com) and Independent Representative for the World's first extensive range of Certified Organic skin care and cosmetics (http://www.saferalternative.com).